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[bulldog1935]

I've been tinkering with long UL Japanese shore light game (rockfish) rods since I bought two for kid-fishing with my daughters 13 years ago.



Great for bay pier fishing under the lights, Flour Bluff, and especially our kid ritual on Fulton Beach pier.
I found early they were excellent for sight-fishing big specs over green canal lights in the tiny summer mullet.

Later, I added tackle and honed these for two perfect winter niches - glass minnows in tide passes, and fishing from Arroyo docks.



This is a cost-effective NS Black Hole rockfish rod from Korea


This year, I tinkered up an UL baitcaster, beginning with this Yamaga Blanks rod



I made a Daiwa SV baitcaster 2-g-capable by swapping in shallow and extreme lightweight Roro-X spool and PE#0.8 X-braid (14-lb).
It's fun, like surf-casting in minature. Also found the baitcaster tight line causes Much less lure fouling during casting.



I fished it twice in Estes passes this fall, where I verified reliable casting with 3 g to 140'
Like a dummy, didn't have this tackle the morning we found snook stacked in Little Cut
This should get much better through the winter into spring as glass minnows become more important



We cleaned up at Arroyo City last weekend, including Susie's 25' male schoolie landed on her XUL after two 50-yd runs

no female trout were caught or killed

My trip was made by an 18" snook on UL (released)


this is the 45 mm Duo Ryuki-S plug - caught the snook on the 2.8-g, 38 mm, same prismatic

[bulldog1935]

and since I'm here, a few lures - the small plugs under 50 mm are sinking plugs made for FW stream trout fishing.
I swap the tiny trebles with salt single plug hooks.


These are Duo Ryuki Quattro 70 mm - too big to be an individual glass minnow, but maximum flash for specs slashing into bait balls.



another good flashy plug, YoZuri sinking Pins minnow - Roy's has these
sorry I didn't keep the scale in the photos below, the smaller, 1/16 oz, is 50 mm



Soft Bait, Z-man slim-Z 2-1/2" minnow on 1/15-oz Z-man Texas Eye Finesse jointed jighead
Can't remember silly lure color names, but top transmits pink in low-angle morning sunlight; bottom is glow


The 2" 3/16 oz Wildeye Shad will cast out of sight with this tackle.

[Southeast Of Disorder]

Well it sure looks like you have ot going on....... Nice set up, keep pluggin

[bulldog1935]

thanks friend - I've been fly fishing inshore since the late '70s.

I honestly think the UL baitcaster makes inshore fly fishing obsolete.



back in the '80s, I used to free-shrimp my old Daiwa Millionaire with a spiral cast, and PO'd a couple of guides by doubling their spinning cast distance.

But keep in mind you can't do this UL stuff on a normal deep spool baitcaster. The loaded mass and inertia of the deep spool is too great and gets wind backlash at mid-cast. It needs shallow, mass-less spool and thread-size braid to work.
If you're not comfortable with the backlash risk on tiny braid, you can do the same with 5-lb Ultragreen or fluoro.
You can also find similar low-mass shallow spools for Abu Revo and Black Max.

I've gone to a similar set-up full-time for my inshore ML, but using Ray's Studio spool (Thailand) with the moving SV rotor to prevent start-up backlash with bigger weights. This is PE#1.0 X-braid, 22-lb.
This will double up in the UL niche, but the even-lighter Roro-X spool and lighter braid has an edge casting the lightest weights.

If you want to read up on this stuff, Jun Sonada is the smartest baitcaster guy in the world
https://japantackle.com/tackle_topics/



fishing Little Cut the morning we found the snook stacked, casting 1/8 oz, I had to thumb the spool to keep casts out of my friends

[Cctides]

Where are you purchasing the rods? I've been trying to find one like that. Closest thing I've found is the TFO pinfish rods

[bulldog1935]

I've been shopping in Japan since you had to use a broker both for the language barrier and domestic banking laws.
Those first Takamiya rockfish rods, I found on Rakuten, and bought through my broker, Noppin.com. A Rakuten purchase back then required a shipping broker, anyway.

More recently Yamaga Blanks Blue Current III 82/B came from Plat.
This is their mid-grade rod introduced last year.

I also have a Blue Current TZ Nano 83, which is their top-grade spinning shore light game. This 8'3" rod is 73 g, about 2-1/2 oz - shocking light in hand.
My go-to for fishing small tandems - very light feel.
This rod has landed doubles with trout/redfish/snook



BFS (baitcaster) rockfish rods are pretty new - only in the last few years.

The trick with any YB rod is finding stock, because he covers such a wide range including surf and offshore, hand builds in batches.

