A longer rod will get you more distance, with practice, but plenty of people aren’t as comfortable with a 13ft rod, and this 12ft 6in. option is a great alternative. It’s been designed for longer range casting, but is also forgiving enough under the rod tip that you don’t have to fear hook pulls.
Danny Fairbrass: “These are a brilliant step up from a 12ft rod rather than having to go to a 13-footer, if you want to achieve longer range casting but the 13ft feels a bit too cumbersome in your hands.”
“That extra six inches creates more distance but they still feel like you’re using a 12ft rod and still play fish beautifully as well. Everyone who has picked one of these up has loved them, so if you want an all-rounder that would fish from under your feet out to 140 yards, then that is the one I’d recommend.”
The Kaizen Green Journey Explained
Following on from the hugely successful launch of our first rods under the Kaizen banner, we’ve followed that up with a more affordable, yet still high performance, range called Kaizen Green.
The Kaizen Green sits below the flagship Kaizen Platinum rods, but still shares many of the same attributes and design features which set those rods apart, but at a much more affordable price.
Our first foray into the rod market was a huge success, but we also realised that not all anglers can afford a set of Platinums, or possibly they don’t need that level of performance and aren’t fishing often enough to justify the price tag, so we got to work on a model that will still do everything that you require it to, apart from maybe in the most extreme situations and which is priced at a level which makes the Kaizen Green available to anybody.
The actions of the various models in the Kaizen Green range are almost identical to those of the corresponding Platinum models, with the main difference being that they are built using a more affordable grade of carbon. The main difference performance-wise is that they won’t transfer power into the cast to quite the same degree; won’t recover quite so quickly after the cast; and are slightly more susceptible to the blank twisting during casting, which will marginally reduce accuracy. But for many anglers and unless pushing the rods to the extreme, you won’t even notice the difference.
The full range of Kaizen Green rods – which includes eight different models of fishing rods plus two spod rods – has been extensively tested on a wide variety of different venues and in different angling situations, both at home and abroad, and from the bank as well as fishing with boats, and has involved many of the Team Korda anglers using the rods and providing feedback on them, in order to get them just right. The fact that these anglers have been more than happy to use them for much of their own fishing, despite having access to the more expensive Platinum models, also says a lot about just how good the Kaizen Green range is.
For the Kaizen Green, we’ve used a similar fast-tapered profile mandrel to that which the Platinum range is made on. This gives a taper that consistently goes all the way from butt to tip, and produces a very ‘tippy’ action, with most of the flex being at that end of the rod until it comes under more extreme loading, such as when casting. This action improves power transfer during casting and will enable you to cast further when you utilise the very fast tip speeds which this helps to create. It also allows for faster line pick up, which can be a big advantage, but also has enough give in the tip that the rod will absorb the lunges of a fish at close quarters without fear of pulling the hook due to the rod being too unforgiving – even in the hands of a relative novice carp angler, the Kaizen Green rods will still be a pleasure to play fish on, whatever type of water you are fishing.
Due to popular demand from anglers fishing on big European lakes where rigs are dropped, and fish are played, from a boat; as well as in the UK where people are fishing on waters where there is no need to cast any distance; or even for younger anglers who struggle with a 12ft or 13ft rod, we have introduced our first ever 10ft rods, with three different test curves to choose from, and which will cover any situation you can think of where a shorter rod is advantageous.
To complement the fishing rods, we have also designed Kaizen Green spod rods in a choice of 12ft or 13ft, both of which are capable of hurling even the largest Spombs and spods – weighing up to 8oz - a very long way, and certainly as far as you can cast a baited rig with the fishing rods.
Whilst the main reason for buying a rod should be its performance, as carp anglers we also spend a lot of time looking at our rods motionless on the rests, and so it is important that they look good cosmetically, as long as that ideally also enhances performance, and certainly doesn’t detract from it. All of the 12ft and 13ft models feature 50mm butt rings and a 16mm tip ring, whilst the 10ft model has a 40mm butt ring and 12mm tip guide. The guides chosen are the Sea-Guide TDG twin leg/foot stainless steel ones, which are lightweight whilst also being very strong and durable. These features a special ADAMAN coating which is ten times tougher than stainless steel and which ensures smoother line passage across it, as well as improved abrasion resistance.
In Europe, the 10ft models are also available with Sea-Guide BXTLSG guides, which feature a ceramic insert that is even more abrasion resistant and suitable for use with heavier braided lines being constantly run across it under extreme tension, whilst still feeling smooth to the angler, as well as being a little less susceptible to being damaged when they are bounced around in when laid in a boat as you motor to or from your spot.
Cosmetically, the Kaizen Green range has a custom built, minimalist look, with a low glare, matt finish to the blank, black whippings and just a subtle green logo. The handle is covered in black Japanese shrink wrap and with a flared end to it, which offers better grip during casting and allows you to confidently pull the rod through with maximum force without fear of your hands slipping. That is finished with an injection moulded butt clap featuring a green Korda logo. Your reel is attached via a top quality Sea-Guide DPS style reel seat.
Danny Fairbrass is very proud of what has been achieved with the Kaizen Green rod range, enthusing: “We knew that not everyone could afford to spend £1,300+ on a set of rods, so we wanted to make something more affordable but which still had almost identical performance. You could pick a Kaizen Green up and think it was a 300 or 400 quid rod, they’re that good.”
“The main difference you’ll find between the Green and the Kaizen Platinum is the modulus of carbon that is used – the Green has a lower modulus carbon so you need more of it to create the same strength. This makes the blank slightly heavier and ever so slightly slower in terms of the recovery after casting, but the action of them is almost identical.”
“These rods make long range fishing, and very accurate fishing, more available to more people, because it’s at such an affordable price. I like rods to be as minimal as possible so they look custom built, and there aren’t any garish bits of colour or stainless all over them, they are really toned down. They’re the same rings as on the Platinum, but a three-legged version, which is more durable and forgiving.”
“We’ve done 10-footers for the first time and I’ve been using those quite a bit, for dropping rigs from a boat on some really big lakes out in Europe. I really like them, having not used 10-footers before, as they have a shorter handle and are really good for manoeuvring around on the boat, and you can get the fish closer to the boat as they’re shorter, and they’re nicer for dropping a lead over the side.”
“The 12-footers are probably going to be the most popular and I’ve used the 12ft 3.5lb and 12ft 4lb in testing and have caught loads of nice fish on them. They’ve got a great battle curve, a really fast recovery, they cast brilliantly, and they’re still very light in your hands. The taper means that you’ve still got that forgiving tip but the power is there to cast a long way.”
“With the whole of the Kaizen Green range, we’ve tried to bring you the highest performance products at the most affordable prices, that pretty much anyone who goes carp fishing, can afford to have a set of rods plus a spod rod. I’m extremely proud of what we have achieved and think that they’ve taken rods in that price range ahead by years, and you’re going to be absolutely blown away.”
