st croix imperial fly rod St. USA the Imperial Salt combines SSCIII carbon with IPC mandrel technology creating fast action rods designed to conquer the toughest saltwater fishing environments Review: St. Croix Imperial Fly

HOOK GUARD Keep those hooks tucked into the arbor of the reel and out of the way of your hands

You can break topwater lures down into four major categories: poppers, pencil-poppers, sliders, and floating jerk-baits

Sizes - 4x10, 4x12, 4x14 Read more

All-Tackle and Junior Angler Where: Cabo, Baja Mexico When: 2005 Who: Sara Hayward (Nacogdoches, Texas) How: Trolling a Mean Joe Green high-speed lure Tackle: Shimano reel, Shakespeare Tidewater rod, 50-pound mono Fight time: 45 minutes Note: The angler who made this phenomenal catch, aboard a Minerva Fleet charter, was 15 at the time and had never caught a wahoo before

Explaining my philosophy of why is beyond the scope of this article, but lets just say Ive decided to start describing rods in terms of personalities rather than numbers