Speak softly and carry a Kurenai Long 61

by Jeff D
(KC, MO)

Chris told me this rod would spoil me. He was absolutely right. First impression: so light for 6 meters. I did cast it some one-handed just to see if it was possible. It is, but I found that I had to slow things WAY down. Best to cast it two-handed. I used a sort of Belgian cast with Tenkara line and I found I could very accurately target my casts, which I didn't expect from a rod this long.

My SO and I went down to Roaring River State Park near Cassville, MO to hit the last weekend of the catch and release season. The first day I spent playing with my new Nissin Fujiryu 410 6:4, sight casting to cruising fish. The second day I used the Kurenai Long. I used a 15' #3 level line with 4' of 4x tippet to a tungsten bead head UKB with about 10" dropper of 5x to a Stewart Spider. I used a single keiryu marker at the line/leader connection, mainly so my old eyes could see it way out there. With a rod this long the drifts were out of this world. Everything I caught (many) took the Stewart Spider. Later I switched to a size 26 UKB on 8x just for fun. This resulted in a take on almost every drift but many long distance releases. Gotta work on my small fly fish playing technique. The upside: never broke the 8x. That's amazing. Used the same fly for the rest of the day.

Additionally, my SO caught her first trout on a fly this trip. She never thought she could do it, but a summer of Tenkara panfishing paid off. She jokes she wants to ask everyone "Do you have a moment to speak about Tenkara?" And my Nissin Fine Mode 320 is now "her rod!"

“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.