How not to break a beautiful Tenkara Rod!

by Martin
(Mustang, OK)

My wife and I had stopped by the Roaring River Trout Park in southwest MO on the way to Branson for an hour of Tenkara fishing fun. I set up my wife’s Kurenai HM33R with a size 16 beadhead flash back pheasant tail nymph and a rainbow warrior trailer. I was using my Amago with a similar rig. We had been fishing for about 45 minutes and moved down stream slowly trying to entice one of the rainbows. I looked downstream for a moment and noticed this “oh crap” look on the wife’s face and she was holding the Kurenai’s handle only in her hand. I looked to the right in the river and the majority of her rod and line was holding position in the fast current. I immediately pulled up my line and walked down to her. As I got to her I noticed the line was pointing to the bottom so I cast out my line in hopes of catching it to retrieve the rod. After about three casts I was able to snag her line and pull it in to the bank. I also noticed the line felt tight so as I retrieved it sure enough their was a trout on one of her flies. As I pulled the line in closer to the bank the trout was not cooperating and finally broke off just at our feet.

So what caused this catastrophic rod failure? My wife was repositioning herself a few feet closer to the ware in the faster water where you could see the rainbows on the bottom. During the move she was dragging her flies in the water. Sure enough one of those hungry, aggressive rainbows came up and grabbed one of the flies. Once the trout had the fly it immediately went to deeper water. My wife, being caught off guard, pulled up on the rod with the surprise and enthusiasm that resulted in a snap at the rod handle. The remainder of the story is told above.

Moral of this unfortunate event that resulted in the destruction of our beautiful Kurenai rod is first do not drag your fly in the water when moving around. But most importantly do not let yourself be under gunned when fishing. We had used the Kurenai numerous times catching lots of fish. I had even caught a 14” large mouth bass on it at a local pond at home. I got complacent in thinking we had a correct rod for this situation. Should I have let my wife use one of my stouter rods for this fishing situation? Probably. Could the same outcome have occurred? Possibly. Luckily I have four other Tenkara rods in my quiver. Be well! Fish on!

“The bitterness of poor quality remains long after the sweetness of low price is forgotten” - Benjamin Franklin

"Be sure in casting, that your fly fall first into the water, for if the line fall first, it scares or frightens the fish..." -
Col. Robert Venables 1662

As age slows my pace, I will become more like the heron.