Found 2 St. Croix rods in the garage

One is a SWC70MF rated 15-30 and is some sort of composite with no lure rating
Other is a PM70MHF rated 20-50 3/4-3oz

Rods are slightly weathered, could use a light sanding on the grips and a replacement guide or 2 but in decent condition.
Being a North Easterner, I used to use them for stipers and blues in HS but am wondering if they could handle offshore species in florida since my parents just moved down there?

Hoping the SW could be used for jigging larger snappers and grouper and the PM for live bait.

Anyone familiar with these and what the best SE Florida application would be?



Edited 2 time(s). Last edit at 12/18/2023 07:18PM by Francis Santangelo.

[stcroixrods.com]

[stcroixrods.com]

You can see both models in these rod charts. I would use them without hesitation for anything in their weight range. Both of these rod series had good reputations for reasonable sensitivity while being durable. The Mojo saltwater doesn’t carry a casting weight as they were more multi-purpose, including jigging and bait. I’d think it could easily handle six ounce jigs as I’ve used them on similar weight rods. Any species you would feel comfortable on 30lb mono should work. The rod chart goes to 40lb for braid, but most anglers seem to use more like 50lb braid as a substitute for this size of mono. If you use a scale to dial in a true 12lbs or so of drag (which is actually a quite a lot when accurately measured) you should be okay. Obviously, you won’t instantly pull a giant grouper away from a line cutting reef with this level of drag. If you need to do that, it’s a different tackle-size of ballpark. PNW anglers have caught many stubborn, triple digit halibuts with 12-15lbs of drag. I bought a Penn 4/0 from an elderly sailfish angler that maxed out in this range. After a rebuild, it hit 17lbs. The point is to know your intended drag use and reel’s true capacity to evaluate the suitability of a rod. Measuring is rare and many anglers believe they use way more drag than empirical data reveals.

I’ve not owned either rod, but I have owned several St. Croix Premiers and similar composite St. Croix/Rod Geeks. None have ever failed. I take a GLoomis Musky rod on nearly every saltwater trip. It’s a very versatile backup and the freshwater label doesn’t change this. I do use it a little on saltwater most years and it’s been fine for about 20 years. If I hadn’t built some United Composite rods I would use it as a primary within its weight range. There are plenty of experienced saltwater anglers who use musky labeled rods for inshore and light to moderate weight pelagic fishing. The cork grips have held up great and some makers still use them for saltwater.



Edited 4 time(s). Last edit at 12/19/2023 10:19AM by Kendall Cikanek.

Great thanks Kendall.

There is no industry standard ratio for drag weight versus line weight. A conservative rule of thumb is 33% for rated mono weight, which in your composite’s case would be 10lbs. I have enough experience with these SCII composites to go a couple of pounds more without any worry. That’s enough to get most of your target fish species away from the bottom up to the low to maybe mid-40lb size class. I think it’s all relative to how easy it is for them to tangle and cut on bottom structure. We catch large halibut on west coast sand domes without monster drags and rods.

What species do you mean? Snook? Maybe.Bonefish easily. Tarpon probably not. Bay, inshore or offshore?

Mike Ballard Wrote:
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> What species do you mean? Snook? Maybe.Bonefish
> easily. Tarpon probably not. Bay, inshore or
> offshore?

Was hoping to fish them on boats offshore.

Sounds like you don't think they would be able to handle it?



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 12/22/2023 10:57PM by Francis Santangelo.