St. Croix Rio Santo Rod

[double d]

I would like some feedback on your experience with the St. Croix Rio Santo (looking at the 8ft-4/5 wt-4 pc) Rod. It seems to be a high quality rod at a fair price (I really like St. Croix as a company), so again, please advise with your feedback. Thanks and tight lines!

 

[dhaynes]

I have an 8.5 ft 5wt and so does my wife. We both like the rod a great deal. It has a nice moderate action. We both find it casts very well..Our primary fishing is on smallish rivers and it lays out 20-40 feet very nicely but can do some distance if needed. If you like fast action rods, you might not like the Rio, however

I spent some time with a Master Certified Casting Instrutor and he commented on how nicely it cast. I often fish with other rods but my wife has passed up higher priced rods for her rio.... For 100 to 120 bucks, its a great deal.. another point.. by wife broke the tip on her rod. An email to St. Croix and she had another top piece in 3 days!

We purchased the Rio Santo kit (rod, reel, line, and nice rod tube) mainly because the shop did not have what we wanted in stock but gave us a hefty discount on two that had been used in a fly fishing school. They were still like new. Not sure I would have bought the kit at full price. The reel and line is nice enough (standard stamped click and pawl), but we soon upgraded to higher quality reels and lines. But the tube, which accommodates the reel on the rod, is a very convenient.

 

[double d]

Thank you for the feedback, that kind of information is what I was looking for. Thanks again.

 

[jessezm]

I also have a rio santo--it's an 8ft 4wt. I bought it because I needed a cheap rod outfit to splash around in a small creek for little fish in N ga. I was really surprised by how much I like this rod. Although it feels like a wet noodle compared to my faster action Sage RPL, it handles big fish just fine (if not better, and protects light tippet better), and once I got used to the slower action I really enjoyed casting it. I found the slower action helped me avoid those dreaded rod-tip impacts with weighted nymphing rigs. The presentation was also more delicate I found.

I did break the rod when trying to free a tree'd fly. My Sage can handle much more abuse, so beware there and practice patience... I had the broken section repaced for $30, so I still feel like I'm ahead of the game.

Recently I've been fishing a trophy stream in N. Ga and I keep breaking off big fish on my RPL+. I'm seriously considering fishing it with my Rio Santos instead.