TenkaraBum Store
Lines, Line Holders, Tippet

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Tenkara Lines

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Use the lightest line you can get away with. I use size 3 for seiryu rods, 5:5 tenkara rods and for most 6:4 rods and size 3.5 for almost everything else. Size 4 is good for beginners learning to cast and for breezy days. Use 4.5 only with the stiffest rods, windy days or wind resistant flies. More info...

Sunline Tenkara Buttobi Level Line - $18.00 for 30 meters

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Compared to Sunline, it is also a bit easier to stretch the line to remove the memory. Compared to the Nissin line it is a bit harder. More info...

The Yamatoyo line comes in sizes 3, 3.5 and 4.

Yamatoyo Tenkara Level line - $19 for 50 meters

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Fujino White tapered nylon tenkara line - $15.50

Fujino Midi tapered nylon tenkara line - $15.50

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At the Oni School in Salt Lake City, Tenkara no Oni cast a 10 meter line, and then had the students casting a 10 meter line! I prefer to fish with shorter lines, but the Fujino Soft Tenkara Long Type that Oni used at the school is an excellent training device. With good form, you can cast a 7, 8, or 9 meter line. With bad form, you can't. This line will help you improve your casting by letting you know when your form is correct.

And, if you do want to fish with long lines - these are the lines that Oni recommends. More info...

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Sunline Tenkara Tapered Line

Sunline makes two tapered tenkara lines. Both are clear fluorocarbon and both are 8m long. The difference is in the size of the butt portion and in the length of the taper.

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Keiryu Line and Markers

Technically, this is a line for ayu fishing rather than keiryu fishing, but it is the right size to use as a tenjo line for most of the keiryu rods I carry. It is an extremely bright fluorescent orange, so it is much more visible than the clear or black lines that keiryu anglers use. It is thinner than 3X tippet, so it has little weight and minimal line sag.

The tenjo line (translates as "heaven" or "sky" line) is the upper portion of a three piece keiryu line. It is hi-vis so you can get a sense of where you line is during the cast. It is thicker than your main line to reduce tangles and so that you should never lose it to snags (the weaker tippet should always break first). Attach it to your lillian with a girth hitch. I use between 3' for the 4.5m keiryu rods up to 6' for the 6+m rods. Tying a tippet ring to the other end makes attaching the main line easier.

The middle portion of the keiyu line is the main line, for which you can use fluorocarbon tippet material anywhere from 4X to 8X, depending on the rod and how light you want to go. The markers are tied to this section of line. I tie a tippet ring to the end of the main line.

The third portion of the keiryu line is the "hook length" (British term) or actual "tippet," to which the split shot is clamped and to which your hook is attached.

Sunline Tenjo Line, Fluoro, size 1.25 - $15

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Owner Pro Marker spools.  6m per spool.

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Sighter Material

The TenkaraBum Tactical Nymphing Sighter provides unmatched flexibility to match sighter colors to the water and lighting conditions. Each line section has white, fluorescent orange and fluorescent chartreuse, with each color separated by opaque black.

White is the most stealthy. If you have trouble seeing the white because of foam or white water, you can cut a sighter that is chartreuse over white, or orange over white or even orange over chartreuse over white.

Use 0X or -2X fluorocarbon tippet material as your tenkara line, then the TenkaraBum Tactical Nymphing Sighter, then your regular tippet.

If you want to experiment with nylon as a  tenkara line, there's no better way to do it than with the TenkaraBum Tactical Nymphing Sighter. You might decide you prefer fluorocarbon. In that case, you still have very useful sighter material. The .013 sighter is Japanese size 4 line. The .011 is Japanese size 3 line. The .008 sighter is size 1.5, which is probably too small to bother with unless you fish with the Air Stage Hakubai 190. The sighters are shorter than you would want to fish with (except with the 190), but it is easy to tie two sighters together with a surgeon's knot, blood knot or back-to-back Uni knots. 

