Yamaga Zinn Series 5wt Review By Mike Rice
Full disclosure, Scott sent me this rod a year ago to review. I’m still fishing it and waiting for Five-O to show up with a larceny warrant. I haven’t sent it back or written the review because I’ve had so much fun with it. I get out on the pond for crappies and largemouth most days for 15-20 minutes in the morning or evening. I fished this rod nearly everyday last year from June through October. I’ve fished it this year since April. I’m going to hate to see it go next week.
Yamaga is a Japanese rod maker I had never heard of before getting my hands on the Zinn Series 8’11” fresh water five weight. It’s a sharp looking rod, made from materials I don’t understand and features a unique “spigot” ferrule design. I don’t care anymore about that stuff or what line pairs best with it or if it balances well with a particular reel. I’ll make it all work. I just want to fish.
That said, this rod fishes. I became infatuated with it on day one. Yamaga describes this medium action rod better than I can on their website: “Although the line speed is set a little slowly, speed of recovery of the blank is quite fast, and the tip section, which suppresses blurring during convergence, firmly stabilizes the loop and leads to highly accurate presentations.” My translation, generated by a year of personal use, is that this rod is brilliant.
The areas I fish in are tight quarters leaving little room for a series of back casts to generate line speed and distance. It took a bit to “feel” the action of the rod but once I shook off that urge to overpower the casting stroke and found the sweet spot, one short back cast was all I needed to shoot forty to fifty feet of line accurately. I have found that past sixty feet, accuracy diminishes although the rod certainly has the backbone to throw line past that mark. And it manages a breeze very well. I fish a lot of overhanging bushes and trees; this rod has never let me down delivering laser shots under canopies and bending line around obstacles.
I have a lot of fly rods in the gear room. I haven’t taken any of my freshwater rods out in a year. That’s how much I like the rod. Is it the best I’ve ever cast? No, but it’s one of the top three I have fished. On the Yamaga website the craftsmanship process as “Creating a truly reliable tool.” They are correct. Priced at $625.00, it’s a tool that with some planning, is within reach.
Final thought: this rod is aces.
