Dragontail FoxFire & Kaida; tenkara on a mountain creek

He fished the Dragontail Kaida, their “pack rod,” and I fished mostly on the fiberglass Dragontail Foxfire.

I think the Dragontail Kaida is a great rod for this size water with a lot of overhanging trees. The 280cm length is perfect when things are tight, and zooming it out to 320cm is nice when you have the space. It casts wonderfully and has backbone to get fish out of tight spots.

The Foxfire is just plain fun. You can feel every tiny twitch of the fish on the line, and the rod’s flex is extreme. Casting is in slow motion by comparison (not my favorite rod to cast, but worth it for the action when you’ve got a fish on) and you don’t have the same level of control over the fish, but this is a super fun small fish rod.

I was ecstatic to see a pair of California newts in a mating embrace! They broke it off and we got to say hello to the male.

There are a couple good shots my friend got of me that shows my gear setup:

- Yakoda Convertible Utility waist pack (see my other videos for a pack dump)
- Nirvana (Dragontail) net
- Collapsed hiking pole clipped to my belt, deployed if necessary

[flydestruction]

He did really good for his first time tenkara fishing, especially in a tight casting stream like that. That newt was awesome.