JDM telescopic

I was poking around on Chris Stewart's website recently (always a dangerous thing to do) and came across the seiryu rods. These are light, telescopic poles (no reel needed) and are used for catching small trout and similar fish. They are similar to tenkara but lighter.

I really enjoy the simplicity and effectiveness of telescopic poles and catch a lot of fish with them every year. Since I typically use a cheap fiberglass pole (or "whip" as they say in Europe), I was really interested in trying out a JDM version of the same thing.

I settled on the Suntech Kurenai HM33R. The rod is 11'2" fully extended and weighs 1.1 oz. It weighs one half of what my JDM spinning rods weigh. Can't wait to baptize this baby! :biggrin

More details are here:

https://www.tenkarabum.com/suntech-kurenai.html

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Originally Posted by deathb4disco

I was poking around on Chris Stewart's website recently (always a dangerous thing to do) and came across the seiryu rods. These are light, telescopic poles (no reel needed) and are used for catching small trout and similar fish. They are similar to tenkara but lighter.

I really enjoy the simplicity and effectiveness of telescopic poles and catch a lot of fish with them every year. Since I typically use a cheap fiberglass pole (or "whip" as they say in Europe), I was really interested in trying out a JDM version of the same thing.

I settled on the Suntech Kurenai HM33R. The rod is 11'2" fully extended and weighs 1.1 oz. It weighs one half of what my JDM spinning rods weigh. Can't wait to baptize this baby! :biggrin

More details are here:

https://www.tenkarabum.com/suntech-kurenai.html

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Congrats....Be interested to hear a full report.

Regards

Looks cool! I saw that too. One of the rods is less than an ounce! Very high tech cane pole. Can’t wait to hear how it fishes.


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Finally got to baptize my new baby today. These were the best fish of the day -- details to follow ...

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Here's the terminal tackle:

That's a half gram float on the right. It took three #6 shots and one #8 to balance. (Later in the day, I switched to a quarter gram float.) Those are #14 dry fly hooks, but I didn't use them. I ended up using 16's. The line was 7X tippet.

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Details:

I started out at one of my favorite ponds and fished off the dam. I got one decent fish, but the bite was slow, so I went to another spot. Two quick bites (and misses) ensued. Then ... I hooked something too big for this rod. I didn't see it, but I'm sure it was a catfish of a couple of pounds. He quickly broke the line and took the entire rig with him. Since I'm incredibly lazy, I did not have another rig, so I fly fished for the next couple of hours.

Later in the day, I went to another pond. The rig was the same, except I dropped the float down to 1/4 gram. That, coupled with wax worms, quickly brought 14 gills and 1 shellcracker to hand.

Verdict:

The rod is incredibly fun. It is not a big fish rod. It could never land any of the Lake Perris monsters that LedHed catches. For smaller fish, though, the rod is sweet. The two fish above were 7.5-8". It could probably handle crappie in the 9-10" range. Chris Stewart (Tenkara Bum) said he thought 2.5# line was just about perfect, and I agree.

You don't have to use 2.5 lb line for your entire line (rod tip to hook). I would suggest a slightly heavier line from rod tip to just below your float, then a lighter tippet from there to your hook. That way, when (not if) you have to break the line because it got snagged on the bottom or to save the rod from a fish that is obviously too big, you should lose only the lighter tippet, not your float and certainly not your whole rig.

By the way, the Kurenai works wonderfully as an extra ultra light fly rod. For "fly line" use size 2.5 or size 3 fluorocarbon tenkara line about the length of the rod, then 3-3.5' of 7X tippet. Size 2.5 or 3 tenkara line is equivalent to 10-12# fluorocarbon, but is hi-vis so you can see bites. Nylon is less dense than fluorocarbon, so it won't work nearly as well.

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Originally Posted by Chris Stewart

You don't have to use 2.5 lb line for your entire line (rod tip to hook). I would suggest a slightly heavier line from rod tip to just below your float, then a lighter tippet from there to your hook. That way, when (not if) you have to break the line because it got snagged on the bottom or to save the rod from a fish that is obviously too big, you should lose only the lighter tippet, not your float and certainly not your whole rig.

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Agreed. That's normally what I do precisely for that reason. However, I like to have about .02mm of difference between the main line and the hook length. Unfortunately, I didn't have any .12mm line to match the .10mm 7X. I knew there was a good chance I'd lose my rig, but I was dying to try out the new rod.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Chris Stewart

By the way, the Kurenai works wonderfully as an extra ultra light fly rod. For "fly line" use size 2.5 or size 3 fluorocarbon tenkara line about the length of the rod, then 3-3.5' of 7X tippet. Size 2.5 or 3 tenkara line is equivalent to 10-12# fluorocarbon, but is hi-vis so you can see bites. Nylon is less dense than fluorocarbon, so it won't work nearly as well.

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That's "phase 2" of the operation. ;)

Nice loking fish, and rod. Sounds like a fun technique. Did you have any problems with the Panfish swallowing the small hook with the wax worms? I used a small bead head fly last time out and they were just inhaling the thing. It had a #12 hook on it and even with the Ester line I could not keep it from going into the gullet and gill areas.

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Originally Posted by StantheMan2567

Did you have any problems with the Panfish swallowing the small hook with the wax worms?

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No. That's one big advantage of the light floats. If the fish breathes on the bait, it registers on the float.

Almost all of the fish were lip-hooked. If you look carefully at the pics above, you can see the shank of the hook sticking out of the fishes' mouths.

An interesting rig and set up, and a very sweet rod. Not sure I need another addiction. Trying to keep my concentration focused when I’m using the fly rod is a challenge, and that rod is supposed to weigh in at about 2oz. Feels like nothing in my hand and takes me a few minutes to get it to behave in my heavy hands. Keep us posted, I bet it is a lot of fun.

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Originally Posted by skeetbum

Feels like nothing in my hand and takes me a few minutes to get it to behave in my heavy hands.

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Speaking of heavy hands, the Kurenai is so thin and light, you don't even hold it with your hand like a regular rod. You hold it mostly with just your fingers. There were times when I was holding it between my thumb and forefinger. It's that light. :)

Dang, the BnM graphite lil jewel only weigh under 3 oz and they are nothing. Couldnt imagine that light a pole. Bet its a blast.

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Originally Posted by huntinslabs

Dang, the BnM graphite lil jewel only weigh under 3 oz and they are nothing. Couldnt imagine that light a pole. Bet its a blast.

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This is the beauty of high end JDM rods. While I certainly don’t need to go down another road of different rods out of Japan....outside the spinning rod collection I have........my curiosity just might get the better of me. While 7 inch bluegill are a ball on my super UL and XUL rods this sounds like a lot more fun.

Regards


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I took the rod out for another spin this weekend. I found some .12 line, so I set that up as my main line with .10 tippet. I was fishing very shallow, so I used the .25 gm float again. I got 18 bluegill and one shellcracker. Biggest fish were in the 6-7" range. Fish that size bring out the best of the rod. The rod is great for fishing shallow waters where the chance of hooking a "monster" is low.

Bumped since I've been fishing with this rod again.

As I mentioned in another thread, 2020 was a terrible fishing year for me, and I didn't fish at all with this little jewel last year.

No pics this time, but the bluegills have been giving the Kurenai a workout. This rod is a ton of fun with smaller fish. :)

DBD, glad you finally get to go out and catch a few again. Lots of them microfishing enthus are swearing by these types of rod if not the exact one you got. Cheers!


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Interesting rod

Great thread and thanks for the review and information. Sounds like another great and fun way to fish.
Bob