HORIZONS JANUARY/FEBRUARY 2019 | Page 45

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 HORI ZONS |  41