NISSIN KAWASHI PROFESSIONAL 320 7:3 ROD

I have been fishing for the last two months since the season opening with the same rod and it is now time to review it. Here is the Kawashi Professional 320 7:3 by NISSIN.

Like all (I think) Japanese Tenkara rods it is sold in a plastic box where the rod is in a cloth bag. It is easy to find rod tubes or to make one by yourself and in my opinion this system is good because you pay only what you want to buy: a tenkara rod.

The general appearance of this rod is quite flattering thanks to dark purple accents on eash of the 7 pieces, the cork is not the best quality on the market but to me it is not so important as I prefer a rod with good conception and realization than exceptional cork quality for the handle. 

The theoretical length is 320 but the real length 315. The closed length is 1'9". This rod is clearly designed for the tight and bushy creeks. 

The theoretical weight is 2.01 oz and the rod I am reviewing today, with its tip plug included, has the exact weight of 2.00 oz. 

The tip plus is made of supple rubber, its diameter necessitates that you screw it in the collapsed rod but this makes you sure that the plus can not move away by itself; the butt cap is made of metal, is knurled and features a rubber insert and a drain hole.

Like any other rod made by NISSIN this one features a perfect assembly, you can check any detail as many times as you want you will not find any defect. 

The best world to describe the rod action is "crisp". I have fished a lot with this rod since the season opening and most of the time in bad conditions because of gusty winds that are so common in my area and I have to say that this rod has a fast and powerful action that can face these winds. 

I did only cast level lines with this rod and I think, after two months of use, that the most fitted line size is 3. This makes false casting useless, to reduce to almost zero the line impact on the water and to keep good casting precision through wind. 

This excellent rod is sold at the reasonable price of 170 USD and I can tell you that once you have caught several trouts on this little beauty it is hard to put it back to the rack!

HAIN CREEK TENKARA

I have often driven along the Hain creek but never had time to fish it and the only angler I saw there was a blue heron. Good sign or bad omen? Th best way to answer this question was to go there with a rod in hand.
I did arrive at 11:30 a.m, the sun was bright but a strong wind was dramatically cooling the atmosphere, it was rally colder than during the week.

I walked down the stream about third a mile to each a very open area with almost no trees on the banks.
This stream is about three feet wide and one foot deep. The water is quite clear for the season and very cold.
But the important question of the day is: Are there trouts in this stream? Yes, sir, there are some!
I did fish with my yellow Takayama and I think that I managed not too bad but with a less powerful wind my casting would have been more precise and efficient.

On this lower part of the stream I did catch numerous tiny trouts in the faster parts but not a single one in basins or pools. Many fishes came to see the fly but turned around very fast. Not big but not naive!
All in all it is a good thing for this small stream to shelter a high density of juvenile trouts.

Without noticing it did take me about three hours to fish this portion of the stream and come back to my starting point.
It was time for lunch break and I needed to put a jacket. The wind had not subsided and the temperature had dropped; if my memories are exact the weather forecast of this morning said " almost summer"!

I cross the road and head to a less accessible and more brushy part of the stream ans as I arrive on the bank I decide to only cast crossbow style...And this idea was good.

This small stream is definitely full of small trouts. In this part I also have seen many of them charge on the fly and turning around at the last second. That is probably because they can see me but it is not possible to change the way I am placed. I will catch the biggest of the day at my last cast.

It was a plan of mine for this trout season to fish unknown streams and I think it was a good idea because it puts me in a good mood and motivates me to find my Tenkara.