[saintjb]

I was recently the fortunate recipient of a gift fly rod from a friend that can no longer fish. It is a 9' 6 wt. Saint Croix Legend Ultra. It is a beautiful rod, but a little faster than what I usually fish with. Before I received this rod I was in the market for a bass rod maybe a 7 or 8 wt. If I put a 7 wt. line on this rod will it handle it, and will it have the backbone for a good size bass. Any opinions before Christmas would be appreciated.

JB

[willfish4fuud]

I own a bunch of St Croix rods including several of the Legend Ultra 6wts. These are stiff rods with plenty of power and I would think it would handle a 7wt ok. It does, however, depend on the ability of the caster, fly size and line (as it usually does) and you might consider a heavy headed 6 wt line first. As far as handling big bass, you shouldnt have any problem. I have several friends who fish the Legend Ultra 6wt as well and we regularly catch redfish over 20# on that rod with no problem. Also, the flies we throw are heavy redfish patterns and it turns them over fine. If you are accustomed to a slower rod you might consider trying to swap it for an Avid 8wt. Those are very smooth and easier to throw. Good Luck

[BigCliff]

20# reds on a 6wt? dang!

Saintjb, I'd try a SA GPX line (unofficially about a half weight heavy) or one of the lines Cortland is selling now that are available in a 6.5 weight designation. That should soften up the action without overloading it too much.

Another option is to use that as your sinking line (or sinking leader) streamer rod. Many find a stiffer rod to be preferable for those purposes. A 150 grain integrated sinking head line would probably work very well with that rod.