Until recently, I didn’t even realise that Okuma made rods. I had heard good things about the Cortez, so I was eager to get my hands on one and try it out.
The rods come in several different lengths and line ratings. The one I was interested in for kayak fishing, was the 7 foot 4 inch 6-12lb class rod.
Ignore the 249cms bit – the rod is actually 224 cms (7 feet 4 inches).
The first thing you notice is that it is a very striking rod – both in terms of appearance, and in terms of the quality of fittings used. The next thing you notice, is that the rating of the rod is a little under. The 6-12lb class rod which I was using, is more like a 15-20lb class rod.
Starting at the butt…
The butt cap is suitable for a gimball/butt pad, if you really wanted to give it some stick, this will also stop the rod from twisting in many of the fishing kayak flush mount rod tubes (with pins fitted at the bottom).
The EVA grips are the right length, and the reel fitting is a top notch fuji job…
The foregrip gives way to the blank, with what looks like a very swish machined aluminium ring…
Throughout the rod, the same arrangement of whipping thread is used – a mixture of green with a subtle hint of red about 2/3rds of the way down the thread. It really does add a touch of class to what is an already good looking blank.
The rings are also of a very high quality. The butt contains a single ring. They are the high-rise types, with stainless steel guide frames and SiC ring inserts. They not only look good, but they should be tough too…
The rod is a 2 piece – and splits about a third of the way down the blank. So the butt section is 36 inches long (91.5 cms) and the tip section is 52 inches long (134 cms) – total is 224 cms (7 feet 4 inches).
The male joint is plugged….
The joints look well made and strong…
On to the tip section. The high modulus carbon tip section contains 8 rings and a tip ring.
Everything is in its place on this rod. Very difficult to find fault with anything. As previously mentioned, the action is more powerful than the 6-12lb rating. This rod would be ideal for fishing for rays, conger and cod of the Bristol channel from the kayak.
I took the rod tope fishing, but failed to hook one.
I did manage a couple of huss to double figures on the rod (not as big as the one I caught on the Teklon 702L though !), enough to put the Cortez through its paces…
This is a really powerful rod – I teamed it up with an Abu SEVEN, and it felt like it could handle just about anything. I would definitely recomend this rod for kayak fishing in the Bristol Channel.
The Okuma Cortez 7 foot 4 inch 6-12 lb rod is available from Veals tackle…
https://www.veals.co.uk/acatalog/okuma-cortez-boat-3459.html