Gear Guide: St. Croix Tannic Bass
St. Croix Tannic Bass 690 Review: Power, Precision, and Smallmouth Performance
Fly fishing is becoming increasingly varied as innovative anglers push the bounds of the sport far beyond traditional trout streams. Warmwater species, especially smallmouth bass, have enjoyed a particularly sharp uptick in attention in recent years, stimulating a wave of specialized flies and equipment with which to target them. Indeed, a wave of “quiver rods” has hit the market, providing anglers with finely-tuned tools for niche species and environments. The Tannic Bass series from St. Croix is one such offering that takes specialty rod design to another level. We got our hands on the nine-foot, six-weight model to see how well it performs in our small and medium-sized rivers in Ohio and Pennsylvania - and it didn’t disappoint.
Power
The Tannic is light in the hand. It actually feels like a six-weight, which was far from a guarantee for a fast-action rod built for throwing large, wind-resistant bugs. This didn’t hinder performance, though, as it manhandled our 210 grain, type 3 sink tip Line, generating considerable line speed. Shooting line was a breeze with a single false cast, which makes life easier for bass anglers tasked with making hundreds of pinpoint casts to structure. Unweighted and lightly-weighted flies like Feather Gamechangers and Bad Hair Days turned over with ease, while heavier patterns like Jackhammers and Circus Peanuts proved a bit more difficult for our six-weight. Sizing up to the seven or eight-weight models would be recommended if heavy flies or a lot of long casting is required.
Control & Fishability
The ability to pick up and reposition or recast sinking lines is important for bass anglers, and the Tannic handles it very well, even with quite a bit of line in the water. The X-factor for the design seems to be its stiff tip, which allows it to manhandle long lengths of overweighted fly line. This was immediately apparent on the water in both casting and line pickup, the latter being a critical trait in technical environments that demand many accurate casts to targets. That stout, responsive tip is also incredibly useful for animating the fly via twitches and pops - absolute necessities for our erratic smallmouth retrieves. It affords the angler a great deal of control over and constant contact with the fly, disappearing in the hand and offering exceptional feel on light bites.
Final Thoughts
The Tannic is as advertised. Its a cannon that boasts multiple design characteristics that allow it to deliver and present flies with accuracy and animate them with precision and feel. We fished it extensively for resident smallies that average around 12 inches, where heavier rods are overkill. The Tannic crammed all the punch and function of a seven-weight into a six-weight package, making moderately-sized fish a blast to pursue and catch. Incidentally, we also pulled an 18-incher that provided some insight into how it handles larger fish, and the rod fared extremely well. At no time during bulldogging runs or jumps did the rod feel under gunned, which was a huge positive for us. There is no doubt that this six-weight could be deployed with confidence for larger fish. Overall, the Tannic does exactly what it claims to do. It’s bass-centric design makes life easier for the angler. We generally don’t fish species-specific models, but the Tannic can absolutely improve the angling experience, and it’s worth considering for serious bass junkies who would benefit from improved performance in all the areas that matter.
