Trout aren’t bluegills. Trout aren’t crappies. Trout aren’t bass. Trout are a creature onto themselves, living, and thriving, in trifling mountain streams and tiny, slow-flowing, brush-infested creeks—inhospitable homes to most gamefish species.
The principal difference between trout and other species is seen in the peculiar places in small streams they live. From the bank, their haunts look like no legitimate fish could even wriggle in the thick of the deadfalls and overgrowth. But it’s within the thick of those entanglements they dwell. And it’s the minute openings—some only inches wide—where if a bait is perfectly placed, one can pull a fish of remarkable size.
Overall, casts are more accurate with short rods, which makes ones with a tip closer to the hand textbook for the techniques needed to get a bait right where it needs to be. But ultralight line is required to keep trout offerings flowing flawlessly. And while a buggy-whip rod might work, hooksets and the ability to heave a trout from such thick cover is compromised tenfold.
It’s this need for a perfectly placed cast and the ability to pull a trout from such gnarly structure that led the rodsmiths at St. Croix to add a new model to its trout-specific Trout Series—a 4-foot 10-inch fast-action, ultra-light power spinning rod (TSS410ULF).
“The handle configuration, the guide platform, the combining of two different graphite technologies . . . There’s nothing out there specifically designed for targeting trout in tight corners like this new model in St. Croix’s Trout Series,” says Dan Johnston, National Accounts Manager for St. Croix Rods and trout-fishing connoisseur. “To put it simply: They’re the most well-thought-out trout-specific spinning rods on the market.”
Designed to provide superior performance for trout aficionados, the new one-piece has the optimal weight, sensitivity, and balance, founded on a premium-quality blank fashioned with a blend of SCII graphite and high-modulus, high-strain SCVI graphite, which also gives the rod added power in the butt section to handle the biggest fish in the drink.
Next is the Sea Guide stainless-steel guides—which are 20 to 30 percent lighter and held securely with two coats of Flex Coat slow-cure finish—offering superior sensitivity and stand-off from the blank to keep line from sticking to the rod during those rainy days trout bite best in. Guide XMS split-style reel seat with custom insert, surrounded by a premium-grade cork handle, also improves sensitivity and is comfortable in the hand.
Backed by a five-year warranty and St. Croix’s Superstar Service, the new 4-foot 10-inch Trout Series rod is one phenomenal small-stream trout tool designed for catching fish in the tightest conditions anglers can face, and all for $100.
So go ahead, place that bait on target with the most accurate rod a trout angler could ever cast. You’ll catch fish from places you never knew a fish could even waggle their way into.