New Tenkara Importer

[troutrageous1]

@CM
As always, appreciate your knowledge and input on the subject. Definite food for thought. Thanks again.

[wrknapp]

Guys,

I reread my email from Igor at allfishingbuy and he said the new Tenkara rods use "Shimano technology" so I'm now thinking someone else is actually making the rods. That would be in keeping if he plans to hold the price down. I suspect they will be made in China. He also said it would be about a month before they will be available. It looks like they will have fewer sections which will also hold down costs. This leads me to believe he will be selling a good no frills serviceable rod and not a premium rod. That would also be in keeping with the rest of his inventory. Time will tell.

Randy

[Softouch333]

Shimano and Daiwa both have produced premium tenkara rods but they are pricey. Thanks for the clarification, Randy. Look forward to some reviews.

[adam]

I'm going to offer this to all of you.

I have not broken many graphite rods, exactly one while fishing. A Tenkara rod seems like fragile, like I may break a tip at one point by carrying or collapsing. Daniel is on the spot, right here and now and will support the rod. Buy a rod from Japan and you may lose the ability to maintain that rod completely.

Tenkarausa & Daniel, although they are the only game in town are the only game in town as far as I'm concerned.

Those Igor rods have foam grips.


I don't fish rods with foam grips, not even a rod you have given me.


I am a not cheap but I'm not going to waste my money on something I won't like or love.


I will still look for inroads to other Tenkara rods from Japan, I can't stand a monopoly, competition breeds performance and for me, if you can't fish a rod because it is broken then there is no competition.

Think about that.

[wrknapp]

If you look at Daniel's new spare parts menu at TenkaraUSA , you could order the top three sections ahead of time and have rod with two tips and not even have to wait if you have a bad day. I have an extra set for my Ayu and I am ordering extras from Igor at allfishingbuy. Parts to all these rods are very inexpensive because they require little or no labor.

I'm not to keen on a rod with foam handles either, but cost and function are more important to me than esthetics. That's why I unloaded all my bamboo and high end reels years ago. Of course I have some regrets like the 3'' 2 screw original Hardy St George with the rose agate line guide I sold to a buddy years ago for $150. I hear they are closer to a grand now.

Randy

[adam]

Yikes, I hate it when that happens.

[flyfishwithme]

I will still look for inroads to other Tenkara rods from Japan, I can't stand a monopoly, competition breeds performance and for me, if you can't fish a rod because it is broken then there is no competition.

Think about that.

Let me know if you find any, I have been looking for a month now and have not yet located anybody.

[pszy22]

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[CM_Stewart]

Another option that has been touched on in the past has been the use of "panfish poles". My (and my wife's) first exposure to "tenkara" style fishing was using a South Bend 12' Black Beauty that I bought at my local Walmart for $15.

That's about the same way I started. I had initially gotten interested in "tenkara" style fishing through soft hackle flies. The North Country style of fly, called spiders across the pond and soft hackles here, are so sparse, spare, even austere that they really appeal to me. I learned, though, that to get the most out of them, I had to be able to fish them upstream, and that would require a rod longer than my 8' fly rod. I didn't have the cash or the interest to buy a new 10' rod/reel/line combo, but in my soft hackle studies I had come across The Angler and the Loop Rod by David Webster. http://www.archive.org/details/anglerloop-rod00websrich. He was a professional fisherman, and well after reels had become standard gear for fly fishing, he still used a loop rod about 13 1/2 feet long, no reel, and horsehair line tied to the tip. He caught buckets of trout! Obviously, a loop rod works. I didn't have the ash, hickory and lancewood he used, but I could buy a 13' Shakespeare fiberglass telescopic crappie rod for about $12. Like pzy22, I furled a line and I was in business.

Damn thing wouldn't cast well at all. I knew I wanted a very light line to fish spiders, but the fiberglass pole needed a heavy line to cast. I'm not sure which crappie pole I bought next, but I went through four telescopic poles, two 12' crappie rods (complete with unused guides and reel seats) , two cane poles and even tried tying the line to the tip guide of a 9' fly rod. Then I got a real tenkara rod. Old and well used, at least (at last) it was the real thing. The only crappie rods that were even close were the Cabela's Graphite Panfish Poles. I even once recommended them, back before there was even one tenkara importer. Now that there is, I can no longer recommend them. Besides, the 10' one is the only rod I've ever broken on a fish - and it was the biggest trout I've ever hooked in my life. You do get what you pay for, or at least, you do pay for what you get.

On the one hand, pszy22's right. For $15 you can give it a shot, if you decide tenkara's not for you, you haven't lost much. On the other hand, if you don't quite like it, you still won't know whether you would have liked a real tenkara rod. My point is that you can try tenkara with a real rod and a real line - matched to the rod, and if you don't like it you can return it and get your money back. You might be out some money for postage, but at least you've dated the girl of your dreams and not her homely cousin.

[terry]

but at least you've dated the girl of your dreams and not her homely cousin.

Thats a great line. I am going to use that.