Sucker!

by Les Albjerg
(Caldwell, Idaho)

Yesterday was our fall perch fishing day at Lake Cascade. One of the big motivations for buying the Tenryu Lunakia LK6102S-MLT was to target perch. It was a fantastic day! The Lunakia performed beyond all expectations. The perch were biting, but it was a light bite. In other words, the sensitivity of the Lunakia really shined! It was a cool, sunny, windless day on the water. One awesome day to be out on the water!

The first 3 fish of the day fell to the Lunakia. The C'ultiva JH-85 Jig Heads in 1.7 gram size performed flawlessly with various soft plastics including the C'ultiva Pinworm. In terms of Cascade Lake it was a slow day. I ended up with a dozen keepers.

Geoff, my fishing buddy caught a very nice rainbow trout. I was pondering what I would do if a 16 plus inch rainbow slammed the Lunakia. The larger 1.5 pound perch were giving the Lunakia a good workout. Actually all I wanted, exciting fishing! I wasn't maxing the rod out, but could enjoy all of the action a perch could give!

All of a sudden I had a nice "tap - tap" on the line, and set the hook. I wasn't prepared for what happened next! The rod took a full bend, and the line was ripping off the reel at an unbelievable rate. Geoff and Scott insisted that I must have a really nice trout on! It was a 8-10 minute battle! The fish made 3 awesome runs before coming to the net! As the fish came out of the deep, I was expecting the silver of a rainbow, but it was the golden glow of the big sucker in the picture. The tale of the tape on this fish is that it was 24 and 3/4 inches long and weighed in a 5 and 1/3 pounds.

So, for those who wonder how these Ajing rods can handle bigger fish, wonder no longer. Paired with a good reel, they are awesome! Not once did I feel I had bottomed out the rod, even though I did tighten the drag to the max for the 3 pound JDM line I was fishing with. My favorite comment of the day was when Scott said, "It looks like you are having way more fun catching fish than I am on that ultra-light outfit." I just smiled.