About Keiryu Rod Co.
Keiryu Rod Co. is a Tustin, California company set up to bring keiryu, the Japanese mountain-stream fixed-line method fished with long telescopic rods, light line and bait or weighted flies, to American anglers with rods designed for American water. Its founder, an early tenkara adopter, took up keiryu for its reach and its ability to fish bait, nymphs and dry flies from one rod, and the company's stated philosophy is products engineered for US conditions, sold plainly, with a 60-day money-back guarantee and a lifetime warranty. Every rod is specified by Rod Flex Index (RFI) and Common Cents System pennies rather than a Japanese flex ratio, and the site publishes the method behind both.
The range is six rods. The T100 (17.7 ft, 5.6 oz, RFI 5.7) is the baseline medium-action keiryu rod for trout to 3 or 4 lb; the TN Provo (16 ft, RFI 8.5) is the fast-action nymphing rod refined on Utah's Provo River for heavy rigs and fish to 8 lb; and the Power Zoom 490 zooms between 14.5 and 16 ft on a heavier carbon for big water. The compact rods are the Inyo (12.3 ft, RFI 7.5, 7 sections), a fast-action nymphing rod that still casts floating lines; the Ansel (10.9 ft, 2.3 oz, 15.8 in closed), a backpacking rod with a coated grip in place of cork; and the MiniMax (11.7 ft, 2.25 oz, 10 in closed), a Toray-carbon pack rod the company markets as a tenkara rod. Rods ship with spare tip sections and every section is sold as a part.
The company also retails Nissin, Daiwa and Suntech keiryu and tenkara rods from Japan, which are not part of this listing, along with Owner rigs, yarn markers, Kevlar furled lines and floating lines, and publishes rigging, casting and insect guides.
What Keiryu Rod Co. is known for
The T100 is the entry point and best-known rod, a 17.7 ft medium-action keiryu rod sold on the company's site and on Amazon; the TN Provo is the fast nymphing rod, and the Power Zoom 490 the big-water zoom. The brand is known for bringing keiryu to the US market with American-designed rods, for specifying every rod by RFI and CCS pennies, and for its Utah Rig and yarn-marker nymphing system. The Inyo, Ansel and MiniMax cover the compact and tenkara-adjacent end. In this catalog it sits with the Japanese keiryu makers Nissin, Suntech and Shimano and the US tenkara brands.