I recently received in the mail the new Nissin Zerosum Oni Honryu 450 Tenkara rod. This is the long awaited big water, big fish tenkara rod mainly designed for the US market and for US rivers, and is a collaboration between Tenkara no Oni and Nissin Tenkara. Discussions about this rod have been on the forums for a few weeks; some of the discussions getting a little heated. So I was pretty interested in seeing this rod and comparing it to the Shimano Honryu 44 NP that I just recently had.
The rod comes in a typical plastic carton and comes with a pale purple rod sleeve. The rod is glossy black in finish without any adornment or accents, excepting a woven carbon fiber accent on the tip of the handle section.
The handle is a gourd or camel shape and is made of high quality cork. There is less than usual amount of filler. The winding check is silver metal and fits tightly to the cork.
The tip plug is black nylon plastic and fits tightly without slipping. The butt cap is also black plastic and is rounded for comfort when palming the butt of the handle. There is a silver accent band, and a rubber bumper but no air hole. The butt cap is slightly knurled to aid in its removal.
The lilian is classic red and is attached to the tip with a perfectly executed glue joint. The tip section can be withdrawn through the second section for complete rod disassembly.
Here are some specs:
Collapsed (with tip plug): 63.5 cm
Fully extended: 448 cm
Weight (without tip plug): 97.8 gm
CCS/RFI: 20 pennies/4.4
Rotational Moment: 8.73!
Casting the rod is quite nice for a long rod. Due to it's length (and weight), it has quite a bit of inertia and to get the rod moving through the air takes effort. This would be expected of any single hand rod 450 cm in length. As you would guess from the rotational moment calculation, the rod is tip heavy. However, it's moment number is high due to it's heavy weight, not it's center of gravity measurement. In fact, although its rotational moment number is much higher than the Shimano Honryu 44 NP, the Zerosum Oni 450 feels a little less tip heavy. I attribute this to the fact that even though it is longer than the 44NP, its center of gravity point is closer to the handle than the 44 NP. Now, only if it weighed the same as the 44 NP, then its rotational moment would be 7.5!
I used an 18 foot fluorocarbon twisted line (with 4.5 feet of 5X tippet) made by John Vetterli of Tenkara Guides LLC. I was casting into a 15 mph head wind and the rod had no problem turning over the line and tippet. The rod loaded well with this line. I have a 7 meter Fujino Tenkara* line coming that I'll be interested in trying with this rod.
I like the casting curve of this long rod better than the 44 NP. It is still relaxed, but it can handle a complex line (furled, twisted, tapered) better than the 44 NP.
So overall I think I'll mostly like this rod, but I have yet to fish it -- I will this fall. I am disappointed in the high rotational moment, but then again, the rod is quite robust and should stand up to fish larger than I generally go after. I'm sure I'll use the rod, but it won't be my first choice. It likely will be fatiguing after many hours of use and so if I'm going to be on larger waters with large fish I'll stick to a two handed rod. Again, I don't want to risk a forearm or shoulder injury again -- been there, done that!
You can get one of these rods from Chris at Tenkara Bum.
* Update: July 21, 2015: I received a Fujino Tenkara 7 meter tapered line today from Tenkara Bum. I got the rod out and cast this line on my lawn. What a great match. The line casts perfectly with the Zerosum Oni Tenkara rod. FYIW, the line also casts beautifully with my Daiwa 53 MF. I look forward to using both of these rods with this line.
The rod comes in a typical plastic carton and comes with a pale purple rod sleeve. The rod is glossy black in finish without any adornment or accents, excepting a woven carbon fiber accent on the tip of the handle section.
The handle is a gourd or camel shape and is made of high quality cork. There is less than usual amount of filler. The winding check is silver metal and fits tightly to the cork.
The tip plug is black nylon plastic and fits tightly without slipping. The butt cap is also black plastic and is rounded for comfort when palming the butt of the handle. There is a silver accent band, and a rubber bumper but no air hole. The butt cap is slightly knurled to aid in its removal.
The lilian is classic red and is attached to the tip with a perfectly executed glue joint. The tip section can be withdrawn through the second section for complete rod disassembly.
Here are some specs:
Collapsed (with tip plug): 63.5 cm
Fully extended: 448 cm
Weight (without tip plug): 97.8 gm
CCS/RFI: 20 pennies/4.4
Rotational Moment: 8.73!
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| Rod Flex Index comparison chart |
Casting the rod is quite nice for a long rod. Due to it's length (and weight), it has quite a bit of inertia and to get the rod moving through the air takes effort. This would be expected of any single hand rod 450 cm in length. As you would guess from the rotational moment calculation, the rod is tip heavy. However, it's moment number is high due to it's heavy weight, not it's center of gravity measurement. In fact, although its rotational moment number is much higher than the Shimano Honryu 44 NP, the Zerosum Oni 450 feels a little less tip heavy. I attribute this to the fact that even though it is longer than the 44NP, its center of gravity point is closer to the handle than the 44 NP. Now, only if it weighed the same as the 44 NP, then its rotational moment would be 7.5!
I used an 18 foot fluorocarbon twisted line (with 4.5 feet of 5X tippet) made by John Vetterli of Tenkara Guides LLC. I was casting into a 15 mph head wind and the rod had no problem turning over the line and tippet. The rod loaded well with this line. I have a 7 meter Fujino Tenkara* line coming that I'll be interested in trying with this rod.
I like the casting curve of this long rod better than the 44 NP. It is still relaxed, but it can handle a complex line (furled, twisted, tapered) better than the 44 NP.
So overall I think I'll mostly like this rod, but I have yet to fish it -- I will this fall. I am disappointed in the high rotational moment, but then again, the rod is quite robust and should stand up to fish larger than I generally go after. I'm sure I'll use the rod, but it won't be my first choice. It likely will be fatiguing after many hours of use and so if I'm going to be on larger waters with large fish I'll stick to a two handed rod. Again, I don't want to risk a forearm or shoulder injury again -- been there, done that!
You can get one of these rods from Chris at Tenkara Bum.
* Update: July 21, 2015: I received a Fujino Tenkara 7 meter tapered line today from Tenkara Bum. I got the rod out and cast this line on my lawn. What a great match. The line casts perfectly with the Zerosum Oni Tenkara rod. FYIW, the line also casts beautifully with my Daiwa 53 MF. I look forward to using both of these rods with this line.
http://keiryu-tenkara.ocnk.net/product/22
ReplyDeleteCheck the price.
Keiichi Okushi's rod shop.
I liked the link to the "a little heated"