Hi All,

I am just curious if anyone has had a chance to check out the new St. Croix Avid blanks with IPC. If so, what are your thoughts as compared to the older models? Thanks in advance for your comments. Take care.

I'm disappointed nobody has responded - I would love to know the same information. My perception is that the popularity of St. Croix fly blanks has dropped off from a few years ago. I could be wrong. It just seems that a few years ago, the SCII, SCIII, and SCIV were very popular and much discussed and now you don't hear many people talking about the SCIII, IV, and V and the SCII have been discontinued. Any thoughts on this? Are people building lots of the new SCIV and SCV blanks but just not adding them to the CCS database? My 4F864 is still my favorite fly rod of all time. And I just picked up a 4F865 factory rod on @#$%& so I can strip and rebuild it custom (couldn't find the discontinued blank anywhere).

I have always enjoyed these smooth casting, reasonably priced, Wisconsin made blanks. After casting older and newer St. Croix blanks/rods, I believe IPC is the real deal and am glad they reworked the III series to include this technological plus. ART is pretty cool, too, on the higher end rods -- I have seen and held this reinforcing pre-preg - neat stuff, especially for the ferrules.

Sponsors, feel free to add comments, too... anyone have these in stock yet? Will there be any blanks to check out at the Charlotte show?

Best, Ladd

Fellows, the IPC technology has been out for some time now, and is an excellent made blank, I have personally been to the factory, for the Guild 's North Central gathering and built blanks on this setup and have wrapped them for my own blanks, and they truly are a delight to use. I also have two blanks that I built at the Guild get together this year with the ART technology, and in my opinion are the most advanced blank built in the USA or anywhere in the world for that matter. These are offered in the SCIV and SCV blanks to date, and I can hardly wait to wrap them. The engineering staff at St Croix have really blown the roof on blank design in my opinion. The ART technology is available on blanks made after June 2005

Good to hear. I would also like to see a picture of one because I am not sure what "sultry canteen green pearl" is supposed to mean. I noticed that they did the same thing to the III series that they did to the IV series - made most of them 4pc. models and added some new models too.

My only exerience with IPC so far has been by building and casting the 4F793.4 and 4F804.4 and I have to say that those are two very sweet rods. Very smooth and I noticed the slimmer ferrules. If the IPC can lighten up the IIIs a bit, and the price is about the same as before, they should be a good choice for a lot of people.

i just got my new mudehole catalog and they have all the new st.croix fly blanks im too wondering what canteen green looks like