Sakura Iconic RS “Distance Finesse” 802ML+ 8' 5-15g (but easily fishes 25g) lure rod review - around £275 in the UK

When I got hold of this Sakura Iconic RS Distance Finesse 802ML+ 8' 5-15g lure rod to try out, I thought from the 5-15g rating that it might be a rather interesting rod for the much lighter side of this bass lure fishing thing. In some respects it is, but there is no way this is a 5-15g rod when you can easily chuck a 25g lure on it without feeling like you’re stressing the thing at all. I have very little experience of any lure rods rated to 15g I might add, but for the purposes of this review I am going to treat this Sakura Iconic RS Distance Finesse 802ML+ 8' 5-15g lure rod as an “Up to roughly 25g” rod……………

Which of course begs the question why Sakura is rating this thing 5-15g. As an Up to roughly 25g it’s a serious stunner that I am not looking forward to handing back at all, but I am not a customer who might buy this rod and expect to end up with a 5-15g rod in my hands - and then be disappointed because it’s not. It doesn’t matter to me that the label on the rod is way out because I have merely been messing around with it and trying lots of different lures and techniques to arrive at my opinions - rightly or wrongly of course - and I haven’t paid for it AND the rod goes back to Sakura UK.

So with that out of the way, let’s look at this Sakura Iconic RS Distance Finesse 802ML+ 8' 5-15g as an Up to roughly 25g lure rod and get on with how it fishes. At 152g you can buy a lighter 8’ lure rod - the ridiculous Favorite Black Swan 852M 8'5'' 6-24g weighs 97g for example, review here - but, and I mean this as a compliment, I can’t help but admire such a solid feeling lure fishing rod with strong French origins. I haven’t used a red Tenryu rod for a long time now, but this Sakura rod feels very “French” with its powerful, progressive action, and how well made and strong it feels when you fish with it. Sorry for the generalisation, but as with Fiiish lures doing things completely their way for example, I have loved France and the French way since I first went there at eight years old.

For sure this rod works pretty well with the MegaBass Sleeper Craw crab imitation (is the term creature bait actually that relevant in our bass fishing world?) when you slowly work it along the bottom, and a solid feeling handle design definitely lends itself to a rod-tip-up approach on the retrieve. I really like this. Even if this rod is more 25g+ than 15g, it’s still a lighter power of lure rod that I would turn to for my everyday bass fishing. I like how the powerful tip doesn’t flap around in a bit of wind and I can very effectively cast and work topwaters like the very long-casting 20g Savage Gear Slap Walker or the always deadly IMA Salt Skimmer. It kinda takes me back to fish with an 8’ long lure rod, and it’s undeniably lovely how well a good, shorter rod sits in the hands. Precision-casting the 120 size Savage Gear Gravity Stick Paddletail or Pulsetail is just awesome on this rod, and the powerful progression in the rod really lends itself to the twitch, twitch, pause kind of retrieve I use on a soft plastic like the OSP DoLive Stick.

A 25g lure rod is not going to be a go-to for a lot of my open coast bass fishing around here, but I don’t always fish really bouncy conditions, and I also find myself fishing more and more estuary marks as I go down the whole “trying to target those bass which are resolutely feeding head down” rabbit hole. If a typical bass lure rod for the UK market might be 9’ long and 35g at the top end, in reality I bet that a lot of bass anglers could easily fish with an 8’ rod that can effectively fish up to at least 25g with no problem. I don’t know how one gets around the 5-15g rating on this rod when it quite simply isn’t, but if you read this review and a rod like this tickles your fancy then we’re talking about a very accomplished 8’ long lure rod which I believe is better suited to fishing lures up to 25g. I have some very fond memories of Sakura lure rods from a good few years ago, so it feels great to fish with a modern rod from their stable and discover that they are still a fantastic fishing tackle brand……….

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