New St. Croix

[JunkYard814]

So I finally have a reel paired on my new Legend Tourament Bass ML/XF rod. Right now its the Pflueger President 6730. I haven't gotten to fish it yet, but the rod and reel pairing feels extremely tip heavy. Does that mean I should get a smaller/ lighter reel for the rod? I've also seen weights for the butt of the rod, but will that decrease performance in anyway? Any advice you guys have that can help me fix the problem would be appreciated. Also if anyone has this rod, could you let me know what you have paired with it and why you like or don't like it?

 

Thanks for the help.  

[skeletor6]

I have had similar issues with the tournament series from St. Croix. Some have a tendency to be tip heavy. A heavier reel will help but did not cure the problem in mine. There also are folks that add weight in a number of different ways to the butt to balance it out.

Any extra weight below the fulcrum (your hand placement) will help to balance it out.

From a personal standpoint I do not like adding any unnecessary weight to my rods as I feel it negatively effects performance. That is subjective as others get by with it fine. I have heard good things about the mlxf rofdsfrom St. Croix. I hope you can get it to feel right to you.

[JunkYard814]

The rod by itself is extremely light, but it seems almost laboring to keep the tip up with the reel. I don't really want to add anything to it either, but if I find that the weight distribution is too much of a pain to deal with than I may have to. 

 

I was concerned that a heavy reel would make the problem worse. I thought the reel weight was sitting too far up the rod causing the balance to be off. I guess I'll have to go to the nearest shop and start matching reels to it and see what I like best. (probably should have done that in the first place)

[iabass8]

the reel you have is already heavy enough for that rod. it this is the 610mlxf, it's a great rod but it is tip heavy. What wil fix that is go to a home depot., lowers, menards, walmart and get some rubber chair butts. I believe they come in packs of 2 or 4 and are around 2$. I think 1 1/8 fits perfect on the end of legend tournaments but you can eyeball it pretty easy. Take the caps home and put around 3 quarters in the cap (they should fit perfect if you got the right butt) and put it on the end of the rod. Add or remove quarters to get the perfect balance. The rod will feel tip heavy but it will be amazing how much a couple quarters will counter that. Once you find the perfect amount of quarters (I'm guessing it will be 4) wrap them in a piece of duct tape together and put them back in the butt. Rub a very thin layer of super glue or some adhesive on the inner part of the butt cap and put the cap on the rod and press the rod and cap against your chest and pull it towards you for 10-15 seconds. you want it on there snug. Your rod will be perfectly balanced and the black cap will even match the bottom of the rod so it won't really look awkward anyway. I had to do the previous years ltw69mlxf and xtreme 69mlxf because I am SUPER anal about where a spinning rod balances as I use them mostly for pitching jigs/blades for walleye. They feel weightless with 1000 series stradics on them and never want to go tip down. The rod will fish AMAZING after you balance it perfect. Make sure to balance it roughly right where you hold the rod. Good luck and let me know if you need any more help.

 

Heres a pic of a legend xtreme 69mlxf /w a stradic 1000 which I believe took 3 quarters to balance perfect. The butt has never come off in a couple years. I hold the rod the cork foregrip above the reel stem and it feels weightless. camera phone isn't very good so i tried to add color to the background light to get a better pic.

[Capt.Bob]

   I don't have that rod but had the same results with my LXC610MXF. The rod  felt fairly descent, not perfect (yhey rarely do) but good with an almost 10oz Calcutta 200gtb on it, but I wanted it paired with the 7.1-1 Team Lew's Gold which only weights 7.0 oz. So what he did while removing the split corks and installing the full grip was added a finesse weight to the very rear of the blank and epoxied it in place, 3/8 oz. was added and it is custom balanced perfectly where I wanted it. I am sure any Custom rod builder could do this for less than the price of a balance kit, and will not change the exterior appearance of rod. It cost me $50.00 for the complete job with no charge for the balancing.

 

To add the weight to the rear of the blank with no grip modification is only about $5.00 from my builder (takes the cap off the rear grip and epoxies the proper amount of weight inside the rear of the blank and reinstall the but cap) and you have no way of knowing it was done, cheaper than an add on kit, and will aid sensativity. This does not affect the lifetime warranty on any of the St. Croix rods!! I don't know how other manufacturers are.  This can be done on any rod from a Ugly stick to a Legend Extreme, and is the best money you can spend in my opinion, 5 bucks and your rod is balanced to you perfectly!  

 

As far as feel of the rod it absolutely feels lighter, even though it is actually heavier. a definite lighter and better feeling setup, I have the the same rod ( Legend Extreme) in a 7'2" MHM, which was like 2 10th's of an oz. heavier, I could not feel a difference that slight before the full grip and balance, but with the 6'10" rod balanced, it feels noticeably lighter than the now lighter 7'2" rod. Once a rod is balanced it is amazing ho much lighter it feels.

 

Sensitivity is actually better than before, this was already an incredibly sensitive rod and I don't know how but once  balanced that is improved, I have done this with much cheaper rods, and it works. So you have a lot of choices, you can go with a heavier reel and maybe balance it, or with an add on kit, and some are adjustable if you want that look and ability, and if you might decide on a lighter reel later, like one weighing closer to 5 oz. you still have the ability to zero it, but some of these systems can make a rod feel less sensitive as someone already warned, and those that just hang on usually keep sliding back and getting loose and rattle and do cause sensitivity problems. Or go with the invisible look and I assure you the rod will feel more sensitive, and once it is perfectly balanced, much more enjoyable to use, and no one will ever know it is there. Lots of options but one thing is for sure, it is worth doing, specially since that is one excellent rod!!! If I liked the 2 piece grip my LXC72MHM would have the $5.00 improvement but is being modified to a full grip perfectly balanced with the 6.4-1 7.0 oz. Team Lew's. This way any reel from 6.5 oz. to 8.0 oz. the rod will be nearly perfect, so make sure you have your reel picked out or one close in weight to what you will be using on this rod. Good luck with a great rod!!!! If you don't have a good rod builder locally I can PM you mine,,,,,,he is as good as it gets, but there are many out there.   

[38 Super Fan]

I was initially surprised at the tip heaviness of my LTB as well, for me, changing reels made very little difference in balance. But once I actually started fishing it, I barely even noticed it. I'd just team it with a reel I like and start fishing the thing before I did anything else.  

[JunkYard814]

Awesome tips guys! Can't wait to try em out. I'll report back with my results when I get the chance. 

  

Sweet combos too!

[mjseverson24]

I use the BPS rod balancing system on all of my bottom contact rods. They do make the rod feel much lighter and definately has more sensitivity. The reason the rod feels more sensitive is because with the rod banalced correctly the muscles in your forearm will be more relaxed and your grip on the rod will be much looser. This allows you to maximize the sensitivity of the rod you are using, by not aqeezing the sensitivity out of the blank. Before you make permanent/simi-permanent modifications to your nice new rod I would buy the $10.00 add on from BPS to see if you even like the new feel. JMO...

 

Mitch