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PostPosted: Sun Aug 12, 2018 6:30 pm • # 1 
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Joined: 09/17/12
Posts: 142
Location: Washington State
I enjoy fishing small remote streams in the PNW that vary from open with the riparian zone vegetation scoured by high meltoff to moderately closed in canopy and brush with some bushwhacking required. I got into Tenkara this year by taking advantage of the DRAGONTail Hydra 390Z (390, 350) discounted introductory pricing after reading Tom Davis' review. I landed a bunch of fish on my first two outings; including my largest ever at a favorite early season lowland river. As the season progressed and I visited smaller streams at higher elevations, I found it's length excessive under a canopy and with my lack of hookset finesse, it had a tendency to launch dinks out of the water. So I purchased the Tenkara Times 300Z (303, 263) after reading another of Davis' reviews. The 300Z is so much lighter and responsive than the Hydra; much like my 7 ft Pennington bamboo rod (Garrison 201 taper) with a DTF3 compares to my graphite 9 ft - 5 weight. I really like it! With no wind, paying strict attention to a 12-10 casting stroke a hard stop at 10 causes a 10' 3.5 line to dart forward, then the tippet and fly turn over marvelously and gently drift down onto the water in a straight line about 13 to 15 ft away. As I gain casting skill I will likely go to lighter lines. Also a dink take is felt much more readily and a 6” to 8” fish's take is very pronounced. I found the rod is able to quickly turn a 9" fish darting for a root ball and undercut banks in fast current on a narrow stream. I believe the 300Z is a great compliment to the Hydra for fishing the small streams I enjoy so much.

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Last edited by Brian_Miller on Tue Feb 19, 2019 5:46 pm, edited 3 times in total.

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PostPosted: Sat Aug 18, 2018 10:00 am • # 2 
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Joined: 04/29/17
Posts: 10
Very nice reviews on both this and the sling pack.
Thanks.


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PostPosted: Wed Dec 05, 2018 3:18 pm • # 3 
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Joined: 09/17/12
Posts: 142
Location: Washington State
Brian_Miller wrote:
... I found the rod is able to quickly turn a 9" fish darting for a root ball and undercut banks in fast current on a narrow stream. I believe the 300Z is a great compliment to the Hydra for fishing the small streams I enjoy so much.
I finished out the season just before the statewide general stream closure on a local creek with a healthy population of wild and native Coastal Cutthroat that I've fished for many years using western 3 weight graphite or bamboo rod & reel. It's always a surprisingly fast flowing stream coming out of a large lake over a weir, picking up two other similar streams in just 1.8 miles before dropping through a canyon 200 feet in 3/4 mile into a meadow for about a mile more where it drains into the saltwater. I could see that recent rains had swollen the stream into the meadow but the water had receded back within its undercut banks that vary from 8 to 15 foot wide and was deeper and faster than I usually see it. I was able to land several smaller fish but the Watershed 300 was also able to turn and control two chunky 12" and 11" Cutts to land them in the heavy current; keeping the fish away from the snags they were holding behind, the banks, and from heading down into the runs below the pockets.

I do like this rod!


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