Gamakatsu Multiflex Suimu EX 500

Gamakatsu Multiflex Suimu

Gamakatsu Multiflex Suimu EX 400 (Tenkara)

Gamakatsu Multiflex Suimu EX 450 (Tenkara/Honryu)
Gamakatsu Multiflex Suimu EX 500 (Honryu)

Line Design for the Gamakatsu Suimu EX

Gamakatsu Multiflex Suimu
Gamakatsu Multiflex Suimu (English translated)

Dr. Tom Davis: Teton Tenkara - Suimu EX 400 - EX 450 - EX 500

Paul Gaskell: Discover Tenkara: Notes on Honryu Tenkara and the Gamakatsu Suimu EX

Part of developing good tenkara skills is making your own equipment. Of course you can purchase nearly all of what you need from the many vendors available however, there is not a lot available that is marketed to this genre of tenkara. So I make my own lines, clear lines which go against the marketing of "lines that you can see" in pink, orange and fluorescent green or bright and muted colors. The fish I am after are pressured and wince at a large pink moving thing above them in the ultra clear water against a sky that has no direct sunlight, the river I am making these lines for is in a thousand foot canyon. Currently, there are no lines for this application so I make my own.

Seaguar INVIZ X .330mm which equates to #3.5 Valcan

I do use a Fujino Soft Tenkara 7m line for big fish in still water, not in the river.

I use a fly line for specialized honryu situations. There are dry fly midge hatches that a fluorocarbon line at length will pull down a tiny size #22 midge dry. So I use a floating line. In the summer, there is a cicada hatch that is incredible to behold and using a fly line for plopping down a large bulky fly works really well. A fly line has demanded it's way into my quiver and I have no problem using it. It even fits into the definition of tenkara in Japan.

I use card spools as they are flat and you can stack them

I use my Suimu for larger fish. There is a very special pond that has a single bass in it and a 1m carp. It is a challenge to catch the bass and I have caught this guy three times in three weeks, each on a Saturday, my fishing partner can not believe it but he has seen me do it.

I can tell you this, the Suimu EX 500 casts excellently and feels good at it's 4.2m length. If I need some reach while manipulating the kebari or fly, I can lengthen the rod. I cast it almost exclusively at the 4.2m length. I have spent many days now on the Colorado river in Glen Canyon catching fish up to 22" in fast river flow and this rod has the ability to subdue and move those fish on 5 - 6x and I have even pressured big fish with 7x.

In the San Juan river below Navajo Dam, I am able to do the same thing. Large fish can be handled with this rod. 

This rod is quickly becoming my favorite goto river rod for big fish fighting skills.