I go over the rods in this video: Cheap Non-Tenkara Rods Stiff AliExpress Rod Cigarette One (AliExpress) Stiff AliExpress Rod Tanago-Handled One (Couldn’t find a link) Stiff AliExpress Rod Silvery One (AliExpress) White tanago-handled one (1.5 m) (AliExpress) White tanago-handled one (2.7 m, not 3.6m like I said in the video) (AliExpress) Generic Yellow Bamboo Rods (7x) I have 7 of these in various lengths, namely 180 (2x; 1 has a cork handle), 210, 240 (cork handle), 270 (cork handle), 300, and 360. These are all the same rod just in different sizes. Here and here are two di ..read more

In this video I go over all of the tenkara, tenkara-adjacent, and tenkara-ish rods I own. (Click here if you can’t see the video below.) Contact me here if you have one of the rods I’m looking for. If you want to jump directly to a specific rod in the video, go view the video on YouTube, and all of the time stamps are in the video description. (Note that the Amazon links below are affiliate links.) CHEAP NON-TENKARA RODS Generic yellow “bamboo” rods (7x) • I have 7 of these in various lengths, namely 180 (2x; 1 has a cork handle), 210, 240 (cork handle), 270 (cork handle), 300, and 360. • The ..read more

I’m new to tenkara. What rod should I get? I have Rod X and am looking for Rod Y to do such-and-such kind of fishing. What should I get? I now get asked these questions daily, and I am unable to answer them all individually. In addition, most of the time the asker doesn’t give me enough information to be able to give a good answer (e.g., the exact size of stream, the amount of cover on the stream, the exact budget, the fish they’ll be going for, etc.). People often say they want to fish “small streams,” but that is not helpful information. Essentially all tenkara rods are made to fish small ..read more

There were a couple of interesting comments on the last blog post wondering why I bothered with super cheap tenkara rods, referring to the bargain basement AliExpress and Amazon rods that I sometimes fish with (and that I talk about more in this video). Steve said: What I don’t understand, at least in my view, is why bother with buying the cheap Chinese sticks. I know they’re $8-$12 or whatever, but why waste money on them? Now I think they would be an excellent pick if you wanted to hand a tenkara rod to someone who’s never fished before, or even better, a young child to teach them the basic ..read more

I currently own a dozen “real” tenkara/seiryu/keiryu rods and a dozen cheap Chinese fixed-line rods. I like fishing with a wide variety of rods. It’s fun for me to do. It makes for interesting Tenkara Addict videos. And it makes me a more well-rounded and better-informed angler. When I made a video a few months ago about the rods I have, I got a few comments in this vein: I thought tenkara was supposed to be simple. The implication here was that because I have many rods to choose from, that complicates things. Because I have many rods, tenkara is no longer simple. Choice is apparently antit ..read more

I got this comment on one of my Instagram (@tenkaraaddict) photos: I wonder if you could do a video of the resources you have used to learn tenkara. That would be a very short video. I learned tenkara by convincing a friend (who had been tenkara fishing for a couple of years) to teach me. We went out together maybe 6 or 8 times early on, and we still get together to fish when I’m in the area. If you don’t have someone who can teach you, going out with a guide a time or two will be well worth it. Apart from that, I fished a ton on my own and learned a lot that way about things like where fish ..read more

Editor’s Note: I woke up one morning to find the following trip report on my doorstep. It had been written on rice paper, carefully placed inside of a bamboo tube, and delivered by overnight red-crowned crane. I have decided to publish it here in its entirety. -Tristan I wake up at 5:30 am Tokyo time. I slip on my Montbell wading boots and turn on the remote start in the Honda to warm it on this chilly afternoon in early August. The mountains are calling, and I must go. It is time to become one with the tenkara. It is time to become the tenkara.  After stopping at Trader Joe’s to fuel up ..read more

Fishing a creek in Utah back in late January. I have indeed “paid off” the Mizuchi. I don’t remember if it was in a comment on one of my videos or through a direct message conversation we had, but GoFishSD on YouTube told me how he justifies buying a new rod: When he’s caught 1 fish per $1 spent on a rod, he can buy a new one. I think this is a great idea! Some of my rods (like my Dragontail Mizuchi and Zen Tenkara Suzume, for example) have definitely been “paid off” in that regard. Others, like the $266 Tanuki XL-1, which I’ve caught maybe 25 fish on, still have a ways to go. I don’t think th ..read more

The new rod I do not need more tenkara rods. I have all the rods I need to cover the kinds of waters I fish and the kinds of fish I target. But I do want more tenkara rods. I like alternating fishing with my different rods, and I like trying out new ones. It’s just fun for me. And like I’ve heard Tom of Teton Tenkara say a couple times (I believe once in this interview and once in this interview), I want to know for myself what these rods feel like. As much as I appreciate the rod reviews of people like Tom, I want to find out for myself what something is like, I don’t feel comfortable talking ..read more

Here’s a question from Travis: I see you lay down your rod on your YouTube videos. Do you ever take it apart and let it dry? Tenkarabum suggests doing this after every trip but seems overkill to me. The rod doesn’t always get wet when I lay it down (e.g., when I place it on some grass next to the creek). In that case, I don’t bother taking it apart. But if it gets wet, yes, I take it apart and let it dry. Sometimes when I forget to do that, the next time I’m extending the rod to fish with it, it smells like stink water. Not something I want. Leave your own answer in the comments below ..read more