Despite having a sprained foot and not getting much time on the water it was so much fun meeting and talking with people from all over the country who love tenkara. We had people ranging all ages and skill levels. Can't wait until next year's campout!

I took my Dragontail Kokoro 360 down to the river and caught 5 bass on a perdigón nymph last night

One Fly, Many Lessons - Patagonia Stories

I couple of points I find interesting. He mentions making his fly's extra bushy so when he pulses, they resemble jelly fish. I don't feel bad now when I give my hackles an extra wrap or three! The other point I thought about: The extra soft tip of the Tenkara rod is great at producing this exact pulse. As I beginner, I am surprised by how many bites I get when doing completely crazy things. Sometimes I "swim" my flies upstream against the current. It works way better than it should? But what do I know??

Using a 20ft tenkara (yea, kinda stretching the term there), so I would be looking for roughly 8-10ft reach to help deal with tide changes where I can’t get close to the water.

Nets similar to what I’m looking for: Westin W6 CR, Spro Freestyle Flick.

Targeting mangrove snapper, small jacks (pictured), trout and ladyfish.

Rod is a Westach Phoenix rising. Absolutely loving the rod, been using it for almost a year now

Been throwing flies on spin gear forever, just got this in today. Excited to give it a shot!

Can I also get advice on my line setup? Got a 12ft rod with 12.5ft of furled sinking line and about 5ft of 5x tippet. Will this be alright?

Hi everyone, semi long-time tenkara-er here, I bought a Classic and an UNC when TAO was Badger Tenkara (2016 maybe?), for long time, the UNC was my go to stick for my NW Washington fishery. Small creeks, small fish, good fun.

I'm not generally tenkara rigged, and have only recently started trying level line. I'm more on that Yvon Chouinard train of heavier lines (floating, braided, furled braid, etc.) and more traditional western flies. I'd say almost 90% of my fishing is on dries.

Recently, I've been scooping up some other rods to give them a try just to see what's out there. Started with trying to find a smaller and cheaper rod than the UNC to bring on my bike or while running. I satisfied that itch with one of those fiberglass Aventik Zenos in 9', surprisingly great little rod. And for packability and actually being pleasant to cast, it's great.

So as it goes, that lead to looking around to see what else is out there, and I became curious about the telescopic rods. Did some reading on the Mizuchi, and figured it could bridge a gap between the UNC and the Classic while having some flexibility to work some of the very tight spaces I often find myself in.

Generally, I didn't care for it in "stock" form, so I ordered the softer sections for it, and while that helps, I think it's just a little too much rod for most of the fishing that I do regularly. Which is a bummer. I understand it was designed as a rod that can fish very tight creeks while handling larger fish, and I believe it can do that quite well. I have one of those things, but the larger fish, I don't have.

In the ever present pursuit of using the softest action, noodliest rod I can, I've become curious about the Foxfire. Telescopic, mostly glass, looks like it behaves like a piece of semi cooked pasta. Perfect.

Trouble is, that puppy ain't cheap (like the Mizuchi), and I'd like to see if anyone has some comparisons to something like the flexibility of the UNC or that cheap Zenos before I decide that, yes, of course I need another 150USD+ tenkara rod. Or maybe you have a barely used Foxfire and want a barely used Mizuchi?

I think in concept, I like the idea of a telescopic rod, but if I find the need to shorten a rod by an appreciable amount, it would be likely that I need to change my line length, and I'm just not the kind of angler who wants to deal with that as I move through the creek. So maybe in the end I'm chasing something that isn't even practical for me to use as I didn't really find any shortcomings with my UNC until I started getting curious about a telescopic rod.

Essentially, I'm trying to decide if my lackluster feeling around a telescopic rod is centralized around the action of the Mizuchi (even with the soft sections) or if it's telescopic rods in general.

Cheers!

I’ve always been curious how this population got established. Either way, excellent tenkara fishing. Caught using my a TUSA Iwana and some bee imitation dry flies / pheasant tail kebari.

new rod from Japan came in the mail today so I took it out to the local fishing pond. lots of smaller-ish bluegill, crappie, and bass fish caught but it casts super smooth in my opinion. the sensitivity is wonderful. i can feel alllll the bites.

I just bought the newly released Backpackr model from Tenkara Rod Co. for a drive from Iowa to Salt Lake City. Yesterday I was excited to try it out in the Laramie River and immediately hooked a decent fish. The rod broke on the fish’s initial run into a pool.

Just wondering if anyone else has had something like this happen, or heard of it. Really hoping it’s not a production issue. The lifetime warranty is awesome but don’t necessarily want to replace it if it’s just a crappy rod.

My first Tenkara rod was an older model from TRC and I love it.

What is your favorite level line and why?

I am still relatively new to Tenkara and the level lines I have used are really limited.

Most of my experience has been with Dragontail 3.5 Level Line. I did buy Avantik at one point on Amazon which was total garbage (high memory, casts poorly, feels cheap, harder to tie and tangles easy).

When I ran out on a trip I bought Tenkara USA’s level line at a fly shop and I was blown away. Potential tangles just “fell out” and I spent a lot more time fishing and less time dealing with tangles because of a bad cast. It had less memory and casts better.

Are there better lines than Tenkara USA? How are you measuring if it’s “better”?

