Let's Bend the St. Croix Physyx 6'10" / Medium-Light / Extra-Fast | Polish Pete

 

Video Transcription

Look at what we got here. This is the brand new St. Croix Physyx rods. I know this has been a project they've been working on for a long, long time and I'm very honored to be one of the first people to get to hang on to them and play with them. I've been privy to this project for a little while and it's something that a lot of us rod geeks have been looking forward to seeing from St. Croix. And I'm going to tell you right now, first impressions haven't been on the water with them like some of the St. Croix staff has and some of their pros they worked with. They did put together a team of people to help kind of finalize these rods before they go into production. I didn't get to fish them but I certainly got to hang on to them and put some input towards some things I wanted to see them do and I'm going to tell you right now, I think there's a lot of people who aren't traditional St. Croix fans, they're going to find these rods quite impressive. The handles obviously the first thing that sticks out to you and that's going to be you got a carbon fiber handles on this thing and a foregrip. I know that's been kind of a push for a lot of manufacturers to understand why a lot of anglers want a foregrip. The nice thing about this one is once again they kind of got a nice groove here that if you are a split finger, it's still a comfortable reel seat to hang on to but it does have that foregrip that gives you lots of extra leverage and with us forward facing sonar fishing a lot more hanging on the spinning rods a lot more and imparting action on our baits a lot more to the spinning rod that foregrip does alleviate a lot of the wear and tear on your wrist throughout the day because you're a lot more leverage and it does balance the rods out nice for making feel good. One of the major things I heard right away from the St. Croix team when we got into these St. Croix Physyx rods was that these were going to be a lot more balanced than traditional rods in the past. Now obviously there's an argument there and balance is very subjective we all know that depending on the reel you put on it or how you hold the rod it's very different like I like bigger spinning reels but that's also because I keep my hand way up here on the rod and it does balance out nicely for me with a bigger spinning reel. This also has kind of like a little trigger action here on the back if you see that it's very natural if you do a little roll casting motion where your fingers actually kind of lay right on top of that little trigger on top of the butt there. More impressed with that than you'd imagine you just have to pick it up and see what I'm talking about and you'll see what I mean. There is some textured grooving in the carbon fiber here to give you a little bit more tackiness feel so it does feel like even if your hands were wet or your hands are really cold that you'd still have a decent grip on these handles. I haven't fished them wet yet but I've been assured by them that there's certainly no worries there as you can see there's a little bit of rubber like EVA type material or whatever kind of laid, TPE material I should say laid into the carbon fiber here to give you a more tack there but being the fact that this whole handles carbon fiber touching a carbon fiber blank screams sensitivity correct. The other thing I want to point out with too is something that a lot of rod purists have stated to me in the past one st. Croix gonna do a rod series that that isn't painted like crazy. Well these feel remarkably under painted. It does feel like there's a coating on the blank. They're not like unsanded blanks there is certainly something sprayed over the blank I just don't know if it's what it is exactly if it is a paint or just a finish to the blank just to make it so it's not coarse and rough they do feel sanded they're smooth but they do feel a lot more alive than typically you feel with painted especially heavily painted blanks. I will say first impressions have been everybody here at Omnia that got to hold these was these spinning rods feel like something extremely special. I hadn't been able to play with any of the bait casters till recently, they just sent one but we have a few models here to kick off checking out these new Physyx rods from St. Croix with this one being one of the most popular models in St. Croix's whole family across the board with their lineups. This is a 6’10” medium-light, extra-fast so you got that extra fast tip from St. Croix which is always an impressive action that they get out of their extra-fast rods, medium-light power. This size of rod in my world is getting more and more popular as we're fishing with forward facing sonar more and more that little bit shorter, lighter power rod little less fatiguing to fish all day long and your pinpoint casting as opposed to just covering water or drifting over a large flat with a big long rod this is much more of a target fishing rod, extra-fast action, medium-light power. Let's go bend it and see how the first test of these St. Cro ix Physyx rods goes. 

 

Okay here we are with our first St. Croix Physyx rods a bend test here this is the 6’10” medium-light, extra-fast so I mean my head goes to scoping rod but this is actually a rod, a blank style anyway, the length and action and everything that's been out for a long time it's very popular multi-species across the board but probably be used mostly as a drop shot rod in the past for a lot of bass anglers but now we're seeing that'd be a good minnow shakin’ rod but bunch of different tactics that it could be deployed with it but you get on my marks here loaded up and as you see in typical St. Croix fashion I do have a SEVIIN spinning reel on here as well the St. Croix guys sent me one a couple of these to play with but give it a bend here and as you see the action of this rod is extremely fast it does it's bending a little bit further past what I've considered traditional extra-fast action we're just the tips bending up there and that's just because this thing is absolutely razor fast like I'm just imparting a little bit of pressure on this and you're seeing how fast that tips getting into backbone more than it being just that top third of the rod it's the speed at which you're getting into backbone with this tip it's it's insane how you can impart tiny little bit of action to the to your bait and get that tip to just move around that extra-fast tip is really really really sticks out on this one you got to be holding on to the rod I guess to understand I'm going to load it up a little faster and harder here as you see the rod does when you get into the backbone it is a little bit more forgiving than a traditional extra fast rod would be that's going to aid you with landing fish with light wire hooks and light line but don't think because it's bending when I impart or put a lot of pressure on it that that's not extra fast if you actually look at how the just the tip of the rod the first three guides up there that tip dances around with very little pressure action imparted onto it just takes a little bit of movement here and you see that tips dancing around like crazy and as soon as I give it any pressure there is pressure on that hook so it is extra fast action with a lot of pressure imparted on it it does kind of get further down the blank there which I think is a very nice feature for a modern day rod with these low stretch lines if you're in the market for a new modern sand cry fishing rod something that's a little bit of a break from the tradition there you need to check out these sand cry Physyx rods they are really slick very different for sand cry and that's exciting so 6’10” medium-light, extra-fast St. Croix Physyx.