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.
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
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!
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.
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.
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.
TFO said they should have the press release next week at the IFTD show in Reno. So I guess some will have to wait till then. Going to try to get back to Fly Masters this Afternoon.
Well I did not get many specs but I did get the weight of the rods. The 10’6" is 2.56 ounces and the 11’6" is 2.9 ounces. The 10’6" is faster than the 11’6". The 11’6" also has more flex, not much more but a little more. Both rods are close to the same action as the Kiyose 33SF as far as I can tell from casting and shaking the rods. I also weighed my other rods on the same scale for some reference. My Tenkara Fishing 10’ 330 rod weighed 2.7 ounces. The Daiwa Kiyose 33SF came in at 2.3 ounces and the Amago was 3.5 ounces. The TFO 11’6" was also about an inch shorter than the 10’6" when collapsed. I did not get a measurement of the collapsed rod nor did I measure it against my other rods. These rods are manufactured in Korea not china. TFO also did not ship the rods with specs so we will have to wait for there press release for there official numbers. I still was not able to fish these and doubt I will get a chance in the near future. They did tell me the listed a couple on ebay so go ahead and take a look.
That is good use of foreshadowing, Chris. We know that the rod surprised you, and now we are eager to learn the nature of the surprise and whether it favors or discredits the TFO rod.
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?
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.
Good review of the rod. Maybe I should not have been so quick to jump the gun and say that the rod was stiff. At first when I posted that I had only casted it and wiggled test it for less than 10 minutes. The When I went back the following weekend and spent a little more time with it it did not feel as stiff as first. The longer rod is not as stiff as the shorter one either. I thought it was a good decent attempt at a Tenkara Rod. This will be a good starter rod for people who are new to casting tenkara lines. When I first started I started with TUSA’s Amago and had a hard time casting with size 4 lines. I went with running line from a 4wt WFF line then from a 2wt WFF. The 2wt running line was actually where I should have started but did not have any. Know at times the size 4 tenkara line seems heavy. Like Chris said the best part is people will be able to go to a close fly shop and actually play with a rod before purchasing. This is what kept me away for a little over a year from taking the jump. Plus not every state has trout water but they do have bass and bluegill water.
