I’m no stranger to St. Croix fly rods. Growing up, those were the rods my dad had stashed behind the seat of his truck, and the rods I subsequently snapped in my first futile attempts to fly fish. One of my good fishing buddies has fished a Legend Elite for longer than I’ve been alive, and I had the chance to review the Evos when it first came out.
Of all the St. Croix rods I’ve fished, though, I was most excited to get my hands on this refreshed, updated Legend Elite. I’ve enjoyed fishing my buddy’s, and I always enjoyed the old St. Croix Imperials when I used them. With updated materials, I reckoned St. Croix could put out a fun, American-made product.
In a nutshell, that’s what the Legend Elite is. My review model was a 9′ 5-weight, and while it’s not a do-it-all rod (more on that later), it’s great with dry flies and smaller nymph rigs. It’s built in America and retails for $595.
Legend Elite
Key Features:
- Medium-fast action that’s great for dry flies and smaller nymph rigs
- Built with St. Croix’s latest and greatest technology improvements
- MSRP: $595
Pros:
- American-made performance at a reasonable price
- Good feel and balance in-hand
- Light swing weight
Cons:
- Blank doesn’t transmit as much feedback as other rods
- The tip section is too soft for heavier nymph rigs
How We Tested
I spent a few weeks with the Legend Elite, switching between a heavy nymph rig fished deep from a drift boat, and throwing small midge and mayfly patterns to trout rising in low, clear water. The only thing I didn’t do with the Legend Elite was throw streamers, largely because the conditions never called for it. With low, clear water and sunny skies for most of the past month, the streamer action has been nonexistent in these parts.
What I Love
Dry Fly Performance
You don’t buy a 9′ 5-weight and expect the laser-like accuracy, light feel, and soft presentation of an 8′ or 8’6″ 4-weight. The Legend Elite isn’t quite that good with small dry flies, but I was pleasantly surprised at how well this rod handled long, light leaders (I worked my way down to 13 feet and 6x for some of those risers) and flies from 18-24. I wouldn’t hesitate to use the Legend Elite on a tailwater during the upcoming blue-winged olive hatches.
Accuracy
The Legend Elite is a reasonably accurate rod. It feels stable throughout the cast, and while it’s hard to nail this down on a scientific basis, I didn’t notice any excess oscillation (side-to-side movement) during the cast. Rods that move too much side-to-side are inherently inaccurate, and I’ve fished more than a few that flopped around more than a politician.
If your casting mechanics are solid, and you can keep the rod tip moving in a straight line, you’ll be happy with this rod’s accuracy. I had no problem laying flies down at traditional trout distances up to about 50 feet. I didn’t push it much past that.
Feel and Balance
Something I’ve paid attention to lately with fly rods is whether I have to actively shift and move them around in my hand during a day of fishing. Rods with oddly-shaped grips, heavy tips, or too-light butt sections feel just a bit “off,” and it’s sometimes hard to explain that in a review. The best way I can translate this in a review is by describing the rod’s feel and balance in hand.
If I don’t have to think about the rod—if it feels natural during the cast, while fighting fish, mending, etc.—then it’s a rod that I reckon many other anglers will enjoy. It’s not too heavy, there’s nothing about the design that makes you wonder what the rod designers were thinking, and it’s fun to cast all day long.
Medium-Fast Action
The original Legend Elite, which I also fished in a 9′ 5-weight, reminds me a lot of my trusty Winston B3X—a moderately-fast rod with enough reserve power for longer casts. The newest version of this rod continues that trend, with a pleasant medium action that rewards good casting mechanics and still generates nice line speeds.
What I Don’t Love
Feedback
Despite the medium-fast action, the Legend Elite doesn’t quite deliver enough feedback during the cast. Even when loaded down with three nymphs, a couple of split shots, and an indicator, I was casting more from muscle memory than reacting to what the rod was telling me.
This was a problem I noted in the Evos, the Legend Elite’s pricier older brother. While the Legend Elite is undoubtedly strong and capable of handling its own, it appears some sensitivity was sacrificed for that durability.
Too-Soft Tip
Where I fish, it’s common for anglers to run three nymphs on a rig during the winter and early spring. Come summer, a heavy hopper-dropper combo is the ticket. On these big Western rivers, you need a fair amount of weight to get flies down to the fish, even in lower flows.
The Legend Elite struggled with my regular nymph rig of a small midge up top, a sow bug in the middle, and a heavy egg pattern on the bottom. I added two small split shot for the deeper runs. The tip section is just too soft to handle that much weight, at least in the 5-weight configuration. Both myself and the fishing buddies I had fish the Legend Elite noticed how the tip section bounced and wobbled a lot when casting these heavier setups.
For this style of nymphing and fishing any streamers, I’d probably opt for the 6 or 7-weights.
Final Word
The Legend Elite in a 9′ 5-weight is a great rod, even if it’s not what I’d pick for a day of handling heavy nymph rigs or heavy hopper-dropper combos. It’s fantastic with dry flies, and this would be a phenomenal rod for picking apart pocket water with a smaller dry-dropper rig. I wish it had a bit more feel and a tip section that could handle heavier rigs, but for an American-made 5-weight that can handle a good majority of trout fishing, it’s hard to beat what the Legend Elite offers. And at $595, you don’t need to shell out a mortgage payment to get it.