I’ve been exhausting all means to find this rod since Tiemco announced its release over a year ago. Had a few feelers out to fly shops in Japan and Italy that had them on back order. About a month ago I was looking for a Tiemco hair stacked on Amazon and the holy grail showed up with free international shipping. Took awhile for it to ship but arrived quickly from Japan. It’s a beautiful rod, exquisitely finished. Blank is a beautiful dark brown with very faint red wrappings. Tip is very soft but rod has a pretty strong butt section … will need to cast it to see if it is more
Parabolic vs progressive. Tube looks like an unsanded white blank which is cool. I’m going to hold off on casting/fishing it until I get an SA LDL line on it. Gonna try a Tiemco Oracle baby trout on it and see how that works out. Price dropped on Amazon since I ordered it to @ $383. They also have the 3wt version on Amazon.







Glass rod supervised by Mr. Naoto Shibuya, the leading figure of long leader and long teepet

Compared to conventional E-glass, it is a glass rod using S-glass with high elastic modulus and strong repulsion. The high repulsion of S-glass is also effective in the long leader system.

"It is a rod designed with the concept of a fusion of an action that can control a long tee pet and a multi-piece rod that becomes too heavy when made with a bamboo rod. It is difficult to explain in the part that you can control the long tippet and the part that it is only for the long tippet. I don't think that the long teepet rod is an action that can only be used, it means a slow action to the extent that it can be cast firmly. Moreover, unlike the slow that draws a simple and circular bending, it is finished as an action that prioritizes actual fishing, such as balancing parabolic and progressive and making a pushable (a section that feels hard). The most necessary thing for fly fishing in mountain streams is control within the fishing distance. Controllability from the feet to 15 yards is important, and if you narrow it down further, it will be 6 to 12 yards.

A comfortable rod fishing in a mountain stream is often a rod with high flexibility at that distance. The important thing about long tippet is that you can easily make a trouble-free boat-shaped loop. Although it is a wide loop, it is necessary to feel that the top of the loop is going straight towards the point. The action that can realize this easily is a slow action with a hard part.

Due to the characteristics of the material called glass, there are many advantageous scenes such as big showdowns with fine devices, and it is a reliable rod as a reserve rod for the bamboo pole faction. It will be a perfect rod for situations where you feel uneasy about bamboo, such as rainy days and fishing in mountainous areas. The balance as a standard rod of mountain streams, such as the length line number, is also perfect, so I think it can be covered with considerable capacity. I think it will be used like this as my own, but this year I'm thinking a lot of fishing in the source area, and it seems that the number of appearances will increase." - Naoto Shibuya

I wonder how it differs from the 7' 9" version. When I purchased the 7'9" FSF, I have a SA mastery LDL 3wt line to go with it and the combo really requires changing your stroke to get the beast to load. It's more like distance casting. Wide arc, lots or speed but very little power needed. I haven't found a benefit in the types of fishing I do. When I need the long leader with a puddle of tippet at the end, I usually don't have the backcast space and there is enough shrubbery near the pocket that I end up changing a lot of flies.

The style seems fine tuned to casting across the high gradient rocky Japanese streams.

I use my NSF with a traditional 4wt line and it seems fine. Even a standard 3wt line works better for me than the LDL line. I though I would try it. It's fun to cast the LDL style, so maybe I will try again.

Congratulation on your find. That's a great price.

I'm no longer in the market for any new rods or reels, but rather looking to pare down my arsenal. However, I wish those rods had been available on Amazon about 3 to 4 years ago. At that price I would have snapped it up.

I’ll throw a Cortland Peach DT on it this weekend and let you know. Based off the taper I’m not sure it is going to roll cast well.

Beautiful rod and hope to hear from you soon about how it cast and roll casts.

I picked one of these up via Amazon - the brief fits my mountain fishing fairly well and this is my first Japanese-design rod. My impressions:

The build is … minimalist. Almost nothing extra, just a barely visible extra bit of trim in the wraps. Nice quality epoxy finish. The grip is very simple with just a shiny black cap and ring reel seat. This isn’t my favorite execution - I like the Hardy and the Scott approaches better. But it’s not bad. Overall, I wouldn’t characterize it as a high-end build, but also not low-end either. I guess I would say understated & elegant.

After spending most of the week under the weather, I got out to the park for some casting yesterday. My initial impression is that it feels like a mildly-progressive 4wt with some backbone. Not super stiff or progressive, but not willowy either. It balances nicely with a Hardy LRH Lightweight reel.

I’m looking forward to getting it on the water.