Buying a tenkara rod, need advice

Great, now I have a new rod to think about.

When you buy a rod, does it come with a line or does it just come with the rod?

If they don't come with the rod then that makes the Hane much more competitively priced since the lines are $20

Yes, the Hane will ship with a line. 10'6" braided Tenkara line, green in color – yes, the $20 lines on the Tenkara website.

When buying from tenkara you buy the rod and add the following as needed to your order;
1) line
2) tippet
3) flys

A BPL package deal will be a nice feature.

Our package includes the line but not the tippet or flies. Tippets a funny thing, rabid fly fisherman are pretty particular about it!

I used to tie flies commercially and miss it. It was a lot of fun. I'm working on a number of Tenkara fly designs tailored to mountain fishing, perhaps one day they'll be available :)

Ryan, the Hane looks very nice. Congratulations. Is it possible you might be able to throw together a recommended fly list for area/season, especially to those new to fly fishing? Looking for similar use to Jeff, Sierra Nevada mountains.

I grew up fishing with my father, but always with traditional rod and reel, which were quite effective, if less elegant.

There must be some folks here with more Sierra experience than I. I'm sort of a Rocky Mountain guys – MT, ID, and WY!

But here, my top patterns (all of them adapted specifically to dapping with Tenkara) address the following hatches:

Mayflies – PMD, Baetis, Trico, Gray Drake, and Green Drake
Caddis – Tan, Olive, and Black
Midges – cream, black, and olive
Stoneflies – Golden and Little Yellow
Terrestrials – ants, beetles, and hoppers
Nymphs – Pheasant Tails, Hare's Ears, Prince, and Serendipities

I tie a variety of styles, including hairwings, soft hackles, film emergers, and a very small number of beadheads which I like to use as droppers with a small hairwing off a Tenkara.

I haven't photographed any of these yet. Maybe I can get to that in the next few weeks and post a few.

Ah, so the much anticipated BPL version of the Tenkara Rod is finally arriving. It's a good thing I haven't bought a Tenkara Rod yet, the BPL version seems to be what I'm looking for.

-Sid

Ryan, why did you decide to go with one this short? Just the weight savings? Seems like it could be a disadvantage with lakes, larger streams, etc.

I didn't notice that it was 9' 10" before.

It is the same weight as the 12 ft Iwana at 2.7 oz. I'm guessing this is due to the 7:3 action on the Hane vs the 5:5 action on the Iwana. The 11 ft Iwana weighs a bit less at 2.5 oz.

So I'm assuming some length was sacrificed in order to have a 7:3 action and keep the same weight of 2.7 oz?

-Sid

Actually I was talking to someone on Thursday about my 12' Iwana vs. the new Hane and figured I would get the actual weight. Mine came in at 3oz (85g) flat including the cap (w/o cap it is 2.9oz/82g). I am not sure how different this might be from what others have found.

I just assumed it was made shorter to pack shorter. 16" for the Hane vs. 21" for the others.

"Actually I was talking to someone on Thursday about my 12' Iwana vs. the new Hane and figured I would get the actual weight. Mine came in at 3oz (85g) flat including the cap (w/o cap it is 2.9oz/82g). I am not sure how different this might be from what others have found." -Jonathan Boozer

This means the Hane is probably closer to the weight of the 11 ft Iwana, assuming the weight of the 11 ft Iwana is also a bit heavier than the weight listed on the Tenkara website. That makes more sense.

-Sid

the Hane says its for use without a rod case since it has a reinforced final telescopic piece.

I thought all tenkara rods became there own rod case? am i missing something?

I have the 12 foot IWANA as well and mine comes in at the same weight as Johnathan's(3oz with cap and 2.9oz without). I love the fact that Ryan has come up with another option in the Tenkara line. Absolutely no disrespect to Mr. Jordan(he is clearly the man), but I would recommend the IWANA over the Hane for most situations due to the longer length. For a minimal weight penalty, you get over 2 more feet of reach, which when it comes to this type of fly fishing is beneficial in my humble opinion. I would argue that this additional reach is beneficial for just about all mountain streams. The ability to "stalk" or sight fish with the longer rod allows you to get the fly to the fish more easily without being seen. Since this type of fly fishing requires almost no back cast I see no real disadvantage to the longer rod, but many advantages. I have fished some very small mountain streams with a significant amount of brush and tree cover, and found that the IWANA works great. I still usually bring my traditional 3wt rod and reel along, but have found that I love the simplicity of the IWANA and it catches fish! As for lakes, I would say that Tenkara has limitations. You only have 20-30 feet of reach with this type of rod. While this is fine for most streams/small rivers, it makes it very difficult to cover lakes. If I were fishing in the Sierra's I would absolutely have a traditional 3-5wt setup for the lakes.

