My St. Croix Story

[mrcimon]

So I started fishing again this summer, was starting for scratch and I decided to get a spinning rod and reel.  I wound up doing some reading and fell upon a  St. Croix Mojo Bass 7' MM and a Shimano Stradic Ci4+.  One day about a month back me and my daughter were out fishing, and the tip of the rod snapped 3 eyelets down.  I was real upset, but I saw what happened and my daughter was just taking maybe a half pound worth of weeds out of the water on her lure to clean them off and it snapped.

 

So I contacted St. Croix, sent them the rod.  They called me up after receiving it, I explained what happened.  I said to them I was a little weary on getting another Mojo Bass as I was afraid of something similar happening again and thought I should get something stronger if possible, and asked them if I could upgrade.  Well being the upstanding company they are, they let me upgrade to a Legend Tournament and even waived the upgrade fee and shipping return.  I was super exited, the rod came in today.  Just got home from class around 8pm and decided to go outback and fish.  Within 5 minutes i stuck this 4.5lb pig, the rod felt so good, responsive.  I felt him clamp onto the lure.  It's super light as well.  

 

 

 

 

 

[volzfan59]

St. Croix is a quality company with excellent customer service.

[Delaware Valley Tackle]

They are indeed a great company and product, but be warned, there was nothing wrong with the mojo. Any relatively high modulus rod will not tolerate having the tip bent over. Enjoy your new rod. 

[TBAG]

That is the reason 95% of my rods are St. Croix.

 

Kind of surprised that they upgraded you to a Legend Tournament when it was clearly user error. Oh, and I have several Mojo Bass, they are great rods when handled correctly.......

[mrcimon]

It’s hard to tell what my 11 year old daughter did. But when I looked the top wasn’t bent over in any way that I could see. She was probably 20 ft away from me. She’s always been careful with the gear. She started crying almost right away haha

[Vilas15]

10 hours ago, mrcimon said:

It’s hard to tell what my 11 year old daughter did. But when I looked the top wasn’t bent over in any way that I could see. She was probably 20 ft away from me. She’s always been careful with the gear. She started crying almost right away haha

I dont think theres a good way to pick up 8 oz of weeds with a rod rated for up to 5/8 oz. High sticking or just straight up lifting too much can break a graphite rod. Enjoy the new one!

[Angry John]

Your loyalty was bought and paid forward.  If it was any other company they would have told you to pound sand and have been on solid ground.  Be the loyal customer that they deserve.

[LCG]

That's impressive customer service. I have a mojo as well, about a year and half now. I have caught quite few fish with it and a few good size carp, no problem at all. I also don't lift the fish from the water with the rod, that's what the net is for

 

Mistakes happen and I am sure your little girl didn't mean for it to happen. But lifting anything more than the lure rating is asking for trouble. High sticking is another painful lesson to have to learn the hard way. 

 

That legend tournament looks great with that Ci4+. Enjoy

[LOTR88]

I had the same issue this past Sunday with my Mojo Bass topwater casting pole. It broke in the same spot just pulling up a fish onto my boat. I have never broke a pole like this, the fish was a decent size, maybe 4 pounds but not that big that I would think the pole would break. Fortunately for me I was within the 60 day return at BPS that I was able to take it back and exchange it. I ended up going with a Lews Custom Speed Stick topwater which I almost bought when I got the St. Croix. I have several other Lews poles that are cheaper that would never break on me like the St Croix. I liked how sensitive the action was on the Mojo Bass pole but I just can't worry about a pole breaking like that. 

[LonnieP]

I've caught some big bass with my Mojo and I've never had problems at all..Any rod can break pulling a 4 pounder into the boat.

[ratherbfishin1]

21 minutes ago, LonnieP said:

I've caught some big bass with my Mojo and I've never had problems at all..Any rod can break pulling a 4 pounder into the boat.

If you can break an ugly stick pulling a 4 pounder into the boat you will seriously earn my respect?

[LOTR88]

I highly doubt any of my other poles would have broke in that situation, that tip seemed way to fragile, not saying it is a bad pole but I don't want to have to worry about being super careful how I lug a fish up on the deck. 

[LonnieP]

1 hour ago, ratherbfishin1 said:

If you can break an ugly stick pulling a 4 pounder into the boat you will seriously earn my respect?

That's good to know. I have no experience with an ugly stick. Whenever I catch a bass over 13 to 14 inches long I bend down and grab them by the lip. 

[MickD]

In my opinion, pulling  a 4 pound fish into the boat with just about any rod is asking for failure.  I'm sure proper technique in doing it can cut the risk, but it's still risky.

 

https://www.rodbuilding.org/library/rodusage.pdf

 

 

[mrcimon]

2 hours ago, MickD said:

In my opinion, pulling  a 4 pound fish into the boat with just about any rod is asking for failure.  I'm sure proper technique in doing it can cut the risk, but it's still risky.

