Flyfish Craft Japan

Hideto Ishida

Hideto Ishida - Kagerow Rods

Hideto Ishida luckily lives on a trout steam in his home town of Hino County, Tottori. The closest airport is about 3 hours' drive, and the bright signage of Seven-Eleven is not to bee seen in 10km radius. He used to work as a firefighter for the local city government, but he soon became intrigued by the maze of fly rod design and crafting, and became a full time rodmaker more than 10 years ago. Without apprenticing to anyone, he silently and painstakingly honed his skills as a rodmaker, and an angler. In season he fishes every day.

He uses two materials for his rodmaking; one is tonkin bamboo, and the other is the indigenous madake (Phyllostachys bambusoides) which is lower modulus material. He selects and harvests madake bamboo in his backyard "bush farm."

He is a craftsman with eyes to detail. He learnt how to apply Japanese lacquer and color layering technic by himself, and added another traditional craft of gold flaking and shell inlay. His rods combines high-performance blanks developed through his personal fishing experience and gorgeous finish that is right on the Japanese tradition. He makes rods under the brand "Kagerow Rods."

Homepage and Links

Homepage (Japanese) - N/A

Products and Prices

Rods

Hideto Ishida maintains a comprehensive lineup of different actions, configurations and materials.

His most popular model series is “Main River,” of which rods are of progressive actions suitable for matching-the-hatch fishing on main stem, 6’8” – 8’2”, with line weight variations of #3 - #6.

“Moonlight” models are inspired by continental rods with one and half configurations that will render strong parabolic actions, 7’6” – 8’2”, with line weight variations of #4 and #5.

His madake rods are called “Kagerow Japan,” with 6’0” – 7”0, with line weight variations of #2 - #4.

Hideto also creates 5-sided rods named “Kagerow Kei,” parabolic action series of 6’6” – 7’8”, with line weight variations of #2 - #4. And maybe he is the only builder who is making use of hybrid cane rods, using 3 strips of Tonkin and 3 strips of madake to make a shaft. Such series is called “Kagerow Duo,” lengths 6’6” – 7’6”, with line weight variations of #2 - #4.

Recently he is putting a lot of effort incorporating traditional lacquer decoration technics called “haku-chirashi” (gold flake finish) “mushi-kui-shiage” (multi-color polish finish) and “raden” (shell inlay) as options.

Rod Prices

2-piece rod, with extra tip: 209,000 yen and upwards (standard finish)
3-piece rod, with extra tip: 220,000 yen and upwards (standard finish)

Optional decorative lacquer finish and custom metalwork as seen in the photos is 55,000 yen extra.