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Possibly looking at getting a shorter rod. Might be looking for a 10 or 9 footer. I was wondering if any has fished the 10ft 6:4 rod from Tenkara-Fishing. Would you buy this rod or one of the ones All fishing buy sells. I am trying to keep the price under 100.
Look into Tenkarabum's tanago rods -
The list of available models are here: http://www.tenkarabum.com/daiwa-tanago-rods.html. I had a great time fishing this short rod but it requires a lot of stealth!
I haven't fished the Tenkara-Fishing 10' rod but I was able to try a 9.5' prototype that would have been quite similar. Based on the slightly shorter one that I did fish, I'd say it's not a bad rod. I have fished the 9' Motsugo and 9' Wakata from AllFishingBuy, and I liked the Tenkara-Fishing rod better, but I'm sure there are those who would prefer the Wakata. Be aware, though, that the weight listed on the website is not even close to correct. I have a 9' Motsugo, and it weighs 2.1 ounces. I believe the .8 oz weight listed for both the 9' Motsugo and 9' Wakata is for the blank only, without the grip, butt cap, tip plug, etc. which is misleading to say the least.
As Karel says, a shorter rod does require additional stealth, but for very small, tight streams it can be a lot of fun. I really do like the 9' and 10' Soyokaze rods (which I do describe as tanago rods), which genuinely are light (the 9 footer is 1.6 oz on my postal scale), and sensitive enough that even the smaller fish that live in smaller streams can put a good bend in them. If you expect to regularly catch fish over 12" or so, the Tenkara-Fishing rod might be a better choice. If most will be in the 6-9" length, though, I would recommend the Soyokaze.
Hi All;
What constitutes "shorter" 10 feet or less? That said, I purchased the 10'2" Daiwa Tanago rod from CM_Stewart at Tenkarabum.com and can't wait to see what all I can do with it, I have used it to catch stunted bluegills(4" to 5") and it excelled at that. I hope to put it to the test on more panfish soon, perhaps May 5th when I will attend a warmwater fishing trip with my local flyfishing club.
Overall, I'm quite pleased with it's ease of use and compact design, just waiting to see how big a fish/conditions it can work under. I purchased it for panfish and native brookie fishing, the brookies will get tested later this year.
Wayneb
Since I only have the TUSA Amago and it is about 13'6" I named the Shorter Rod. Generally though, most rods are at least 11'. Anything shorter would be considered a short Tenkara rod in my eyes.
I would pretty much agree with that. For quite a while, the rods available here were 11' and up. I would classify 10' and under as short tenkara rods.
Regarding the the "how big" question, one of the guys at the Sowbug Roundup (probably one of the ones you rounded up) wanted one of the rods badly enough he bought mine on the spot rather than ordering from the website. He later sent me a photo of what has to be a 15" brown caught with it. I'd say that's pushing it, though. Another guy caught about a 12" channel cat with one of the little 6'6" rods, which is probably even more surprising.
Hi all. First post here. FWIW, I was reading the rough translation of Soseki Yamamoto's "The World of Flyfishing" on Adam Trahan's tenkara site (the book with short profiles of several fishermen, published in 1987) and noticed that almost all of the fishermen profiled used 3-meter (just under 10') to 3.6-meter (11.8') rods. These guys between them have (had) hundreds of years of experience and study of tenkara and none of them seemed to need anything longer than 12', so maybe your "short" rod is actually normal for traditional tenkara?
I suspect that 25 years ago (when it was published) or earlier, when they actually bought the rods they used, longer rods would have been too heavy to cast one handed all day long. Modern materials have allowed longer, lighter rods. Twelve feet is still a good all-around length, though.
Well my new rod came in the mail today. I got the 10ft Tenkara-Fishing 6:4 rod. I have not had a chance to fish it since it was too windy today. I did cast it some in the back yard with the 10' Cutthroat Hi-Viz furled leader. It felt as if I was not holding anything at all. I also made a 10' line from the running line of a 2wt FWF line. It had no problems casting either line. Now I just need to catch a fish on it.
Well I have finally started fishing with my Tenkara-Fishing 10' rod. I am just amazed at how light it feels in the hand. I am also sorry that I did not start fishing with it earlier. The 10 ft furled cutthroat leader I got with the rod seems heavy for it but it does handle the tenkara bum hi-viz size 4 line real nice. I have been using 15 ft Hi-Viz plus 3 ft tippet. No problems casting from shore. This little rod also has plenty of backbone to handle bass around 20 inches as long as you can stay out of the weeds, brush, and can net the fish. Otherwise you tippet will break. I have been fishing more traditional tenkara flies and the gills, green sunfish, other pan fish have been loving it. Here are a couple of the larger ones from today.
http://i297.photobucket.com/albums/m...1/IMAG0241.jpg
http://i297.photobucket.com/albums/m...1/IMAG0242.jpg
Nice fish!
No question that shorter rods feel a lot lighter than longer rods. First, they ARE lighter because there is less material going into them. Second, they FEEL lighter because the center of gravity is closer to your hand. The rod has less inertia to overcome when casting it. I'm sure an engineer could explain it better than I did.
I have found the same thing you did on the flies. Bluegills love the reverse hackle flies. Try fishing three or four (if legal in your state). You'll catch a lot more fish, partially because they have better chance of seeing one of the flies if there are several in the water, and partially because they see the reaction of other fish and become competitive. You will also catch doubles.