I recently got a lure rod for trout fishing. The other day, I enjoyed a fishing trip using this rod, so I would like to report it.

My fishing buddy had been recommending me to try lure fishing as well as fly fishing, because it helps me enjoy fishing even in tough conditions.It rained a lot this season in and around Hiroshima, where I live, and I often encountered difficult conditions for fly fishing. This pushed me to buy a lure rod.

The rod I bought was made of fiberglass called Japan trout V-Gen GJTVS-G410ULLT made by TAPER & SHAPE. It is a 3-piece rod with a length of 4 feet 10 inches and can handle lures weighing between 1 and 6 grams (https://www.taperandshape.co.jp/glasswa ... v-gen-new/). When I gathered information before purchasing, it was introduced as a rod that excels at making accurate lure presentations for short-range targets. I told the fishing buddy that I had purchased this rod and then he immediately offered to go fishing together.





The place where we went fishing this time is a stream in a relatively high mountain area, and it is a section located downstream of the stream that I have reported before (viewtopic.php?f=2&t=72475). A walking trail has been built along the stream, making it easy to access. But the area is located deep in the mountains so there is a considerable risk of encounters with bears. I in fact found bear appearing attention signboard during fishing.




The area where we enjoyed fishing this time is surrounded by sheer cliffs, and most of the area above is covered with trees. In some places, the sunbeams filtering through the trees are filtering into the surface of the stream, which was very pleasing to the eye. Lure fishing is more suitable than fly fishing because there are many large and small pools with deep water here.











I caught 3 species of fish: gogi, amago, and ugui. The size of these fish was far from the “Shaku”. Japan has a rainy season called “Tsuyu” from the beginning of June to the end of July (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/East_Asian_rainy_season). In the rainy season in Japan, it does not rain every day, and there are days when it does not rain for several days. During this period when rain stops, fish are active, so we can expect good fishing. We made this fishing trip during the period when rain stopped, but fish were less active than we expected. Probably someone other than us had already enjoyed fishing there. I’m hoping for better results on my next trip.



Thank you for looking!

>Bamboozle

Thanks for your advice! Next time I won't make a mistake...!

What beautiful fish, and what a beautiful stream! Is the ugui a subspecies of iwana, or a different species?

glorious report - it ended up in the right place.

Takeru:

Is the GJTVS-G410ULLT blank the same as the GJTVC-410ULLT blank and if they are the same do you think the added ferrule is making the difference in feel?

I ask because the GJTVC-410ULLT gets good reviews for "flick casting" small lures with a proper BFS reel designed or modified for the task. The reel I would use with it with is a Shimano 22 Aldebaran BFS XG that I currently use with a Tenryu Rayz Spectra RZS51LL-BC.

Now I need to find a source for the GJTVC-410ULLT who ships to the USA.

Takeru:

I appreciate the offer but I wouldn't want to put you in the middle of any of the pitfalls that might befall a privately shipped package from Japan to the USA.

I have a couple of Japanese Domestic Market (JDM) commercial sources I have yet to explore because I wasn't actively looking for the rod until your post rekindled my interest. If I am unsuccessful I will contact you via private messaging to see about the feasibility of your offer.

In the interim if you could ask your fishing buddy who is friends with the rod designer Yasuo Shimazu of Taper and Shape if he knows of any JDM dealers I could contact who inventory Taper & Shape rods.

どうもありがとうございます

If you can get the shop contact information to Nick, he can use noppin.com for a broker - Masamichi has very good English and the Shopping Contact board there works like a pm train.
Masamichi will call the shop, order the rod, to ship to him for Storage. His brokerage fee is about 15%. He will then pack and ship to Nick using UPS or DHL.
I just checked a past invoice - on a more expensive item like custom rod, his brokerage fee was only 6%.

Masamichi and I go back almost 20 years.
He ordered my HMT Bakelite fly reel, Izch inshore fly rod, my first rockfish rods a dozen years ago.
My Izch fly rod was rolled from scratch on order.
More recently, my Bright River rod and Smith Plugger reel (Yahoo). IXA spool bearings from KTF...lures we can't get here, like Eclipse-tune RB77...

Masamichi has called several lure shops for me - many will only order over the phone.
He even called Smith Ltd for me when I had a question about replacing a cracked rod handle collet. No way I could get that question answered from here.

I got it Nick and Ron!
Thank you!

Beautiful water and nice fish. Very interesting rod. I think we are all curious to hear how you get on with procuring it, Bamboozle / Ron.

lovely, thank you..

Both because of Japan banking laws and the language barrier, using a broker was the only means to purchase from Japan a dozen years ago.
Even a Rakuten purchase required a separate shipping broker.
Offshore credit cards are not accepted in Japan by law, and receiving payment then required an offshore bank account.
More recently, Stripe and paypal have solved the payment issues, and allowed a good number of Japan merchants to market direct to US.

The language barrier still exists. In the "old days", google-beta translate for Japanese was a joke - too much transliteration that fell apart.
Today, it works better, but the same two barriers still exist for Most of Japan.
Even those who market direct to US hire contract interpreters, forwarding questions and answers back and forth to the interpreter before returning an answer to you.
A few merchants have excellent working English, including Jun Sonada at JapanTackle, and Hisao Yamada at Blue Dun Fly Shop, who used to guide in Montana before returning to Japan to start his business.

of course, you're welcome - thanks for showing the agi feast.

Nice reel, btw - Stella is designed to last a lifetime.
Your Livre upgrade parts on Stella reminded me of another reason to use a broker.
SquidMania offers every Livre knob/handle combination, and at a slight discount, plus their Livre parts that no one else sells, such as add-on hook keeper for the reel stand (balancer).
Here on my inshore Twin Power


JDM rods have wide-range progressive taper, making them more versatile than most USM rods.
In longer rods, they have extreme-wide lure range. In shorter stream rods, they have crisp action that's different from para tapers on traditional short UL rods in US.