Post by myotis on Aug 11, 2012 18:46:14 GMT
Having won the Tenkara Centre UK Seiryu rod (does anyone have any idea how you pronounce Seiryu?) I thought I should give some sort of first impressions between it and my TenkaraUSA Iwana. (note I have edited this since the original post to add a bit about extending the rods)
Remember as you read this that my experience of Tenkara rods is measured in weeks, and I have only fished with my Iwana once.
Both rods are listed as 12ft, both described as 6:4 action and both are listed as weighing 2.7 oz (77g), but see later.
Both are close on the same price, The Seiryu is a bit cheaper, but not enough to make price a factor in choosing between them.
The rod tubes look similar, the Seiryu is wider, but both are the same length. The quality seems comparable, but differences in design suggest they have come from different factories. The wider tube makes the Seiryu noticeably easier to get in and out of the tube than the Iwana.
The rod bags show considerable differences (see below) with the Seiryu coming with a rather grandly embroidered logo on a thick velvety material, and closed with a toggle. The Iwana bag is thinner closes with velcro and has the manufacturers details printed onto the fabric. Both bags seems robust enough for the job.
Removing the rods from their bags shows that the Iwana is sightly shorter, but with a longer handle.
When extended, the Seiryu is an inch or so longer than the Iwana.
However, because of the handle design, when holding both rods where they feel most comfortable, the Seiryu sits at about six inches longer than the Iwana. Of course you can move your hand further down the Iwana grip and reduce this difference, but the difference is there. However, the Seiryu as well as feeling longer also feels heavier. The longer handle of the Iwana is also arguably more flexible in terms of where and how you grip the rod, than the shorter Seiryu handle.
The other obvious difference is the quality of the cork used for the handles. The cork handle on the Seiryu feels, and looks better finished than the handle on the Iwana. It’s impossible not to immediately notice how much nicer the finish is on the Seiryu. Hopefully the photo below will give some idea of these differences (The Seiryu is the top handle).
Looking at other aspects of the finish, there seems little difference, but if pushed I would say that overall the Seiryu is better finished than the Iwana. For example the butt cap on the Seiryu appears hard anodised as opposed to the chromed Iwana butt cap.
One slightly odd aspect of the Seiryu is that if you extend the rod with the same tension as you would use with the Iwana, it rattles ! Every time I have extended it, I have had to go back and pull the sections out just a little bit more to get rid of the rattle. Not a problem as I am sure you would get used to it, but still obviously some slight difference in design/manufacture.
I mentioned earlier that the Seiryu felt heavier, even though both rods are listed as 77g, and I weighed them on my probably not too accurate Salter digital kitchen scales.
The Iwana came in at 82g and the Seiryu at 93g (both rods had a pair of “The Catch” line keepers fitted, as is obvious from the pictures).
In their rod tubes, the Iwana weighs 248g and the Seiryu 268g (with the rod bag and the line keepers).
However, the biggest difference between the two rods is the action. None of the rods were loaded with line for this comparison, so it’s just based on simulating casting on my lawn.
I also own the Yamame 7:3 rod as well as the Iwana 6:4 rod, and when comparing the two TenkaraUSA rods, while it is obvious the Iwana is softer, they don’t seem to be tremendously different. In contrast, the Seiryu, also described as a 6:4 rod, seems much softer than the Iwana. There is certainly a bigger difference between the Iwana and the Seiryu than there is between the Iwana and the Yamame. The action on the Seiryu seems to run nearly to the handle and feels completely different to the tippier action of the Iwana/Yamame.
In fact I rather like the action of the Seiryu as it has a nice relaxed feel to it, but it isn’t anything like the Iwana.
So, in conclusion the Seiryu has a softish relaxed action compared to the Iwana, it is very well made and all told, it’s a rather lovely rod, from one of the two British based companies selling Tenkara rods in the UK. However, it doesn’t seem to be a direct equivalent to the Iwana (in spite of its 6:4 rating) , and I’m not sure why it seems so much heavier than it’s listed as being.
Its a a great addition to my (and my wife’s) Tenkara armoury.
Graham
P.S. For those not familiar with the background. Tenkara Centre UK donated this rod to this forum, for the Forums’s July competition and I won it. Although we all know companies do these things to gain publicity for their products, there was no requirement for me to write it up. However, I don’t have a problem with companies benefiting from gestures of this sort, and I am hoping that the write up will be useful to forum members.
