Because it's expensive, however, St. Croix may be a better choice if you're upgrading from a cheaper fishing rod. Though it doesn't match the high standard of St. Croix, the Ugly Stik is lauded for its sturdiness, reliability and solid materials. We found few reviewers willing to single out mediocre or poor fishing rods for criticism. This is not surprising, given that the majority of fishing-rod reviews appear in fishing magazines, which are reluctant to offend current advertisers and potential advertisers. When you're figuring out what to avoid, what doesn't appear in print is as important as what does.
Rotten rods tend to be damned with faint praise, no praise or no mention whatsoever.
Therefore, we would generally bypass fishing rods that aren't recommended by more than one reviewer. The site claims that Penn rods break frequently, and that the manufacturer is reluctant to fix them. Thus, we're a bit more skeptical about the one high ranking awarded Penn rods in Outdoor Life. In fact, the Mitchell scored nearly as high as other rods costing hundreds of dollars more. We give these ratings additional credence because these rods garner only one or two recommendations each from the specialty outdoors magazines.