St. Croix Fly Rods: Imperial, Connect and Mojo

Who St. Croix is

St. Croix Rod is a family-owned company, according to the "Our World" page on its fly site, headquartered in Park Falls, Wisconsin, where it runs a US factory and a factory store. The page says its story spans over 75 years and does not give a founding year or name a founder, so I leave both out. The fly site lists series such as Evos, Technica, Legend Elite, Tannic and Physyx Spey, and a rod range that runs from freshwater to saltwater and from single-handed to two-handed.

The same page says the company operates two factories and builds rods from start to finish at each. St. Croix North in Park Falls makes the Evos, Technica, Imperial and Imperial Salt series. St. Croix South, in Fresnillo, Mexico, is described as fully owned and operated by St. Croix and makes the Connect and Mojo Bass rods. That split matters for your shopping, because it lines up with the price tiers in our table: the Park Falls rods sit higher and carry the longer warranty.

What St. Croix sells on Amazon US now

At our last check (October 2026) we track 12 live St. Croix products on Amazon US, all fly rods: six Connect, two Mojo Bass, one Mojo Trout, one Imperial USA, one Imperial USA Switch and one Imperial Salt. No reels, lines or combos. The Evos and the other series the maker lists are not in our data, so a search for "st croix fly rods" on Amazon may show more than we do, or fewer on a different day.

Read the table with the marks in mind. Eleven of the twelve rods match a maker page, so their action, blank, reel seat and warranty carry the "maker" mark, though line weight, length and piece counts are sometimes marked "listing". The Mojo Trout has no maker page we could find, so its values are all "listing". The warranty column shows the series term: five years or 15 years, transferable on the Imperial.

The rod series, and who each suits

Connect. St. Croix's all-water line, which the maker pitches at trout, bass and light saltwater. The maker's page lists ten models in line weights 3 to 9 and lengths from 7 feet 9 inches to 9 feet. All are four-piece with a medium-fast action, SCIII and SCII carbon blanks, a cork handle, an uplocking machined aluminum reel seat, and a rod tube with a cloth bag. The 7 to 9 weights add a fighting butt. We track six: a 3-weight at 7 feet 9 inches, a 4-weight and the 5-weight at 9 feet, an 8 foot 6 inch 5-weight, a 9-foot 6-weight and an 8-weight. The medium-fast action is forgiving and good for learning, and it tires in wind. See fly rod action for how it feels. A 5-weight is the usual trout starting point; see 5-weight fly rods.

Mojo Bass. The maker's page for the MBF7119.2 lists a 7-foot 11-inch two-piece rod in medium-fast action with SCII blanks, a full-wells cork handle, a fighting butt with an EVA end cap and a cloth rod bag, a five-year warranty and Fresnillo construction. We track the 8-weight and the 9-weight. The page does not state a target fish; the name suggests bass, and I would read it as a short, strong rod for big flies. Our guide on what weight fly rod for bass covers the choice.

Mojo Trout. A 9-foot, four-piece, 7-weight, medium-fast graphite rod, all from the Amazon listing. I found no Mojo Trout page on the maker's fly site. Mojo Bass is there, but the page does not say the two are related, so I will not treat them as siblings.

Imperial USA. The maker calls it a fast-action all-water series, in production for over sixty years through eight generations. (Eight generations is a long time to be revising one rod, and the page does not say what changed.) The blanks blend SCIV and SCII carbon, with a Fortified Resin System the maker says adds 33 percent blank strength over standard resin. The page lists lengths from 6 to 10 feet and line weights from 2 to 10, in two or four pieces, with PVD-coated snake guides, a machined aluminum reel seat and a tube with a divided liner. The warranty is 15 years and transferable, and the rods are designed and crafted in Park Falls. We track a 10-foot 7-weight in four pieces with a full-wells handle and a fighting butt. For fast rods in general, see fast-action fly rods.

Imperial USA Switch. The maker describes a two-handed series for smaller steelhead and salmon rivers, all 11 feet and four pieces, in 5 to 8 weights, with a fast action, able to handle sink-tips and large flies on Skagit heads and still suit Scandi-style dry-line fishing. We track the 5-weight. If those terms are new, read switch rods versus spey rods and our spey rod page.

Imperial Salt. Nine feet, four pieces, fast, in 7 to 12 weights per the maker, with PVD-coated guides, a full-wells cork handle, an uplocking aluminum reel seat and a fighting butt. The maker calls the actions "aggressive, saltwater-driven" and the page does not mention corrosion resistance, so rinse the rod and check the listing. We track the 7-weight. See saltwater fly rods.

How to choose between the families

Start with the water. For trout and mixed small-water fishing, a Connect 4- or 5-weight is the plain answer. For bass and big streamers on small water, the Mojo Bass is the stout option. For long rivers, wind or if you simply like a crisp rod, the Imperial USA is the fast one. For salt, the Imperial Salt; for two hands, the Switch.

Next, decide how much the warranty matters. The five-year Connect and Mojo Bass warranties and the 15-year transferable Imperial warranty are both stated by the maker, and the transferable part is a real point if you might resell. I would count it as part of what you pay for. A fast rod and a medium-fast rod are not interchangeable at the same line weight, and the number on the tube only tells you the line.

Reading the model codes

St. Croix model codes look like a shorthand, and decoding them saves time in a long listing. The maker's Imperial pages list codes such as IU1105.4 to IU1108.4 for the 11-foot Switch in 5 to 8 weights, and IS907.4 through IS9012.4 for the 9-foot Imperial Salt in 7 to 12 weights. Our Connect rows follow the same pattern: CO586-4 is the 8 foot 6 inch 5-weight, CO590-4 is the 9-foot 5-weight, and CO379-4 is the 7 foot 9 inch 3-weight. The trailing number looks like the piece count. That is my reading of the codes and not a maker statement, so confirm the length and line weight on the listing before you order. It is a quick way to catch a listing that shows the wrong photo or the wrong size.

What the table does not cover

St. Croix appears here as rods only. If you buy one, you still need a reel with a line-weight range that includes the rod's, a fly line and backing. Our fly reels page, fly lines page and fly reel size guide cover the matching, and fly rod combos shows outfits from other makers. Check the handle and reel seat as well. The maker lists cigar, half-wells and full-wells cork handles by line weight on the Imperial, and an uplocking machined aluminum reel seat across the series we track. A fighting butt is the small extension below the reel seat that gives you a place to brace the rod against your body, and the maker puts one on the heavier rods, 7-weight and up on the Imperial and Connect.

Warranty

On its series pages St. Croix states a five-year warranty for Connect and Mojo Bass, and a 15-year transferable warranty for Imperial USA, Imperial USA Switch and Imperial Salt. The service page says broken St. Croix rods can be covered under any of its warranty policies, that you can ask for a different model within the same series, that you get one rod per claim, that unresolved claims are deleted after 90 days, and that in-warranty claims carry a warranty fee which varies. US and Canadian anglers file through an online form. The page says series-specific warranty years, transfer rules and exclusions are on a tier chart that it shows as an image, which I could not read, so I do not know the exclusions. Read the chart, keep your receipt, and ask a marketplace seller how a claim would work.

How I would shop St. Croix

First, decide freshwater, saltwater or two-handed. Second, pick the line weight and length for the water, and the family by how fast you want the rod. Third, read the marks: the Connect and Imperial rows have maker pages, the Mojo Trout does not. Fourth, take the warranty into account, and be careful with a listing like the Mojo Trout, where no maker page confirms the term.

To line St. Croix up against others, see the fly rods page and the fly rod brands catalog.