Samurai 2-3kg Spin ................. by Gary Howard
TRENDS in fishing are often responsible for a ‘new wave’ in fishing gear. A technique evolves from somewhere - usually the US - and is adapted to our conditions here. If it catches on, it becomes the ‘in’ thing.
These days we see most of this in the freshwater side of things, with the likes of impoundment fishing for bass becoming a huge part of the freshwater fishing scene. Spinnerbaits and soft plastics were lures seldom used in Australia a decade ago. Now they’re as essential as the rod and reel in your hand.
With new techniques the gear is refined, and in the fishing rod department we now have quite a healthy range of light spin and baitcaster rods. A light spin rod is exactly what we are going to have a look at in this issue.
SAMURAI S002 LIGHT SPIN ROD
The beauty of the 2-3kg Samurai blank that we’re using here is that it is not just restricted to freshwater use. It is ideal for chasing fish around the estuary and is just at home casting lures at bream as it is soaking a live worm for whiting or jigging for bass.
Samurai rod blanks have been around for quite a time now. Because they are only sold as a blank by the importer, you don’t see an awful lot of them about. Anglers that do have one swear by them, as they are strong, light, and reliable. Made of Mitsubishi graphite ‘pyrofil’, these blanks are all light to medium spin and baitcast, with nine blanks in the range.
The S002 blank that we’re using for this job is six feet long with a nice, light tip. It is only a medium taper, though loads up rather nicely in the butt to put that bit of hurt on the fish.
It doesn’t take too much effort to extend the blank a little more if you wish. I know Glen Porter from the Bait Place in Yamba extends his out to 6’6” and reckons the rod is deadly on those river fish.
If you are going to extend the blank you are better off finding a short off cut where the Samurai blank will slide up the inside of the off cut and come out the top. This way is a lot stronger than slipping a smaller, thin piece of blank up the inside for the extension.
Grip material is up to you, but the more expensive, nicely shaped cork grips go well on this rod, keeping the weight down and giving a better through feel to the blank.
We’ve used a seven inch rear cork grip on our six foot model. Along with a butt cap this gives you an overall butt length of eight inches. By placing the reel seat with the fixed hood up you can also add another two inches to the final resting place of the reel.
While you can use a number 16 Fuji reel seat on the blank, I’d opt for the slightly larger number 17. This is mainly for the hood size which allows a better and secure fit of the larger foot found on many of the light weight spin reels.
The foregrip is just a cone shaped cork foregrip which is pretty standard and available from most of your larger tackle shops.
FUJI have recently released an economy range of guides under the name of ‘O’ rings. These second generation aluminium oxide rings boast a one-piece stainless steel frame with a diamond polished, ultra smooth aluminium oxide guide ring.
On a rod like this, single foot guides are the way to go, though you may like to use a double foot guide for the stripper as this is the guide that tends to take most of the knocks.
For the single foot guides we use the FUJI BLVOG, and the double foot stripper is a FUJI BSVOG. For something just a little different on this one, we have used one the new FUJI Alconite tips.
The grading of the Alconite tips fall in between the standard Hardloy rings you see on most quality rods and the top shelf silicon carbide tips. These tips are worth looking at as they are very light and use Fuji’s new guide frame which encompasses the guide ring, enhancing the strength and durability of light-weight tips.
On light sticks it is best to keep the binding on the single foots to a minimum, with short over binds with the addition of a dress trim on one end. If you are going to use an underbind, make sure that it is ‘A’ thread and keep it to a minimum. The stripper guide is under and over bound with dress trims end and centre.
If you have a hunt around you will find that FUJI also make a neat little folding hook keeper which is ideal for holding the lure on just above the foregrip. If you are bait fishing and like a long trace, you can clip the hook on down here as well.
Good fishing!
SPECIFICATIONS:
Blank - Samurai S002 - 6’ 2-3kg
Butt - 7” x 1/4” cork
Reel Seat - FUJI DPSM - 17 (fixed hood up)
Foregrip - 3” x 1/4” cork.
Cap - FUJI BRC 19. Tip Fuji BFAT 6/1.8
Guides - FUJI BLVOG: 7 - 80mm; 8 - 95mm; 8 - 115mm; 10 - 140mm; 12 - 165mm; 16 - 195mm
FUJI BSVOG 25 - 290mm
