Congrats on your new Kyojin II
It’s an awesome rod but there are some specific things to know about it to avoid breaks. I have personally fished the rod for years now on both fresh and saltwater. I’ve done sockeye, silvers and chum salmon. Massive carp in Pathfinder reservoir, bonefish, barracuda, jacks, bluefin, small permit, golden dorado, shark, tarpon just to name a few. And I have a bunch of customers who use it for stripers in the New Jersey area and redfish down south. It is a tremendous rod but a few things are critical:
- No trout sets! Setting up high and vertically results in all the pressure being placed on the upper sections (typically section 2 or 3). High “trout sets” turn the rod into a candy cane shape instead of an arc, and will result in a SNAP.
- Set to the side at about a 45-to-65-degree angle off the surface of the water. This keeps pressure off the tip sections and spreads in down along the length of the rod. Side sets protect the rod and provide better control and more power to you.
- Play to the side. Again, this protects your top sections of the rod and allows you to tap into the rod’s backbone faster and more effectively. This also helps you to disperse the load and distribute it evenly (very important) along the length of the rod – giving you more power.
The most critical thing to remember is side sets and play. Here are links to articles that you might find helpful on Big Fish on Tenkara. And here is another you might find interesting because it talks a bit about the Kyojin.
As far as lines go, the Kyojin casts our Zen Fusion Lines/Big the best. It can also cast the Mid-Weight but the Big was designed specifically for that rod. If you want to try a “home-grown project” you can play with a section of 7wt to 10wt fly line. The Level or running section is perfect but you can also incorporate part of a weight forward line if you are willing to chop one up. Let me know what specific questions or wonderings you have and I’m happy to do my best at answering them.
Thank you for choosing Zen Tenkara. We aim to please and have a lot of fun doing it.