Diawa Kiyose 33SF

I met up with Paul Arnold here in Indiana to do some American Tenkara Fishing. It was good to finally get together with another Tenkara Fisher for the first time. The day was slow to say the least but I was able to get out and enjoy some time on the water. The Creek we were fishing was a few feet low. After playing around in the shallows we decided to try some deeper water 4 to 6ft. I had a few takes before finally catching my first smallmouth bass on tenkara gear. I ended up with only landing 2 smallmouth and a couple of gills. Also seen some longnose gar but could not get a solid hookup. Only had one take and a few follows. Here are the picks of the smallmouth bass.

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The Kiyose 33SF was extremly pleasant to fish and cast. It handled very nicely. Being a stiffer or faster rod than what I am used to fishing, it did take a bit to get used to playing a larger fish. Even though I did not break off the tippet today, I believe it this rod could handle 4X or even 3X tippet. The later could be pushing it to far though. Paul was fishing with the Daiwa Soyokaze 31SR. He let me cast it a few times and it felt extremely light in the tip. Anything you hook on that would be a reel hoot, even if it was a 2" gill. I am so glad Chris decided to import the Daiwa Series of rods.

Mike P.

Nice post, Mike. It was my first time on the water with another tenkara guy, and we both enjoyed ourselves. I was able to watch Mike play one of the smallmouths he caught and can report that he brought it in neatly and smoothly. For me, I could not seem to get the skunk out, but as they say, the worst day fishing is better than...etc. And it was actually a good day. After we left Sugar Creek, where we fished, Mike showed me a couple of other interesting nearby spots for future fishing. All in all, a mighty fine day. But I sure would have liked to see him hook one of those gars, though.