Daiwa Sagiri 54MC 2way zoom

by Roger Hall

I fished a Daiwa Sagiri 54MC today, out of production but regularly available on Ebay. I have had mine for about 3 years but have not used it much.

Today on the Potomac I was fishing ants to surface feeding trout. Using a 16' 3.5 line a 3 feet of 6x tippet with an ant parachute size 16 fly it was like throwing popcorn to a guy with the munchies.

So I hooked about 12 and managed to snag (in the upper lip) 8 brown ranging in the 14-16 inch bracket and the rod handled them with aplomb.

I also hooked up with a rainbow that felt bigger but I lost him in the fast water and it was my fault because I was holding the rod tip too high and he broke off.

All the others were fought semi horizontal with a full bend to the rod and no breakoffs. It was a great 1 hour of action. The rest of the day was passable with about another 10 landed using a Shimano Mainstream ZL.

I am really liking these 5:5 rods and they really do have tremendous fish fighting abilities.

“The bitterness of poor quality remains long after the sweetness of low price is forgotten” - Benjamin Franklin

"Be sure in casting, that your fly fall first into the water, for if the line fall first, it scares or frightens the fish..." -
Col. Robert Venables 1662

As age slows my pace, I will become more like the heron.

We've all had situations where seriously chewed up flies kept catching fish after fish after fish. It is no sin to tie flies that come off the vise looking seriously chewed up.