TenkaraBum Tactical Nymphing Sighter .011" - $8

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Line Holders

The Fuji EZ Keepers offer a convenient way to manage your line when you collapse your rod. Perhaps their biggest advantages are that you will not get line twist and your fully rigged and collapsed rod fits inside the Tenkara USA rod sock or Ebira rod quiver so you can be ready to fish in seconds. More info...

Fuji EZ Keepers Package of one - $4

For tenkara rods, you will need two EZ Keepers.

They come one per package.

You must buy two packages to get two EZ Keepers!

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People really like the Fuji EZ Keepers as a way to manage your line when you move from spot to spot, or even to keep your rod fully rigged and ready to go at a moment's notice. However, these small tenkara line holders offer some advantages, too.

First, you can easily keep a line fully rigged - with tippet and fly or flies attached even after you have taken the line off the rod. Second, if you are fishing multiple flies it is a bit easier to secure both flies safely with the round spool than with the EZ Keepers. If you have lines of different lengths (recommended) you might want more than one line holder.  More info...

Chibi Maru - Small Tenkara Line Holders (package of two) - $10

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Tippet

Varivas Nylon Tippet

Varivas Super Tippet Master Spec  has a resin coating and a "non stress" coating that is supposed to make it more abrasion resistant and also resistant to kinking.

50-meter spool - $16  More info...

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Varivas Fluorocarbon Tippet

Varivas Master Spec is also available in fluorocarbon. Although I generally use nylon tippets, many anglers prefer fluorocarbon when fishing wet flies and nymphs. Fluorocarbon's greater density does make it sink better than nylon, and the refractive index is much closer to that of water so fluorocarbon is less visible. 30 meter spool.

Sizes -2X, 0X and 1X are equivalent to Japanese line sizes 4, 3 and 2.5, respectively. You can use them as clear, ultra stealthy tenkara line.

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Fujino Tippet

Tenkara Tippet by Fujino (probably the largest producer of tippet in Japan). Sizes range from 3.6X (Japanese size 1.2), which is the maximum recommended by Nissin for most of its tenkara rods, through 6.5X (Japanese size .5) which is the maximum recommended by Suntech and Nissin for rods like the Kurenai, Air Stage and Royal Stage seiryu rods, the 450ZX soft and the Pocket Mini. 30 meter spools.

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Carp Tippet

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Tippet Rings

Tippet rings are a handy way to tie tippet onto your line or to tie droppers onto you tippet if you fish with multiple flies. I especially like them for constructing keiryu lines, which consist of different diameters of very light line.

These are the tippet rings sold by Stonfo in Italy. They come on a very handy split ring so you can easily tie your line or tippet to the tippet ring before removing the tippet ring from the split ring. No more lost rings!

Tippet Rings (package of 10) - $8.50

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Horsehair Line Kit

I no longer sell the Horsehair Line Kit. The full set of instructions for making a horsehair line are on the Horsehair Lines page.

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Shipping

Domestic shipping is $4, via USPS First Class Mail (unless ordered with an item that must go via Priority Mail, and which has a higher shipping charge). The charge is added to your order automatically.

Please note: All packages are shipped via USPS. If you have a PO Box, please list ONLY the PO Box in your address, not the PO Box and your street address.

If you live in an apartment, please put the apartment number on the same line in the order form as the your street address, for example

John Doe
123 Main St Apt 4
Yourtown, XX 12345

Just leave the second line blank! Please! It takes you more time to put something in it and it takes me more time to take it back out. If you need it for a business name, use it. Otherwise, please leave it blank. No dashes, no nothing.

The charge for international shipping depends on the destination country, the weight of the package, the overall length of the package and the value of the package.

Import Duties and Taxes

International purchases may be subject to import duties and taxes. I cannot keep track of all import regulations in all countries written in all languages. Understanding and paying import duties and taxes is the responsibility of the buyer.

Priority Mail Upgrade

In many cases, my standard shipping (USPS First Class) is just as fast as Priority Mail - but not always. If you want your line or other small items to be mailed via Priority Mail (normally 2-3 day delivery anywhere in the US) there is an extra fee of $4. If you order a rod at the same time as the line, do not add the $4 because rods are already shipped via Priority Mail.

Priority Mail Upgrade - Additional $4

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