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| Two collapsed sub $10 5.5' and 7' rods at top with an 9' foot all-fishing-buy rod and 11' fountain head rod at bottom. |
I've been an extremely casual fly fisherman since I was a kid. I've always enjoyed exploring mountain streams and practicing casting more then actually catching fish. In the last few years I've found that
Tenkara
is a great match for my style, the gear is simple and light enough to carry on a hike where fishing is only an afterthought.
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| A few casts on an overnight trip in the cascades. |
Tenkara USA and Tenkara Bum sell a variety of nice rods, I've had good luck with my cheaper
11' Fountainhead Stonefly and a cheap 9' rod I bought from
all fishing buy for brushy creeks.
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| Working my way up a small stream with minimal gear on a warm day. |
My young nephew has started to express an interest in fishing so I decided to see what was out there in terms of cheap and short rods. In turns out that you can find a variety of rods on amazon and ebay using searches like"
Como Telescopic Fishing Rod For Travel
."
I bough two, a "
Retractable 7 Sections Telescopic Blue Fishing Rod 2.1M
" (about 7') and a "
1.7M Length 6 Sections Fresh Water Telescoping Fishing Pole Rod Yellow Black
" (about 5.5'). I bought both from the seller uxcell and they showed up in a single package after a couple of weeks.
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| Current conditions are not the sort I fish in. |
I haven't had a chance to use these rods yet but I'm initially impressed by them for the price. The shorter one feels a bit dead due to the short length but the 7 foot one seems lively enough to enjoy casting with. I'm looking forward to trying them as an ultralight option for myself in addition to teaching my nephew with them.
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| Both my rods came ready to fish with firmly attached lillians. |
They lack any sort of handle but are extremely light and compact. One user review on amazon compares the rod to an unfinished blank and suggests fashioning a handle on ones own. The small diamater of the grip region will be nice for my nephews small hands though I may add some cork road bike handle bar grip tape.
I plan to set them up with
TenkaraBum Hi-Vis Fluorocarbon and tape some paper clips to the rod as a line holder. I'll start my nephew out with a short, easy to manage line but i'm I'm curious to experiment with using a longer line on them for more reach. I may also pick up a longer (12-15') one for myself at some point as even my 11' Stonefly is a bit short for larger alpine lakes. Building ones own "zoom" mechanism to allow a variable length rod would also be a fun project.