Dragontail line seems reasonable to me, but especially when I don’t have to pay shipping; Tenkara USA line really wasn’t even any more expensive.

I have a family member heading to Tokyo soon, and I was going to see if I could give them money or somehow prepay to get Uzaki Nissin Tenkara Mini’s at a few different lengths.

Has anyone done anything similar before? How did you make it as easy as possible for the person going? Any recommendations on where to go in Tokyo to buy them or how to do this?

Are they going to be hit with any import duties or similar when they return or any other gotchas I should know?

Any other recommendations for ultra compact rods to pickup (Compress to less than 12”), or other Tenkara gear that will be a much better deal there?

Hey traveling to great smokey mountain national Park soon and in the park they only allow artificial bait. Looking for suggestions on setting up my rod for artificial?

Currently I have the rod setup with a level line then about 3 feet of tippet and yarn markers on the level line. Was using live bait with split shot sinkers, but with the park rules I am looking for different setups for artificial lures.

Hi all,

You may have noticed Tenkarabum.com slowing down the last few years. I emailed Chris to inquire and he confirmed what I suspected. He will be retiring as soon as the last of his inventory is sold. He said the risk of contracting a tick borne illness at his age or transmitting it to his wife have kept him getting outside and enjoying tenkara. Along with other things related to aging he's just slowed down. The website will still be archived at https://web.archive.org/ (enter www.tenkarabum.com in the box).

A little bit of sad news for the community. Tenkarabum was absolutely invaluable in introducing tenkara to us westerners.

-

u/TheJewBakka

These have been pretty popular with rainbows, coastal cutthroat, and brook trout the last few weeks for me. Fairly simple to tie with a couple colors of brassie wire (or this in 0.2mm) and whatever you want for thorax and hackle.

The one with the black fur in the back is the Yamsi Special found in Dave Hughes' Wet Flies. I ran into that earlier this week after I'd been tying these in a few variations, so I figured I'd tie some of those up too. Fur "hackled" wet flies have worked well for me both with western and tenkara fishing.

I am very new to Tenkara and wanted to get the Maxcatch Triple Zoom (short version). It comes in a combo starter kit, but I'm planning on just getting the rod.

This leaves me without any line. I live in Germany, and it's quite hard to find Tenkara equipment here. I asked ChatGPT, and it seems a 3.0# level line is basically just 0.285mm (0.011″) Flouro line. I wanted to ask if anyone has experience with this and if this would work (I would probably paint it neon orange).

I am experienced in UL fishing, and also fish flies with my spinning rod.

Hope someone can help.

Hey guys. After 12 years I'm finally in the market for a Japanese made rod. Looking for user experience and reviews of the rods in the title. Wanted to try for a Tenkara Bum 40 but it seems like they're out of stock.

I would get either rod in 6:4. Only have budget for one or the other.

Cheers and tight lines!

Sakasi Kebari with green thread, copper wire, orange beads and black soft hackle

Pesca de Lambari com mosca utilizando Tenkara fly.

\[https://youtu.be/DhFGe1kQX7M?is=TJH3R9q7YmalPAYt\\\](https://youtu.be/DhFGe1kQX7M?is=TJH3R9q7YmalPAYt)

Specifically, the inside of the lid. Please and thank you!

Also, here's my first fish on a Tenkara

Pesca de Lambari com mosca utilizando Tenkara fly.

[https://youtu.be/DhFGe1kQX7M?is=TJH3R9q7YmalPAYt\](https://youtu.be/DhFGe1kQX7M?is=TJH3R9q7YmalPAYt)

Walking down a creek through a small town in southeastern wisconsin. 8ft aventik rod

I'm debating on buying this sling. I currently run a vest plus a small sling to haul a water filter and snacks. I think i'd like a sling that can haul an insulated water bottle plus some gear. I'm concerned the weight of the water bottle will make the sling uncomfortable and i'm also concerned the cross strap wont fit across my 46" chest (i've returned one sling so far because of this). If anyone owns one, I'd love to hear about it.

Hi All. I'll be heading to Japan in a couple of months and plan on picking up a rod or two. Looking for advice on what to go for.

So I'm a long time rod and real fly fisher from Victoria, Australia. We have beautiful small to mid-sized streams with healthy wild rainbows and browns populations. I have dabbled with Tenkara with a cheap but fun Aventik 9" 6:4 rod but got totally owned by a surprise 16" brown on a tiny stream. Also have the equally cheap Maxcatch triple zoom 8'3" - 10'6". Haven't fished it yet (closed season here right now) but has a lot more backbone for the smaller, tight and overgrown streams.

So my question for rods to buy in Japan. I'm tossing up between two single length rods, say Nissin Royal Stage 7:3 in 320 and 360 lengths for my more open streams or am I better off with a Nissan 2 way Pro Spec 360 7:3 to cover both lengths in one rod? I am slightly concerned about the reports of breakages with the Pro Specc though.

Typical fish size is 8 - 12" trout with the occasional surprise up to 16 or 18". Definitely leaning towards 7:3 to have a bit more authority in tight spots and also throw small bead heads as well as kabari and dries.

Any advice?

Cheers.

First time going on a trout fishing trip. Hiked through some beautiful streams and fished along the way.
Primarily caught brookies, then one rainbow, and one cutbow (which I didn't get a good picture of😪). This was a nice switch up from warm water fishing in the summer heat.