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. And then I received one, and yes, I fell in love at first wiggle.

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 as Twitchin' for the "ultralight" rods and Jerkin' for the "light" rods. They describe the Rayz Alter RZA5102S-LLT as a Crankin' rod, suggesting it was designed for a steady retrieve.

smith-ars-brown-tenbum.jpgSmith AR-S Spinner

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. There is no need to twitch or jerk or add any action to a spinner. A steady retrieve is fine. As the spinner pros will tell you, if the blade is turning, you will catch fish.

Similarly, 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 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.

shimano-slim-swimmer-small-brown-tenbum.jpgShimano Slim Swimmer Spoon

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 with the RZA5102S-LLT, 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 all the other nearby streams were already extremely high on Thursday.

tenryu-rayz-alter-RZA5102S-LLT-and-small-brownFirst fish on my Tenryu Rayz Alter RZA5102S-LLT

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.

micro-spoon-creek-chub-cropped.jpgCreek chubs take micro spoons and are seriously underappreciated.
You just need the right rod.

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, fished it once and ordered more, confident that in the right conditions it really is a fun rod. The right conditions? Modest fish in modest current for which, realistically, nearly all rods are overkill. 

I took it to Maine on my 2025 trip to harass the bass. It was the star of the trip. Tenryu does not give a minimum line or lure weight for the rod, but with the 2.5 lb line I was using, it cast the 1.5 g Shimano Slim Swimmer spoons further than I needed to cast them. (Another benefit of single hook spoons is that they come out of lakeside trees and bushes much, much easier than any lures with treble hooks!)

RZA5102S-LLT-sunfishRedbreast sunfish caught with 1.5g Shimano Slim Swimmer spoon.

The 1.5 g Slim Swimmer is likely to be the smallest, lightest lure I'll carry. This trip proved that it is not too big for sunfish, which are reluctant to hit larger spoons. The flexible rod really was a lot of fun with the sunfish.

RZA5102S-llt-smallie

At the other end of the spectrum, though, it turns out that the 1.5 g Slim Swimmer is not too small for smallmouth bass (which didn't surprise me). What did surprise me, at least a bit, was how well the RZA5102S-LLT did with the fish in the photo, even though it tried to run under the boat and out to deeper water.

I am positive that is neither the fish nor the scenario that the Tenryu designers had in mind when they designed the rod! The rod came through like a champ but still I would recommend the rod only for modest trout and panfish (and creek chubs). However, if you did happen to hook a larger trout or a bass and if you have a reel with a good drag, and if you set the drag so that an energetic sunfish can take at least a little bit of line, the rod will survive and give you a fight you won't soon forget.

The rod is rated for line up to 4 lb nylon or fluorocarbon, and up to .6 号 (Japanese line size) for PE line (braid) . I've never caught a 4 lb trout in my life, let alone a 4 lb sunfish. I don't need to use 4 lb line. I generally use 2.5 or 3 lb line and set my drag light enough that there is no way a fish could break it. I do periodically check the line for abrasion, though, which is critical when fishing light line.

Update 5/16/2026

They say you learn something new every day. Well, I doubt I learn something new every day, but I did learn something new today. In Japan, there is a type of fishing they call "chubbing." As you could probably guess, it is fishing for chubs. I had known for quite a few years that the Japanese fished for chubs - but I had thought it was only with flies or bait. I learned today that chubbing is fishing for chubs with lures. And the most popular lures? micro spoons and Smith AR-S spinners, lures for which the Tenryu Rayz Alter RZA5102S-LLT is just superb.

I have long thought that creek chubs were seriously underrated as a quarry. If you have a creek nearby that has a good population of creek chubs, it probably gets no fishing pressure whatsoever. It can, however, provide some very pleasant days on the water, fishing for fish that no one else fishes for.

creek-chub-3Creek chub from a stream no one fishes.

I know I need to go fishing more, but I am beginning to think I need to go chubbing. There is a stream that I know has creek chubs (and bluegills and green sunfish and redbreast sunfish and rock bass and several species of shiners and even a few modest smallmouth bass). Even better, I was told by a local that it has no fish (so no one fishes it). And then there's another stream, in which I caught the creek chub pictured above, which stretches for over 30 miles along a very popular and well-traveled road. I have driven that road dozens and dozens of times. I have never seen anyone fishing the stream.

Maine Vacation 2026

maine2026-redbreast-sunfishRedbreast Sunfish

I swear I was fishing for the redbreast sunfish that abound in the lake where we stayed. I haven't been able to get the idea of chubbing out of my mind, so I was playing around with small spinners, thinking that chubs have small mouths and sunfish have small mouths, so any lure a sunfish could take a creek chub probably could, too. Fishing from a boat, casting towards shore, catching one sunnie after another, I got the surprise of the trip. 

RZA5102S-LLT-smallieTenryu Rayz Alter RZA5102S-LLT and Smallmouth Bass

It's not all that large, as smallmouth bass go. Measured against the rod, the bass was about 15.5", probably a bit under two pounds. It is not what the rod was designed for, and I wouldn't choose an RZA5102S-LLT if I was trying to catch two pound smallies. The rod did just fine, though.

It is just a wonderful rod for sunfish, and trout in lakes or streams with modest current. What's more, I am sure it would be one of the best rods you could find if you wanted to go chubbing (and you do, you just don't know it yet).


RZA5102S-LLTTenryu Rayz Alter RZA5102S-LLT

Model
Type
Tip
Length
Sections
Breakdown Length
Rod Weight
Line Weight
Lure Weight 

RZA5102S-LLT
Area (lake)
Tubular
5'10"
2
36"
3.0 oz
max 4 lb
max 5 g (just under 3/16 oz)

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Rod made in Japan

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

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