I have a friend interested in a new rod. He currently has a Legend Elite I built him in the 63MXF that he loves - he currently uses it for verticle jigging larger jigs and pitching some smaller ones for walleyes on the Mississippi and for some smallmouth action on interior rivers. He is looking for one of the new St. Croix blanks for me to build him and he cannot decide if he wants the LT68MXF or the LT69MLXF.

Have any of you built the LT69MLXF? They are rated to heavier than the comparable LE blanks for whatever reason... do you find them to be stiffer than the LE's? Would this blank really be adequate for casting a half ounce jig? I told him the bonus with this one would be that on paper it looks likely to make a nice Lindy rigging rod as well.

To compare - have any of you built up a LT68MXF? Any insights?

Just trying to do some homework for him as he is torn and I haven't built any of this series yet to offer him educated advice on them - though I want to build one for myself and I have others interested in our results...
Thanks for any help you can offer,
Chuck Ungs

I believe the blank for that rod is the 4C68MXF and I built one of them and love it. I use the rod for pitching small jigs and worms for bass. I also use it for throwing a spinnerbait. What I like is that it has a very fast soft tip and it allows to get a roll cast or pitch under things with ease. I just hope I can get some more of these blanks sometime soon. Only reason I got the first one was because with a group, we went through the St Croix factory and built our own blanks and were charged a small portion of what the blanks really cost. I think any of the blanks in the SCIV range will make a great bass rod.

I've not built on those particular blanks, but but I did get the 4S66MF (two of these) and the 4S70MF and was disappointed with the weight of the blanks, and the tip sizes: all three blanks were considerably over the catalog specs, and even those weight specs are considerably heavier than the comparable 5S models; they are closer to the 3S. So I'm currently going with 5S when I want the best, 3S when just very good will do.

Chuck,
The SCIV blanks in general are actually heavier than the SCIII. The SCV are definitely the lightest of the group but least durable even with the ART. My recommendation is to go with either the SCIII or SCV. The SCIVs are very durable as well, but for the extra weight, I personally don't like them that much. When fishing eight hour tourneys, the little added weight can be noticeable. The blank weight stats say all you need to know. Hope this helps.

I built a SCIII 66MLF for a friend sho is very pleased with it. He's been landing big Small Mouth with authority and finds it works well with all sorts of plastics, spinnerbaits and hard baits. While at the Charlotte Show I had the opportunity to handle an SCV rod and discussed the strength issues with St. Croix's blank designer. He convinced me that the Elites are plenty strong and resist breakage better than most people think. The high tech scrim material and layout is the key. Frankly the two blanks are miles apart in every quantitative category. If you prefer a lightweight rod with extremely fast action the Elite line is tops. I chose the SCV 70MF for myself. But if you like a more moderate blank and expect it to suffer some abuse in the boat the SCIII's will fill your needs and then some. I will add that buying American is an added bonus for me and St. Croix has proven worthy of their fine reputation; at least from my experience. I have no experince with the Tounament blanks.
I plan to build my SCV as a split grip spinner with Andy Dear's Exotic Burl and a customized reel seat. This will be my ultimate freshwater general purpose spinning rod. Unfortunately it means I will have to save up for a top quality reel to do this rig justice. Another excuse to get a gem of a reel!
Dave

(This is just a test post, having some problems posting.)