SEC T I ON T H R EE
“ This rod just makes fishing so much more comfortable
and sporting. Especially for anglers who don’t muskie
fish a lot, you get a size 300 reel on it, and it just
makes fishing way more fun. And it’s way better for
fighting fish. It’s designed to fight muskies. ”
MUSKIE ST IC KS
by Jim Edlund
It’s one of the largest congregations of muskie
af icionados to meet in any one place. Called Muskie
Expo Chicago, it’s become a can’t miss event for many,
including exhibiting manufacturers in the muskie
f ishing industry like St. Croix Rod.
Turns out the event was not only a good chance for
St. Croix to connect with countless muskie anglers,
retailers, and other exhibitors, but also an opportunity
to compete for “Best New Muskie Rod.”
After three days of demonstrating their newest in
muskie rods, from January 18 through January 20,
a panel of muskie experts voted the new for 2019
Legend Tournament LMD90MLF Bantam Bait
Musky Downsizer rod “Best New Muskie Rod” at the
show. What the win represents is not only St. Croix’s
continued commitment to designing, testing, and
bringing to market extreme high quality muskie rods
but their continued attention to trends in the sport of
muskie f ishing itself.
Case in point, the winning LMD90MLF 9’ medium-
light power, fast action Bantam Bait rod is only one
of three rods in the Legend Tournament Musky
Downsizer mini-series, all three rods designed to
meet the growing movement of muskie anglers more
frequently f ishing smaller baits for a multitude of
reasons, from f ish fatigue with big baits to the physical
fatigue of anglers.
“The Downsizer series was designed and built because
many muskie anglers are beginning to go back to their
beginning stages and throwing smaller baits again,”
says Rich Belanger, St. Croix’s resident muskie expert
and Promotions Manager. “A lot of these anglers are
doing it out of physical necessity, but on the f lip side
of that, a lot of these anglers understand that these
smaller baits, which have been around for decades, and
very successful now at catching large f ish. In many
places, muskies haven’t seen that small of stuff in a
long time. It’s just that the bait and rod development
pendulum has swung so far to the large side, and now
that pendulum is swinging back. It creates a lot of
opportunities to catch f ish and also not put so much
on the physical pressure on the angler him or herself.”
But the rod development didn’t happen overnight.
In fact, the entire Downsizer line is something that’s
been in development for several years. From the very
f irst prototypes to near completed sticks, the rods were
test extensively by likes of Belanger himself, Lindner
Media’s Jeremy Smith, Joe Bucher, and others.
“We’d been playing with these rods for the past four or
f ive years, and we decided as the interest grew that the
timing was right to off icially launch the series because
the extensive testing had been completed on all three of
the Legend Tournament Musky Downsizer rods,” says
Belanger.
Along the lines of testing, Lindner Media’s Angling
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