Nine Foot Iwana

My new 9' Iwana grip came this afternoon. For those of you who know it's a 10' Iwana grip, and think I must have a bit too much nog in my egg nog, I say get out a measuring tape and see for yourself.

The people who have been after Daniel to produce a 9' Iwana have had their wishes granted (well, almost).

The new "ten foot" grip for the Iwana will give you a rod that is surprisingly close to 9'. Mine measures 9' 3". I suppose there is a little bit of variation depending on how forcefully you seat the sections, but there is no way I could extend mine even half way to 10' - so a 9' rod it is. Or 282cm if you prefer. The Iwana 282 actually doesn't sound so bad.

I haven't had a chance to fish with the rod yet, bit I did cast it for a while. (New York City apartments are incredibly small, but the ones in older buildings have high ceilings, and we have a long hallway leading to our small studio - easily long enough for a back cast.)

The rod is incredibly light in the hand, and while it is not as stiff as I feared it would be, it is still just a bit on the stiff side - although nothing at all like the Hane. After all, it is an Iwana and feels very much like the 11' and 12' Iwana rods.

It feels a bit stiffer to me only because it is so light that the rod itself doesn't have much mass to help load the rod when casting. And since it will cast a size 3 line with incredible ease and a size 2 on a windless day (or in a windless apartment), there isn't much line weight to load the rod either. Thus, the rod won't bend much - until you hook a fish, that is, and then it will bend pretty easily with even a five or six inch fish.

I won't say the 7:3 notation is wrong, because I'm not sure there is a precise way to measure it, but I would not have labeled it as such. (I'd have said 6:4, and if the Ito is a soft 6:4 that makes the nine foot Iwana a stiff 6:4).

Whatever the specs say for the length, weight and action, the rod itself gives those who wanted a shorter rod exactly what they were asking for. And since you can choke up on the rod while casting, I can't see the need for a rod shorter than this.

For brushy brooks or step-over streams, this is a nice little rod and a worthy addition to the Tenkara USA line.

Update January 5, 2012

I think the short rod promotes bad form - rod low and reaching

One of the most remarkable things about it is that it is right alongside a road. It probably helps that a much better known trout stream is nearby and seems to attact all the attention. I suppose it also helps that at first glance it doesn’t appear to be much more than a trickle. Plus, it’s hard to remember the name. Seems I’ve forgotten it already so I can't tell you where we went. Oh, well. Sorry.

I strongly suspect there are dozens more streams much like it. Very small, out of the way, with perhaps only short bits and pieces that run across public land. A small stream like that couldn’t handle much fishing pressure, but there was very little indication that it gets much.

We both decided to try out the new 9’ grip for the Iwana. I'm still not quite sure what to call it. It's labeled 10' but it turned my 12' Iwana into a rod that measured 9'3" so I think I'll just continue to call it the 9' Iwana.

Fishing with the rod did not change my initial assessment gained from casting it in the apartment. Unfortunately, it was a pretty windy day so I did not even try the size 2 line, but it worked quite nicely with either the size 3 or size 4 Hi-Vis level line. I didn't try a hand tied line or a furled line. I did try a light horsehair line but it was really too windy so after only a few casts I went back to a size 4 fluorocarbon.

We both caught fish. I managed two brookies and a chub that I think was a bit bigger than the brookies. Still, for me a tight line is a tight line and I was just as happy with the chub. The brookies were prettier, though.

I hate to say it, but I really believe a 9'3" rod is a limited use specialty rod. Of course, for where you fish it might be the perfect size, but the window of usefulness, where the stream is too tight for an 11' rod with a shortened line but still not too tight for a 9' rod, is pretty narrow. Most of the stream where we fished was open enough I could have used an 11' rod with a short line of maybe 8' not counting tippet. Where it got brushy, it was too brushy for even the 9' rod. If you have the 11' or 12' Iwana already it isn't much of an investment to get the 9' grip, though, so you might justify it with only one stream, or even only parts of one stream.

One other argument in favor of the longer rod is that I kept feeling the need to reach forward while fishing, and I also noticed (from seeing Alan's photos afterwards) that I was fishing with the rod quite low - trying to get all the distance I could out of the short rod and line. I don't want to sound like a rigid purist about it, but your presentation will be better if you fish with your rod tip higher. And that, after all, is one of the reasons the rods are long to begin with.

I guess the way I see it is like this: Fish with an 11' Iwana with a shorter line if you can and use the 9' grip if you must. It is a fun little rod and weighs just this side of nothing. And we both did catch wild brookies with them. When exploring the thin blue lines, I'll have it with me, but I strongly suspect my 11 footer will get a lot more use.

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