This is an interesting one. You might want to tune in for this one. Our friends
over there at
St. Croix, specifically my buddy Ryan Teachover there, has been paying
attention to what's going on,
probably more than most, with the whole Ford-facing sonar world. And I kind of
reported to him a
ways back that I was seeing a trend from the JDM side of things, of shorter
rods, more extreme
actions in the tip, but like shorter, lighter powered rods for imparting all
the minnowshaken
techniques. However you want to say it's strolling and paying in a minnow, the
shorter rods are
shining. So he is making an attempt at attacking that side of the market with
these physics rods,
the St. Croix team over there designed these specifically for scoping. And they
feel like
a little conductors wand. They are rear weighted. I'm telling you that because
this thing came in
at 5.2 ounces, but I kid you not, you can't feel any of the rod up above your
hand. Like it feels
insanely light compared to the weight there because of the way they rear
weighted this. And that's
on purpose. So I can feel every little bit of that movement of my bait even
away from the boat.
And I can feel that every little bite I get, because I'm going to be paying
attention to that
graph the whole time. And I can just impart action on the baits with this short
little conducting rod,
if you, if you may. This one, this model here is a 6, 6 medium light fast, the
other two or 6 threes.
Now I do want to mention the fact that these are prototype rods. These are rods
that we got to play
with here because this was something we saw going on in the marketplace that
the American
manufacturers kind of go in the other way, longer rods for this. Where the JDM
anglers, the Japanese
anglers that are really having a lot of success this technique are going
shorter. So these are
not available yet. They're not the market yet, but they will be. They're coming
out. I'm hoping to
see them by the end of the summer. So if the pages are up when you see this,
you can certainly sign
up your notifications and let us know what you think and let you know when they
come in stock.
But we're going to bend these on the wall and see what St. Croix is thinking
here when it comes to
scope and rods JDM style. I'm here with this St. Croix physics really unique
rod. Like I said
before, these are not out yet. Probably when you see this, they're still going
to be not produced yet.
This is some of very few live ones out in the wild that people are fishing with
and trying this
with and they're coming back honestly with some really rave reviews. Shorter sc
oping rods. Let's
check out the 6/6 medium light fast. And yeah, you got exactly what it is. Fast
action,
traditional St. Croix fast action there. This thing is way more powerful than
it feels in your hand
without any line on it or being hooked up. And this thing is, I mean, the tip
on it weighs absolutely
nothing because as I mentioned before, the rear grip here is rear weighted. So
it's designed to
be fished while you're staring at your graph and give you no fatigue with that
tip up in the air
and shaking it like crazy. Home run on that side of things. This thing does
feel weightless out there
in front of you. So if you're looking to feel what's going on with the minnow
out there 50 feet,
10 feet down in the water column, trying to shake it above some fish that are
down 30 feet down
from water column, this is ideal for that situation. Hence why they're trying
this. I would say
action on this thing is just as delivered. It's certainly pulling back on me
right away. Like
four guides down on there, five guides down, I should say is kind of where it's
shutting off.
So even with this lighter powered rod where you're going to run really thin
line, a light
lure, a little minnow, you can still get backbone in them and set the hook and
get them away maybe
from the top of a brush pile or something like that. Interesting so far, the 6/
6 to me right now.
It's my favorite, but I haven't bent the other two yet. So let's go try the
even shorter ones,
the 6/3s and the physics scoping rods. Here we are with another one of the sc
oping models from St.
Croix. I'd like to call them our Wisconsin made JDM rods. These things are wild
. They're definitely
causing a commotion here in the warehouses. We're bending these and talking
about them because
this one felt insanely lightweight in hand with a reel on it. Obviously there's
no weight out in
front of the rod at all. It's rear weighted again. Surprisingly came in at 4.9
ounces, which
doesn't feel right. Something feels amiss because it doesn't feel, these things
feel insanely light
and it's because they're rear weighted and once you've got a reel on it, you
don't feel the front
half of this rod at all. It's going to be extremely sensitive like I said
before. This one feels
as advertised extra fast with just lying on it right here, but that's how we
got the wall. Like I
said, let's go bending one of these the 6/3 medium extra fast Wisconsin JDM rod
.
All right, 6/3 extra fast scoping pole here in the physics lineup. I know most
of you are watching
this. They're probably familiar already with what this series of rods, those
are physics rods,
carbon handles. These are carbon fiber handles. Honestly, they're very
comfortable if you're a
forward gripper. I really like the way they did the handle on this. I actually
own one of the
spinning rods already. The blank is really what getting overlooked because of
the whole handle
thing here. This is SE4 Plus technology, which is a blend of St. Croix's carbon
fibers. They have
very durable carbon fibers in the rear section, really wild actions to them.