Remember as you read this that my experience of Tenkara rods is measured in weeks, and I have only fished with my Iwana once.
Both rods are listed as 12ft, both described as 6:4 action and both are listed as weighing 2.7 oz (77g), but see later.
Both are close on the same price, The Seiryu is a bit cheaper, but not enough to make price a factor in choosing between them.
The rod tubes look similar, the Seiryu is wider, but both are the same length. The quality seems comparable, but differences in design suggest they have come from different factories. The wider tube makes the Seiryu noticeably easier to get in and out of the tube than the Iwana.
The rod bags show considerable differences (see below) with the Seiryu coming with a rather grandly embroidered logo on a thick velvety material, and closed with a toggle. The Iwana bag is thinner closes with velcro and has the manufacturers details printed onto the fabric. Both bags seems robust enough for the job.
Removing the rods from their bags shows that the Iwana is sightly shorter, but with a longer handle.
When extended, the Seiryu is an inch or so longer than the Iwana.
However, because of the handle design, when holding both rods where they feel most comfortable, the Seiryu sits at about six inches longer than the Iwana. Of course you can move your hand further down the Iwana grip and reduce this difference, but the difference is there. However, the Seiryu as well as feeling longer also feels heavier. The longer handle of the Iwana is also arguably more flexible in terms of where and how you grip the rod, than the shorter Seiryu handle.
The other obvious difference is the quality of the cork used for the handles. The cork handle on the Seiryu feels, and looks better finished than the handle on the Iwana. It’s impossible not to immediately notice how much nicer the finish is on the Seiryu. Hopefully the photo below will give some idea of these differences (The Seiryu is the top handle).
Looking at other aspects of the finish, there seems little difference, but if pushed I would say that overall the Seiryu is better finished than the Iwana. For example the butt cap on the Seiryu appears hard anodised as opposed to the chromed Iwana butt cap.
One slightly odd aspect of the Seiryu is that if you extend the rod with the same tension as you would use with the Iwana, it rattles ! Every time I have extended it, I have had to go back and pull the sections out just a little bit more to get rid of the rattle. Not a problem as I am sure you would get used to it, but still obviously some slight difference in design/manufacture.
I mentioned earlier that the Seiryu felt heavier, even though both rods are listed as 77g, and I weighed them on my probably not too accurate Salter digital kitchen scales.
The Iwana came in at 82g and the Seiryu at 93g (both rods had a pair of “The Catch” line keepers fitted, as is obvious from the pictures).
In their rod tubes, the Iwana weighs 248g and the Seiryu 268g (with the rod bag and the line keepers).
However, the biggest difference between the two rods is the action. None of the rods were loaded with line for this comparison, so it’s just based on simulating casting on my lawn.
I also own the Yamame 7:3 rod as well as the Iwana 6:4 rod, and when comparing the two TenkaraUSA rods, while it is obvious the Iwana is softer, they don’t seem to be tremendously different. In contrast, the Seiryu, also described as a 6:4 rod, seems much softer than the Iwana. There is certainly a bigger difference between the Iwana and the Seiryu than there is between the Iwana and the Yamame. The action on the Seiryu seems to run nearly to the handle and feels completely different to the tippier action of the Iwana/Yamame.
In fact I rather like the action of the Seiryu as it has a nice relaxed feel to it, but it isn’t anything like the Iwana.
So, in conclusion the Seiryu has a softish relaxed action compared to the Iwana, it is very well made and all told, it’s a rather lovely rod, from one of the two British based companies selling Tenkara rods in the UK. However, it doesn’t seem to be a direct equivalent to the Iwana (in spite of its 6:4 rating) , and I’m not sure why it seems so much heavier than it’s listed as being.
Its a a great addition to my (and my wife’s) Tenkara armoury.
Graham
P.S. For those not familiar with the background. Tenkara Centre UK donated this rod to this forum, for the Forums’s July competition and I won it. Although we all know companies do these things to gain publicity for their products, there was no requirement for me to write it up. However, I don’t have a problem with companies benefiting from gestures of this sort, and I am hoping that the write up will be useful to forum members.
