I’ve been thinking I wanted to try Fuji SiC K frames and have the last two or so guides be Recoil with a larger than average tip top. I need a rod better for dealing with icing issues. I can’t complain about St Croix. This rod has many hundreds to thousands of oversized trout. Kids have dropped it, kicked it, stepped on it. I’ve slapped ice out of guides, etc. It’s had a rough life. I’m debating the trout model. I like the taller thinner guides but the aluminum feeling inserts concern me a bit. They had a premier but I got confused and was looking for a L or UL. They had the ML in single piece split grip at 7’. That’s the only one in the premier line. I might take the trout blank back.
13 Fishing had this one planned for last year. I emailed and they won’t have it ready until mid spring or later. It’s a 7’ one piece UL with Alconite Fuji guides. That’s about perfect if maybe 6” short for what I want.
On Pflueger I wasn’t sold. My brother likes his and Daiwa took forever to fix a reel. I bought a $200 ish Okuma 4 years ago and it was gritty from day one. I didn’t know any better. The Daiwa is nice but if you reverse reel the handle comes right off. I bought my brother the Pflueger as a quick replacement waiting on the Daiwa and thought maybe get a year out of it. It’s smoother than any other reel I have and it was the $50 Walmart blister pack. The XT fit the extremely light rod Z built, had matching red anodization, and I like cork. It had a cork handle. I’ll say again, I’m a big cork fan. Gains character, feels warm, etc.