If you've been keeping tabs on this blog, you've noticed that my kids and I have been using the heck out of our seiryu-tenkara-keiryu Japanese Fly Fishing rods. The softer seiryu rods have emerged as my favorites with the vast majority of the fish I catch being 6-9" bluegills and large mouth bass. However, I recently felt that I have been ignoring my western style flyfishing equipment and losing what little skill I did have. Well - I decided to change it up yesterday and today. I have two training rods - both the Echo and Redington models. The Echo version uses a yarn based fly line while the Redington uses an actual fly line. Can you tell where I'm going with this? I put perfection loops on both ends of the fly line and attached tippet to the thin tapered end. So I can cast the line out and I can see the tight loop unfurling towards the spot I envisioned the fly landing - about 33% of the time. The rest of the time I caught the bushes on the side of the clearing (not keeping the rod moving along a single plane), failed to get the tippet to unfurl (not finishing with a crisp snap), or getting the line caught on the brush lining the shore (the rod is tiny - not much reach). Noe got the line out a few times as well - anyone can do this! This rod really lets you know what your mistakes are - but it also lets a bull bluegill make you feel like you're bringing in a pissed off wahoo. I still like using the seiryu rods - but pumping a double haul and watching a super tight loop fly away has it's place in cool too - MIX IT UP and ENJOY!!!
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