 

https://www.rodbuilding.org/library/rodusage.pdf

 

 

I agree, and I’ve seen that pdf before. But what I’m talking about was maybe 8oz of weeds and the tip didn’t even bend more than 5 degrees.  It’s possible to have a bad blank I assume. It wasn’t my most used rod, my daughter mainly used it on my weekends with her.  

 

If fish from shore so I typically drag the fish in a litttle, put my rod down and pick it up.  Not one to swing it in as I see in a lot of YouTube vids. 

[Boomstick]

I haven't had any issues with my two St. Croix rods so I don't know about their customer support. That said, I am really surprised the rod snapped on you. I will say the 7' MH/MF Mojo Bass spinnerbait rod that I got for my son is extremely light and thin, thus it doesn't have a very stout tip so picking up large fish may be a problem, but we haven't had any issues yet. The other one is a 6'9" ML/XF, and I wouldn't try to pick up fish with it unless they're real small as it's a ML rod to begin with, but that's been fine so far as well (and that one isn't short on tip).

Glass rods can pick up a lot more weight without breaking as they just flex, which makes rods like an Ugly Stik GX2 medium spinning rod able to lift around 20lbs before they break (watch the catfish and carp youtube channel as Luke attempts to break this same rod), but especially on graphite rods, I try to not pickup any fish above ~3lbs or less on a ML or lighter rod.

[Otter17]

13 hours ago, ratherbfishin1 said:

If you can break an ugly stick pulling a 4 pounder into the boat you will seriously earn my respect?

X2 to that for sure! ? To be honest, that’s why I mostly own Ugly Stiks, so I don’t have to worry about a $120 rod breaking in the middle of the lake, and me left with nothing to fish with.

 

I know I sacrifice sensitivity using Ugly Stiks, but it’s a sacrifice I’m willing to take, for the piece of mind knowing I don’t have to worry about my rod breaking.

 

Some say, I need to just learn how to Baby the tip of the rod so that doesn’t happen. My thought is, for $120 I Shouldn’t have to worry about that happening.

 

Hey, I know a lot of fisherman are light years ahead of me in skill, abilities, and catching fish. They have their reasons for buying high modulous graphite Rods, And they are skilled enough to handle them right.

 

Me, I’m just a normal guy who loves to go fishing. I’m clumbsy, I accidentally drop my rods sometimes. When I’m wade fishing, the reels accidentally get dunked in the river. I mean for crap sake, it’s the outdoors! Things get banged around. And because of that, I’ll choose to buy Ugly Stiks over St. Croix’s. They still catch me plenty of fish.

 

[burrows]

I’m gonna  break my mojo to get a free legand tournament ? can’t tell me that didn’t cross anybody’s mind?.

[deadadrift89]

7 hours ago, Otter17 said:

X2 to that for sure! ? To be honest, that’s why I mostly own Ugly Stiks, so I don’t have to worry about a $120 rod breaking in the middle of the lake, and me left with nothing to fish with.

 

I know I sacrifice sensitivity using Ugly Stiks, but it’s a sacrifice I’m willing to take, for the piece of mind knowing I don’t have to worry about my rod breaking.

 

Some say, I need to just learn how to Baby the tip of the rod so that doesn’t happen. My thought is, for $120 I Shouldn’t have to worry about that happening.

 

Hey, I know a lot of fisherman are light years ahead of me in skill, abilities, and catching fish. They have their reasons for buying high modulous graphite Rods, And they are skilled enough to handle them right.

 

Me, I’m just a normal guy who loves to go fishing. I’m clumbsy, I accidentally drop my rods sometimes. When I’m wade fishing, the reels accidentally get dunked in the river. I mean for crap sake, it’s the outdoors! Things get banged around. And because of that, I’ll choose to buy Ugly Stiks over St. Croix’s. They still catch me plenty of fish.

 

Got a neighbor and he catches just as many fish using a Ugly Stick and Berkley Big Game as I do on a Loomis GLX with Sunline fluorocarbon ?

[mrcimon]

2 hours ago, Burrows said:

I’m gonna  break my mojo to get a free legand tournament ? can’t tell me that didn’t cross anybody’s mind?.

I said they waived the upgrade fee, not the price difference ?

[ratherbfishin1]

14 minutes ago, mrcimon said:

I said they waived the upgrade fee, not the price difference ?

Ooooh, I was about to go out and buy a mojo so I could break it? JK

[MickD]

9 hours ago, Burrows said:

I’m gonna  break my mojo to get a free legand tournament ? can’t tell me that didn’t cross anybody’s mind?.

Didn't cross any ethical minds.

[burrows]

49 minutes ago, MickD said:

Didn't cross any ethical minds.

Well excuse me you’re excellency...

[TBAG]

23 hours ago, Burrows said:

I’m gonna  break my mojo to get a free legand tournament ? can’t tell me that didn’t cross anybody’s mind?.

Not gonna lie, it crossed my mind haha.

21 hours ago, mrcimon said:

I said they waived the upgrade fee, not the price difference ?

Oh, I didn't gather that from your OP.