Both rods, when they showed up in Plat new stock, knew I wanted them, and snagged each when I could. They usually sell out in short order.
https://www.plat.co.jp/shop/catalog/default/language/en/cPath/4973/in_stock_now_/_rods.html

Here's the Light Game catalog at Plat, but catalog doesn't mean stock. They are very good about contacting any mfg., and trying to get you what you want.
https://www.plat.co.jp/shop/catalog/default/language/en/cPath/38_4052/rod/light-game.html

My exact NS Black Hole Dark Horse Rockfish spinning rod is replaced by the current Rockfish II, and this the same Seoul vendor I used - reliable.
I would never take the TZ Nano out on a kayak, but I'm more confident with the moderately priced workhorse Korean rod.
https://www.ebay.com/itm/142310405589?var=443218954570

You can also search Rockfish Rod on ebay (UL Rockfish Rod, Rockfish bait rod, UL, L, ML, etc.) - you'll find Daiwa, Shimano, Major Craft at the affordable end, and NorieS and Breaden at the outrageous end.

Something else to keep in mind, you can build your own from a 4- or 5-wt fly rod blank - that will let you cast 1/16 to 3/8 oz.
Rockfish rods basically have the same progressive taper as a good dry-fly rod - short soft tip, long fast mid, powerful butt.
here's the specs on the current NS Black Hole Rockfish2 spinning rod



They're making these rods more powerful, rated L and ML, without losing much of the light lure end. I would recommend the 762L or especially 802ML from this list.
They've slightly improved the weight - 91 g is a seriously light long rod.
NS Black Hole makes high-quality rods at every price level, because their market is Japan.

Again, if you want the baitcaster, that's a little tougher, but ebay search found examples from Major Craft, Abu Garcia, and a really nice Breaden that most probably won't spring.
I looked up the TFO trout-panfish rod - those are going to be more traditional UL para taper, and aimed at small streams.
Very different rod from the Japanese rockfish rods, which are distance-casters first and foremost.
If you watch any of the Yamaga Blanks videos linked from Plat, you'll see Mr. Yamaga casting to fish sign way out - he also ends every video catching fish with shoulders.
https://youtu.be/LB_3X5fXS5Q?t=763

Dobyns makes the Sierra Ultra Finesse casting rod in 7'4" - a reasonable substitute, but not 8', etc.
https://dobynsrods.com/the-dobyns-sierra-ultra-finesse-casting-series/
Note these are sold out, because bass fishermen eat them up

[Cctides]

Thanks for the reply! I'll definitely be on the hunt for one now.

[bulldog1935]

You're welcome friend.

Again, you can contact Plat - they will estimate when and/or order in advance.
https://www.plat.co.jp/shop/catalog/product_info/language/en/products_id/51188/cPath/38_4052_4294_5789/rod/yamaga-blanks-blue-current-iii-82-b-free-shipping.html
They ship free Fed-Ex with 4-day delivery.

[Cctides]

I ended up going with the 802ML. Funny enough I missed your yozuri PINS minnow suggestion but ended up buying it yesterday as one of my light lures to use. I threw it in the canal last night and (between backlashes) caught 2 trout over 20 and one 17.5. Then topped it off with a redfish. That was a good suggestion too!

[bulldog1935]

yee haw

I have my 802UL matched with Stradic C2000 (I moved the Vanquish over to TZ Nano), and it's my workhorse - caught most of my Arroyo bag.
If you note by the markings, the light-end rating is the same as the 802ML, but mine doesn't go to the high lure weight range.
That will give you even more fish-turning backbone.

Lou and Susie fished-through the tip on their inexpensive Major Craft XUL after the 3rd hard year at Arroyo.
(They share a bad habit of over-winding long-leader bait rig into the tip)
He managed to snag the YB BCIII 711 in stock at Plat, and will match it with his Ultegra 2500 - he plans to fix the over-winding problem on this rod.



I think you'll be happy with the quality of the NS Black Hole rod.
Koreans build quality tackle, and have a fishing tradition.
If you visit there, the whole country smells of dried fish and garlic, which is their national snack sold by street vendors.
Every water body there is lined with fishermen.

[Cctides]

Got my rod in over the weekend. I put a Penn 420ssg on it I bought on clearance a few years back. Finally got out and made one drift with it today before dark. First fish on it was a 27 inch black drum. Sight casted with a PINS Minnow. Love the rod. Thanks for the recommendation. If I can figure out the picture thing I

[Cctides]

[img] https://imgur.com/a/DAUyq8w[/img]