They're able to
achieve more extreme actions and get the weights down on the rods and still
keep the durability of
the rods up. This one here being a 6/3 medium extra fast is a that's a popular
size length and action
for a wall angle. They're not so much for a bass angler. As we bend the rod
here, I would say true
to form, this is an extra fast. The tips even lighter in this one, even though
it's a medium power rod,
then it was in that 6/6 fast that was bending. The tip, very tip section feels
lighter. So even
though as I bend it, we get into the backbone. It looks fast. It doesn't look
like extra fast. I'm
kid you not, that very end tip section is like a rod of its own down there.
This is exactly what
you probably want for that's staring at your screen and just shaking the rod
there over suspended
fish. This one's small. It's 6/3. I've got some buddies right now out there
fishing with these
6/3 medium extra fasts and it has been to them kind of a game changer. It's
very
no fatigue, very sensitive and it's working. So kudos to St. Croix for trying
something outside of
the typical wheelhouse of a bass angler. I'm impressed so far. I'm going to go
no go ahead and bend the 6/3 medium light extra fast. See how that one does.
Okay,
I haven't even bent this one yet and this one's been my favorite by a long shot
so far.
And I got backed up by the other guys here but we haven't put it on the wall
yet. I haven't
bent it, I promise. Biggest surprise of the bunch though. This one feels the
lightest because
it is the lightest right? This is a 6/3 medium light extra fast. Remember we
had a 6/6 light or
medium light fast? Fast, not extra fast. A 6/3 medium extra fast. Now this is a
6/3 medium light
extra fast. This one feels the most like some of the blanks and the blank
diameter looks the most
similar to the blanks that I was seeing over in Japan for a lot of the rod
manufacturers making
rods for this specific technique of scope and pinging them in over there. This
one absolutely
feels insane because there's just nothing above the handle there. It feels like
there's just nothing
there. Even when you just take the line and bend it, you can feel the line
pulling in the guides.
It's insanely sensitive. It's really cool. It came in at 5.1 ounces though.
This thing
is rear weighted in the handle. It makes no sense. But it's weighted perfectly
so that this thing
just as I keep repeating but I can't stress it enough. The idea behind this is
this thing
should be up above up while you're shaking your minnow like that and giving you
zero fatigue at
all. There's zero weight out there giving your wrist and your hand and your
arms some fatigue out
there. Let's go bend this one and see how this thing does. It's like I said, it
's a 6/3 medium light
extra fast. This thing is rated in the 1/16 to 3/8 sounds. So you could really,
if you think of all
the scope and jigs that are out there, probably get away with almost all your
scope and techniques
jig heads and minnows that are out there, most of them anyway with this rod.
And I'll tell you
what, so far holding it, this one does seem like the superstar but let's go
bend it and find out.
All right, 6/3 medium light extra fast. St. Croix physics rod. As I mentioned
before,
this is their SC4+ graphite which is a really high end carbon fiber blend.
And you've got a carbon fiber handle here. You've got a weighted rear section
of the rod. So it's
coming in at weights that would surprise you but it's feeling super wild out in
front. I'm kind of
happy they did that. It's making sometimes a little bit of this. If you guys
can imagine you
get monotonous kind of bending things just looking for actions. This rod feels
completely
alien to a lot of the stuff I've been playing with lately. So thanks St. Croix
for giving us a
little excitement here on the wall. Tip on this thing is insanely like I'm
putting like no pressure
on it and I can get the tip to bend on it. It is absolutely extra fast. It's
starting to shut
off on me. I'm going to say it's really pulling back about that fourth guy down
there. Obviously
you can get into the backbone if you really load into the thing. Pull it back
down there. That's
where you start seeing the medium light side of it come in so you could get
away with running maybe
if you want to try five pound test something like that. Get down light light
light line on this thing.
This would be the rod you could do it with. The tip is telling the story there
what this thing
would be wild for. If you want to impart that roll in action and not move the
minnow through the
water column, this one would be a hero for that for sure. You might be a little
scared if you're
fishing around some really big fish or if you're fishing above brush piles
hence that medium power
extra fast there. But the 263 so far to me I've been super impressive. I was
impressed with the
66 as well. Don't get me wrong but this one right here feels like what you're
seeing the Japanese
anglers using. This is what I was feeling when I was over there. A wildly fast
extra extra fast
tip up there and insanely lightweight super sensitive rod with some backbone. I
mean this is no
slouch by any means. It's just not as powerful as you can imagine the medium
was so I don't know.
I do see why you'd want to have both right if you were doing this for money and
I was fishing
around large mouth and I was using maybe that horizon head with that LG version
which is the
bigger wide gap hook in it. Maybe you're going to want to go to that medium for
that. If you're
using the smaller little jig heads and little light wire hooks this is your rod
. This one here
feels like an absolute home run. It feels super light. I am intrigued by how
much
weight's back here to get this thing just completely weightless up above you.
It really does make a
lot of sense the more I'm holding it. So next step let's go fishing with it.
Stay tuned for
more rod bends. Let us know in the comments what you'd like to see from us next
.
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