Wasatch Tenkara Akai Samurai 6:4 Rod Review

Around 2020, Wasatch Tenkara Rods (WTR) came onto the US tenkara market with rods that quickly became known for being difficult to break under normal situations. They developed a clientele of creative fixed-line anglers who have chased everything from large trout, steelhead, salmon, bass, pike and even musky. These hardy folks wanted rods robust enough to match their unconventional quarry, and WTR delivered. 

As stated, WTR are known for extremely robust and unconventional tenkara rods. These are not your Japanese master tenkara rods. Most of their rods are heavy, and clunky when compared with Japanese rods, but they are designed to handle pretty much anything that takes your fly, in any type of water. WTR have a lifetime warranty and they state that “if you break your rod while trying to land a fish, then we will replace the broken sections free of charge.” As attractive as this sounds, it does require some rod engineering and performance characteristics that may not be to everyone’s liking.

I’ve fished with and reviewed a few of their rods, including their T-Hunter, Middle Fork 7:3, Middle Fork 6:4, Darth Quattro 5:5, and Sharpshooter. And although I have found their rods overbuilt for my style of Japanese tenkara, I continue to have fun using them, particularly the T-Hunter, when I think I’m going to get into trouble with large trout in fast water.

Today’s rod review is for the Akai Samurai, 6:4 version. I purchased this rod out of curiosity to see if it lived up to it’s marketing hype. WTR states the Samurai “is designed for the weight-conscious angler who is always fishing a mid-sized river. This rod collapses shorter than most in our line-up, making it the ideal rod for your backpacking trip!“

Overview

The Samurai 6:4 is a double zoom rod, meaning it is designed to be fished at three different lengths – 11, 12 and 13 feet. Although advertised as a “triple” zoom rod, this is incorrect as only two sections “zoom” out. These two sections are designed to be nested when not needed, but yet extended when extra rod length is desired. The rod comes with a rod tube and coordinated rod sleeve. The overall coloration is candy apple red and the finish is glossy. There are black and gold accent bands on all but the top two segments. The rod designation is black print, making it hard to read against the dark red base color.

The handle is black EVA foam. It is relatively short at 18 cm (7 inches). It is hourglass shaped.

The tip plug is wood with a fluted rubber insertion post. The tip plug fits snugly into the handle section. The butt cap is gold anodized metal. It’s knurled to aid removal. The zoom segment capture post is metal and has two O-rings per tier. There is no rubber bumper, decompression hole or coin slot.

The lilian is red and is attached to the tip section via a micro-swivel. The entire rod can be disassembled for cleaning and drying.

Measurements

Performance

Casting

The Samurai 6:4 is a beast of a rod. Despite its short nested length, the rod has substantial mass. This is immediately apparent when picking up the rod. It is not only heavy, but it is somewhat unwieldy when casting. The rod has some energy robbing oscillation at the end of a cast. It doesn’t dampen very well. Because of it’s overall weight, the Samurai has noticeable start-up inertia. It is not a delicate finesse rod, but a power rod. It has a high swing weight and rotational moment (RM) at the 12′ and 13′ lengths. If you’re 25 years old you may not care, but if you are 65 years old, you’ll notice real quickly how tip heavy this rod is for its length.

The rod I purchased has an audible click when casting in all but the fully extended length. This click comes from the zoom segments (yes, both of them) when they are nested and captured by the butt cap post. It doesn’t seem to affect the function of the rod, but I find the click annoying. This is an issue with fit and finish. How big of a fish a rod can handle or how pretty it is doesn’t hold much weight with me, but less than optimal fit and finish does. Zoom sections should seat firmly, and not be too loose or too tight.

Rigging

I almost always use #3 fluorocarbon level lines with my tenkara rods. This line feels too light for the Samurai, particularly when trying to fish unweighted kebari. If you are fishing Euro or competition style, then the line weight doesn’t matter, but then again that’s not tenkara (by my definition).

I fished the rod using a 380 cm (12.5′) fluorocarbon line that tapered from #3.5 to #3.0 using a tandem set up consisting of a dropper and point fly. I varied my flies so I could feel how the rod did under different situations. One pair were a #16 and #18 BWO emergers. Another pair of flies were a tungsten bead Blowtorch and Gasolina Perdigon. While I could cast OK with both set ups, and the rod delivered the flies to their intended targets, I didn’t enjoy the experience. The rod is stiff and doesn’t load in the air, and therefore doesn’t give any feedback. This is not the way I like my rods.

The trout I caught were small (7-13″) and didn’t come close to challenging the rod. I suspect the Samurai 6:4 would perform better fighting 18+ inch fish. As I mentioned, this is a power rod.

Here is a video of me using the rod:

Conclusion

I didn’t care for this rod. It’s heavy and stiff, and provides no finesse or feedback when casting. I felt that the handle was too short for its balance profile, and the rod is quite tip heavy for its lengths. It also has noticeable end of cast oscillation. You can see this in the video. While being advertised as a rod that would be ideal for backpacking, I feel it is much too heavy for this application and an ounce-counting hiker would likely do better with a lighter weight rod. I also was disappointed with some fit and finish issues. It is a pretty rod, that’s for sure, but paint color is low on my list of desired items in a tenkara rod.

So, if you are after large fish, or are concerned about breaking your rod, and want a rod that nests into a compact size, then you might want to look at the Wasatch Tenkara Rods Akai Samurai 6:4. Even though I didn’t care for the rod, there are happy Samurai customers that have left reviews on the WTR product website. It just shows you that there is healthy diversity in the tenkara angling community!

Postscript

I recently was carrying the Samurai 6:4 while fishing with a young friend of mine that I’ve been mentoring. We were fishing Euro-style on a tailwater. During our fishing episode he broke his rod (an inexpensive Chinese pocket rod) while setting the hook on a fish. Appropriately so, he was quite discouraged that he broke his rod. I pulled out the Samurai and handed it to him so he could keep fishing. We continued to catch rainbows in the 10-14 inch range. Afterwards, he told me that he liked the rod. I think I’ll give it to him as a gift.

Disclaimer: My opinion regarding this rod is just that, my opinion. Your opinion may differ.  Also, your rod may not have the same length, issues, or functionality as my rod. There are variations between rods, even in the same production run. No description can fully tell you how a rod feels or fishes. For this, you must personally hold, cast, and fish the rod then make up your own mind. I purchased the rod from Wasatch Tenkara Rods at full retail price. I have no formal affiliation with Wasatch Tenkara Rods and there was no expectation of a positive review.

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