St. Croix Bass X Rods - Testing Reel Seat

[JackstrawIII]

Hey bassresource, I'm a longtime reader and this is my first post. Thanks for all the great info. 

 

I have a simple (I hope) question. I found a great deal on a couple unused 2 year old St. Croix BassX rods on FB marketplace. I'm a big fan of their Premier line of spinning rods and wanted to test their casting rods. In researching about these rods, I see they have a known issue with the reel seats breaking on the newer models, but since these are a bit older, I figured I'd take a chance. 

 

Here's the question, how can I test these rods to see if they're going to break before taking them out to fish and potentially losing any lures, reels, etc.? Is there a way to pre-test these rods? Or can I reinforce them somehow so they won't break even if they weren't originally made correctly?

Thanks guys! 

[roadwarrior]

Assume it's fine and fish it like you stole it!

 

If it breaks it is very unlikely that you will lose anything.

[J Francho]

I haven't heard any issues save for one obnoxiously loud YouTuber that wails on is gear.  I have a new one, and I can't see how anyone could break the seat.  I fish northern pike infested waters, so it's not unusual to have pike bycatches weighing in the teens when fishing a spinnerbait.  No issues on mine whatsoever.

[JackstrawIII]

59 minutes ago, J Francho said:

pike bycatches weighing in the teens

 

J Francho, I also live near Rochester and I wish I had this problem haha. In my last 3 years of bass fishing I've never caught a pike. Bass aplenty, no pike. Looking forward to my first one soon, hopefully! 

 

But thanks for the positive feedback on the BassX reel seat. I guess I'll just get out there and fish it and hope for the best.

[J Francho]

Are you on shore or have a boat?

[Jweller]

I've seen people post issues with the Victory reel seats as well. 

[J Francho]

19 minutes ago, Jweller said:

I've seen people post issues with the Victory reel seats as well. 

I have two, a spinning and casting model - no issues.  The internet is apparently full of people with issues.  Out of the 40 or so St. Croix rods I own, one had an issue with a down locking hood stripping after around 17 years of use (a preproduction Avid demo made in 2000), and St. Croix made a guaranteed repair for $65 including round trip shipping.

[Jweller]

20 minutes ago, J Francho said:

I have two, a spinning and casting model - no issues.  The internet is apparently full of people with issues.  Out of the 40 or so St. Croix rods I own, one had an issue with a down locking hood stripping after around 17 years of use (a preproduction Avid demo made in 2000), and St. Croix made a guaranteed repair for $65 including round trip shipping.

I've got spinning and casting as well.  I haven't seen any complaints with the spinning rods, it seems to be with the foam where the exposed blank normally would be that causes the issue on the casting rods.

[Delaware Valley Tackle]

The seats St Croix uses are as good as they get. If you ever have a problem simply contact them. 

[JackstrawIII]

On 9/8/2022 at 1:46 PM, J Francho said:

Are you on shore or have a boat?

 

J. sorry for the delayed response. I exceeded my allowed number of posts for the day. Not sure if that's due to being a new member, or if that's true for everyone.

 

Anyways, I have a kayak I take out by myself, but I have a friend with a little 14 foot johnboat we take out together a few times a month. Most of our fishing is in Sodus and Little Sodus Bays. 

[NYWayfarer]

I have both the old Bass X (blue lettering on rod) and the new Bass X (Red, Green and yellow lettering on rod) I have had zero issues with either rod.

 

The older rod has seen 3 years of use almost exclusively. Different reels but the same rod and it still looks and performs like the day I bought it. 

[Standard]

I've had two Bass X rods, one old one new.  Old one was great until I managed to break it (my fault).  About 5 minutes later on the same trip, I noticed my reel coming loose on the new rod.  The front threaded portion of the reel seat had come undone, looked like it was barely epoxied on there.  Salvaged it for the day by sticking some flouro line under it and jamming it back down, provided enough friction to hold the reel in place.  

 

Thought about sending it in for warranty but it was easy enough to epoxy back in place.  Haven't had an issue with it since.

[JackstrawIII]

On 9/14/2022 at 2:58 PM, Standard said:

The front threaded portion of the reel seat had come undone, looked like it was barely epoxied on there.

 

That's what I've seen online. I guess if it happens, I'll just fix it. Not too scary.