Tenryu Rayz Alter RZA5102S-LLT

Do you believe in love at first wiggle? No, I do not mean that cute hula girl you saw in Hawaii! I'm talking about fishing rods here.

Focus!

The Tenryu Rayz Alter RZA5102S-LLT is the newest, shortest, softest rod Tenryu makes for fishing in Areas (private, stocked pay-to-fish lakes). In addition to trout in lakes, it will be a wonderful rod for modest trout in gentle streams or sunfish and crappies in the town park. I was initially attracted by the rod's description, which indicated that the entire blank was made from low modulus carbon.

Low modulus carbon bends more easily, so the Tenryu Rayz Alter RZA5102S-LLT will bend more (and more deeply into the blank) than the other Alter rods and substantially more than the Rayz, Rayz Integral or Rayz Spectra rods when you have a fish on the line and when you are making a cast. If you have tried (and tried and tried) to do a flip cast but your rod just doesn't bend enough when you do the sharp downward flick with your wrist, then the RZA5102S-LLT is the rod for you. The rod is rated for lures up to 5 grams, but a 3 gram spinner or a 3.5 gram spoon will give you plenty of bend to make a flip cast. You'll still need to practice, but if it isn't working you'll know it isn't the rod's fault.

The rod can handle the weight of a 4.5 gram sinking minnow lure, but the tip section clearly is not as firm as you would want for imparting the action that Japanese anglers use when fishing sinking minnows. Tenryu describes their stream rods Twitchin' for the "ultralight" rods and Jerkin' for the "light" rods. They describe the Rayz Alter RZA5102S-LL as a Crankin' rod.

I think their description is appropriate. I see this rod as a wonderful rod for fishing spinners, from the 1.5 gram Smith AR-S to the 4 gram Smith Niakis. Similarly, from the 1.5 gram Shimano Slim Swimmer spoon all the way up to the 5 gram Slim Swimmer. With a spinner, there is no need to twitch or jerk or add any action to the spinner. A steady retrieve is fine. As the spinner pros will tell you, if the blade is turning, you will catch fish.

As with spinners, a steady retrieve is fine for spoons. The spoon will have all the action that is necessary without any added jerks or twitches. Pauses in your retrieve can be effective, but generally aren't necessary. The Tenryu Rayz Alter RZA5102S-LLT "Crankin' Rod" was designed specifically for crankin' your lures. So just crank away - just not too fast with the spoons. If you fish a spoon too fast it will spin. You want it to wobble, not spin. If you want spin, fish a spinner. If you want a fast retrieve, fish a spinner.

I should say that just because Japanese anglers impart a twitching or jerking action when they are fishing heavy sinking minnows, and just because a minnow lure is what Americans generally refer to as a "jerkbait" doesn't mean you have to jerk it or even twitch it. The Tenryu Rayz Alter RZA5102S-LLT will do just fine with either a sinking or a floating minnow and a steady retrieve. I've caught more than a few fish on a minnow lure with just a steady retrieve. The lure doesn't just come straight in. It wiggles.

When you are fishing a stream, I would recommend fishing upstream or up and across to the extent that you can get good casting and retrieving angles. It is more productive because the fish are much less likely to see you. In addition, though, the RZA5102S-LLT is not a rod for retrieving lures against a fast current. It was designed for fishing in lakes, although it will do very nicely in meadow streams and smaller streams with modest current.

On my first outing with the RZA5102S-LLT I took it to a small stream for which the normal flow is between about 10 and 30 CFS (cubic feet per second). At that level, it is easy to wade and easy to cast to bank eddies and eddies formed by large rocks. The stream is full of small wild brown trout. I thought it would be the perfect spot for the soft RZA5102S-LLT.

When I reserved the rental car on Thursday the flow was 11 CFS. When I arrived at the stream on Saturday the flow was 264 CFS. There was rain on Friday, but the stream is a tailwater and the flow can be changed by whoever controls the dam. Anyway, the stream was unwadable at that flow and very nearly unfishable. Like many if not most Eastern streams, the banks are overgrown with trees and bushes, and there are plenty of fallen logs and branches that make places where you can fish from the bank few and far between. I didn't leave and go to a different stream because the others, which I had also checked, were already extremely high on Thursday.

Most of my casts had only a few feet of retrieve in relatively quiet water before the force of the current swept the lure downstream. I was able to catch only one fish and given the force of the current I was lucky it was a small one. I can say the rod is a lot of fun with smaller fish but it clearly is not a rod for big fish in fast current.

However, it is a rod for trout in lakes, trout in the headwaters, trout in meadow streams, bluegills in the town park and crappies wherever you find them. Do not overlook creek chubs! They take micro spoons and abound in those tiny little streams that nobody else ever fishes.

I ordered one rod for evaluation.

It just came in and I've fished it only once, and only in a stream that was very nearly unfishable.

I just ordered more. In the right conditions (modest fish in modest current for which, realistically, most rods are overkill) it really is a fun rod.

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Header photo: Tenryu Rayz RZ4102B-UL, Shimano Calcutta Conquest BFSHG ('17)

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Whatever you do, do it with finesse!

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