Tom's Ijuin-Rod Yomogi And The Catskill Rod Gathering

A couple weekends ago Tom Anderson attended the Catskill Rod Gathering at the Catskill Fly Fishing Center and Museum and couldn't help himself in purchasing a Yomogi three weight from Kazutomo Ijuin of Ijuin-Rod and then further couldn't help himself on picking up a copper Kineya Tackle Cavous Sliced fly reel to complete the outfit.

Tom wrote...  "This is the 7' Yomogi in three weight and a true one.  Tomo had a Cortland Sylk DT3 on his demo but I have been casting it with a Supra DT3.  Both lines fit nicely on the Cavous Sliced with ample backing.  I might have to see if I can pick up a Sylk DT3.  Once I saw the saw the copper Kineya Cavous I just had to have it."

"The grip on the Yomogi model is 5" long and the rod weighs 2.55 oz.  As I mentioned these blanks are made in Japan and are Tomo's proprietary tapers.  Mine is a standard build but he does a special limited addition of the rod with a very unique camphor insert which retains the bark on one side.  The rods also have an agate stripper and special hand dyed silk wraps which Tomo does himself.  For my taste I like the standard build with the yakusugi insert, standard silk wraps and mildrum stripper...especially for a mountain trout rod."

"Tomo is good friends with Masatoshi Okui of Kineya Tackle and he uses Mass's beautiful metal work on the rod and tube.  Every detail is well thought out and unique.  I think the bag and tube are also knockouts!

Tomo told me he designed the rod to be able to "air spey" easily.  This is very interesting.  Tomo makes some small repetitive spey casts out in front of him and then casts the line out.  It must be designed to fish in tight quarters (like our mountain brook trout streams) where a backcast is impossible.  Kind of Japanese roll cast but in the air which is kind of hard to explain.  They also put the rod over their head and cast around the body to eliminate the backcast.  On the forward cast they often finish the cast with an underhand flip to settle the fly on the water.  Mass and Tomo explained that this was often used when there was a small (one foot) waterfall in the stream."

"Mass asked me if I thought Mrs. Wulff would cast Tomo's rod?  He went over to her and in his inimitable way said, "Mrs. Joan Wulff, would you please cast my friend's rod?"  When she was casting everybody was shooting photos like crazy as if she was royalty ... and of course she is.  It of course took her only a few casts to make it look like she has been casting that rod for years.  What a special lady."

What a beautiful fly rod and reel...and a great story to end this post with as well.  Joan Wulff is indeed royalty. 

To see more of Tomo's work please check out the Ijuin-Rod and Kineya Tackle websites.