The obvious advantage to the Hane is that it collapses down to a shorter length. I guess you have to decide if the shorter length is that important to you. I keep my fly rods in a lightweight clear tube (that I bought off this site), strapped to the outside of my pack, and they really have never been in my way(even when bushwhacking), but I also don't carry long rods that stick above my pack. I usually backpack with a 7'6" 4 piece 3wt that happens to break down to the collapsed length of my IWANA and are about the same height as my pack. So for me the shorter length would make no difference, but if you want to pack the rod inside your pack, shorter is obviously better.

As far as flies for the Sierra's, Ryan covered many great options, the one thing I would add is that for dry flies the smaller patters are usually better(Adams always work great). I would also add streamers to the list for the alpine lakes(wooly buggers). In my limited experience fly fishing in the Sierra's, when the fish are feeding they are not that picky about patterns as long as they are close to the bugs on the water. They have a very limited time to feed and fatten up for the harsh winters, so they will hit just about anything that looks like food as long as it is well presented. The Tenkara method allows even beginner fishermen to quickly make delicate presentations and catch fish.

I only wish the Tenkara rods were made in Japan(where Tenkara comes from), instead of China.

Rick makes some very good points.

The primary reason for the short length of the Hane is not to minimize weight – the difference between 2.7 and 3.0 oz is just about meaningless, after all – but we've been finding that the longer rods are indeed tougher to use on small streams. While they extend reach, that extra 2 feet is a lot of reach and it makes it tough to fish in tight quarters.

The 7:3 was chosen so that the short length of the Hane could still power out the standard foot line, with plenty of tippet, if you did need a longer reach. I've used the 10'6" line + 6 to 8 feet of tippet without reservation with the Hane, and that gives me the reach I need for the majority of situations I encounter, including alpine lake shorelines and the banks of bigger rivers.

Where the longer rod really benefits you is when you are fishing weighted nymphs below the surface and need to mend line, or when you are casting a ways out in complex currents and you need to mend. You gain a little range on the longer rods – but not as much as you think – it's not a 1:1 relationship because the rods and lines are not parallel to the water surface.

The real design feature we were shooting for with the Hane is its very short collapsed length, so it can be stowed inside or on the side of a small pack without sticking out, and its reinforced outer tube so the case can be discarded. The little bit of added durability is nice because I also use it as a rear pole for my flat tarp (I find myself using trekking poles a bit less these days, and often carry only one, if any), and I rig it as a pole extender so I can use my (one) trekking pole with a pyramid tarp, with a simple round lashing using P-cord or similar along the grip.

It also stows completely inside a packraft paddle shaft :)

Having said all this, I still plan to keep my long (13') Tenkara rod for bigger water in the off season when I'm mostly nymphing and streamer twitching.

Ryan,

Please don't laugh (too hard, anyway), but would this rod work OK rigged up with the leader fixed up to a bobber, sinker, and hook baited with a bit of night crawler?

In the good old days, caught a lot of fish with that kind of rig tied to a cane pole about 10' feet long.

>its reinforced outer tube so the case can be discarded.

Does this mean that the Hane has a stronger outer tube than the other tenkaras? Do you need a rod case to protect the iwana?

Richard — you don't want to do this.

First, that's too much weight for the limber tip of a Tenkara rod.

Second, there's moral issues involved… ;)

RJ

>In the good old days, caught a lot of fish with that kind of rig tied to a cane pole about 10' feet long.

You can do that with a trekking pole.

>>In the good old days, caught a lot of fish with that kind of rig tied to a cane pole about 10' feet long.

>You can do that with a trekking pole.

Not with my Titanium Goat poles! Maybe a Leki.

Wonder what a cane pole weighs?

How about using cane poles for pack stays? :)

just a heads up.. Ryan posted yesterday that there is NO lifetime warranty on these rods due to their limited run..
Not a big deal to some, but to a broke hiker, who can sometimes be just a little to hard on their gear its definitely something to take into account..

#$%! I wanted a hane…

neither me or my gorilla will appreciate an extra 4 inches of rod length or a non reinforced base… Poo!!

Daniel at Tenkara USA says the breakages he's had on his rods are from misuse – too heavy a tippet, not collapsing the rods straight, or smashing the tip section in a car door!

I've been using these rods for months now, and will not hesitate to get on of these when they become available.

Or you could go with the graphite crappie pole from Cabelas, which breaks really easily, but who cares since it's only $20! (It also has lousy action for flyfishing!)

Lack of a lifetime warranty is not a big deal!

Where did he post that?

I notice he says there will be extra tips available for breakages. I wonder what they cost.

Hey, sorry for borrowing your thread but could someone tell me whether or not fly fishing is a good idea for a beginner with absolutely no experience in fishing? thanks =)