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Posts: 921
Location: Apollo, PA | For those that have held or used both, how do these rods compare? Lets say the loomis is also 8' 6"s? |
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Posts: 692
Location: Pelican Rapids, MN | I sold my loomis steel 25 to a buddy last year. The 25 (XH) is more comparable to a Big Dawg (XH) than a sling (H) - The Steel 20 (H) would be the closest thing Gloomis has to a Slingblade.
The problems I have found with the Loomis blanks are inconsistency in quality which has led me into the arms of St.Croix.
The Steel series is the best thing Gloomis has put out in over a decade, but still doesn't compare to St.Croix in everyday use! |
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Posts: 432
Location: Eagan, MN | Jsondag - 5/7/2009 4:23 PM
I sold my loomis steel 25 to a buddy last year. The 25 (XH) is more comparable to a Big Dawg (XH) than a sling (H) - The Steel 20 (H) would be the closest thing Gloomis has to a Slingblade.
The problems I have found with the Loomis blanks are inconsistency in quality which has led me into the arms of St.Croix.
The Steel series is the best thing Gloomis has put out in over a decade, but still doesn't compare to St.Croix in everyday use!
Interesting you say that, I found the steel 25 to have a bit less power than the slingblade. |
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Posts: 12
| I also agree that the 25 is a little lighter than the slingblade. The 25 has a little softer tip but also has great backbone. There is no doubt that they are both awesome rods. I have all three of the steel blanks, as well as LT croixs. I do not have the slingblade blank. Considering building the slingblade next winter. What are your intentions for the rod?? I would say they could be used for the same applications. The slingblade will handle bigger rubber in my opinion. |
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Posts: 814
| The big dawg and steel 25 are apples and oranges, I'll have to disagree with Jerry, the big dawg is a broom stick its made mostly for pounders, that's why Croix came out with the slingblade, because the big dawg is to stiff, to many people were losing fish at boatside. the 25 is like a old diamondback it has plenty of tip as well as great backbone, this rod has the tip to keep fish stuck without giving up backbone. These are the blanks Thornes was recommending to everyone looking for a big blade rod before they came out with there predator series. If you have any ?'s or disbeliefs call thornes.
here's my comparison
steel 20 is similiar to a mh diamondback or the mega swimbait by croix
steel 25 is similiar to a h/xh diamondback or the heavy predator(as per Lonnie).
The slingblade is the exact rod as the big dawg, St. Croix just softend up the tip for the reason I stated above.
Edited by mskyhntr 5/7/2009 7:36 PM
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Posts: 692
Location: Pelican Rapids, MN | There are way more differences between the Slingblade and the Big Dawg than the tip. I was fortunate enough to be one of the people who got to play with these rods during development - The Big Dawg is made for all big rubber, mag +.
You maybe confused with the XXXheavy. Which is a broomstick. Anyway, as for the Slingblade, I got to view the development from the engineers mathmatical pre-creation to playing with the test models and finally, after countless calls and emails begging Rich Belanger, last September, I got the first production blank in MN.
There are very little similarities between the Sling and the B. Dawg.
When I had a Steel 25, it was brand new - They were available only in blanks at that time - Maybe a change in construction since then - Maybe not.
Besides, I didn't say the 25 and the B.D. were exactly the same, I mentioned that the 25 was more comparable to the B.D. than the Sling. Probably because a few seasons ago when Thornes started building with the steel 25, they touted it as a Dawg rod. Hence the comparison. The 20 was deemed the better blade rod. Those claims may have since changed due to durability issues of the Gloomis. and finally, true they are much, much more similar to the Predator rods (which are St. Croix LT's) but IMO still inferior! |
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Posts: 814
| Jerry please explain the differences in the predators vs. the LT's and what is the purpose of the predator lineup, if they are really LT's.
Edited by mskyhntr 5/7/2009 11:00 PM
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Posts: 692
Location: Pelican Rapids, MN | There were a lot of calls from private rod builders for a solid 9' blank so they didn't have to use handle extensions and worry about heavy use breaking the connection down over time. St.Croix didn't want to mass produce it in their LT line at the moment due to it being such a specialized demand, so behind the scenes, Thornes worked a deal to have them create a blank exclusive to their store. Thus making them the only builders to have a 9' solid blank of that caliber. Lonnie also has of late been playing with a one piece screwing fore grip reel seat as seen on bass rods. But that's besides the point. IMO the 9' solid blank lends the rod to be a shade more parabolic than the LT of the same weight. Thus making them seem more moderate tipped. Tomorrow, i am going to try and do a load test and see the difference - I'll snap some pics to post - Who knows, I may eat my words - Oh, and the Predator color, picked by thornes, it is the same paint used on the Core low Pro bass reel by Shimano. |
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Posts: 692
Location: Pelican Rapids, MN | In all honesty, I have had dozens of brands of rods in the last decade. From Croix, to Steel Loomis to old Loomis, to Fenwick, Fig rig, Shimano, Diamond back, Allstar, etc. A few years ago I noticed a trend - gLoomis, Diamond Back, Fig rig were all going to crap -everyone I knew had a broken rod of these makes - All Star faded away, Fenwick was getting questionable. I then found myself using 2 different rod brands for all my freshwater applications - Shimano and St.Croix. When touting rods, I would always say something like St.Croix's are the best and high priced, save your money and go with a Compre... I ate my words over and over. Especially when rod after shimano rod was breaking - guides crooked, tip not glued on - I even had a tip on backwards once - i thought I was having a joke played on me. Their quality was going down the tubes. And being a guide, I can't deal with equipment failures. St. Croix Premiers and LT's were holding strong and soon replacing all of my other rods - I then got a couple Steel's after the urging from Luke Ronnestrand. He had a couple of the first ones Lonnie strung up. They were nice. I ordered a couple, and put them into use along side my LT's. I then had a buddy that wanted to buy a rod. He came over and asked me if there was any I would be willing to sell. After pulling out all my rods, and mulling it over, I decided he could have the steel's. They just didn't seem as good of quality as the LT's. He got 'em and loves them to this day.
After that I went to Rich Belanger and professed my undying loyalty to St.Croix as a pro staffer. I told him, I'd bleed S.C. as long as they keep making the quality stuff they do! So I am pretty biased but only because of the standards and quality that goes into their products! |
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