TFO Soft Hackle Rod

[scorpion1971]

Well TFO has entered the tenkara market. I just left Fly Masters of Indianpolis who recieved there shipment of TFO's Tenkara rods. They have the 10'6" and 11'6" soft hackle rods. I went to test cast one before work. I cast the 10'6" rod with Moonlite's curled leader. I was able to cast the rod in the parking for about 10 minutes. Only real difference between TFO's rod and others is how fast it is. The Soft Hackle rod is stiffer and much faster. The prices start at 199.99 and come with rod bag and spare 2 tip section. I will try to get up there this weekend for further reviewing.

Mike P.

[Gig]

Glad to see that more and more companys are getting involved in the Tenkara market. It must mean that they think this form of fly fishing is here to stay and not just a passing fad

[moonlitflies]

That is pretty cool! I believe there will be others who get in the market soon as well. You say it is stiffer, can you elaborate on that a bit. Is it a stiff 6:4 or 7:3? Glad to see the line was around for good measure!

Cheers,
Brandon

[Paul Arnold]

The TFO rod sounds short and fast. A western rod without line-guides? I'll be interested to see how this develops.

[scorpion1971]

That is pretty cool! I believe there will be others who get in the market soon as well. You say it is stiffer, can you elaborate on that a bit. Is it a stiff 6:4 or 7:3? Glad to see the line was around for good measure!

Cheers,
Brandon

Branding,

I would say it is a stiff 7:3. It is stiffer than the Daiwa Kiyose 33SF. I am wanting to test it on some bluegills but I am not sure if the shop will let me try it out on the water. Guess I could try with a cup on the end of it. Will have to wait till the weekend though.

Mike P.

[CM_Stewart]

I was lucky enough to meet Yvon Chouinard at the Tenkara Summit in Montana last year and try his rod briefly. It is indeed suprisingly stiff. That was long enough ago that I couldn't make a good comparison with the Kiyose, so thank you, Mike for your comment. If they do let you try it on the water, I would be very curious to hear a side by side comparison of fishing with the two rods. Also, the Soft Hackle is still not on the TFO website, so there is no way to look at the stats. Do you know what it weighs?

edited to add: The reference to Yvon Chouinard's rod is because I believe he was TFO's inspiration in developing the Soft Hackle tenkara rod and I suspect they modeled their rod from his.

[scorpion1971]

Sorry Chris but I do not know the weight. After a long night drive then work if I try to remember I would be wrong. Will have to wait until this weekend till I can go back.

Mike P.

[Paul Arnold]

It is very hard to develop an opinion of the rod from this video, but based on what I observed, there is very, very little bend in the rod. Extremely stiff. Yet, that may be mostly due to the client's casting technique. It sounds as he is getting the tenkara fever though, doesn't it?

[CM_Stewart]

I have published my review of the new TFO Soft Hackle tenkara rod. http://www.tenkarabum.com/tfo-soft-hackle.html

The rod is not as stiff as I had expected, and overall is actually quite comparable to the TenkaraUSA Yamame. I paired the rod with a Rio .024" floating shooting line, as that's the closest I had to the line that Yvon Chouinard fishes with his tenkara rod, and is the line that fly shops who carry TFO and Rio products might reasonably sell for use with the rod. I doubt most of them do or will carry specialized tenkara lines. The pairing works.

Overall, the TFO rod (with the Rio line) will feel very familiar to fly fishermen, much more so than most of the rods and lines sold by specialized tenkara rod dealers (myself included). I suspect it will introduce a lot of new people to tenkara, as it feels more familiar, will be available to see/hold/wiggle/cast at their local fly shop, and comes with absolutely no confusing jargon (5:5, 6:4; Japanese line sizes, etc.). Plus it nearly eliminates the "which rod should I get" question. You can have the short one or the long one. It doesn't get much simpler.

That said, for someone who wants to really explore all that tenkara has to offer, it is not the rod I would recommend. To me the essence of tenkara is keeping the line off the water. To do that most effectively, you really do need to use the lightest line you can cast. You can cast a lighter line with a softer rod. The TFO Soft Hackle will get people into tenkara, but it won't take them nearly as far as more specialized rods can and will.

[chorpie]

Glad to see that more and more companys are getting involved in the Tenkara market. It must mean that they think this form of fly fishing is here to stay and not just a passing fad

I see what you did there!