About DRAGONtail Tenkara
DRAGONtail Tenkara was founded in 2013 by Brent Auger and Brandon Moon and operates from Pocatello, Idaho, under the parent company Cub River Outfitters LLC. Its stated aim from the start was tenkara gear at prices a beginner can afford, and it has become one of the larger US tenkara brands on that basis: every rod in the range lists under $175 with a sock, and every section of every rod, current or discontinued, is sold as an individually priced replacement part. Auger designs the rods around how he fishes and publishes third-party measurements from Tom Davis of Teton Tenkara, so most listings carry Common Cents System pennies, a Rod Flex Index and a rotational moment alongside length and weight.
The current line is ten rods. The HYDRA v2 395 is the all-purpose triple-zoom (10.5' to 13'), the Shadowfire 365 the 12 ft value rod, and the Ragnarok 400 a 13.3 ft tip-soft rod built as the successor to the earlier NIRVANA 400. The HELLbender is the 7:3 big-fish rod, zooming between 11.3' and 13' on an IM12 blank rated to 3X tippet. The IceWING zx390 is the softest rod in the range. The small-stream and pack rods are the Mizuchi zx340 (7.9' to 11.1' from one blank), the two-length Kaida zx320, the fiberglass-hybrid FoxFIRE zx280 triple-zoom, and the pocket rods TalonMINI 310 and TinyTALON 245, which close to about 12 in and 11 in. Earlier models such as the Talon, MUTANT zx380, Shadowfire 360 and first-generation HYDRA survive only as parts listings.
DRAGONtail also distributes the Korean-built NIRVANA Kokoro rods and sells lines, kebari, fly-tying materials, nets, waders and boots. Rods sell direct from its own store with a one-time discounted rod-replacement warranty.
What DRAGONtail Tenkara is known for
The HYDRA v2 395 all-purpose triple-zoom and the 12 ft Shadowfire 365 are the entry points, and the HELLbender is the rod the brand is best known for: a 7:3 two-length zoom for bass and trout to 22 in. Its mark on the US tenkara market is price and parts: rods under $175, every section sold separately, and published CCS, RFI and rotational-moment figures on most models. The Mizuchi zx340 zoom and the TalonMINI and TinyTALON pocket rods cover backpackers. It also distributes the NIRVANA Kokoro rods. In this catalog it sits with Tenkara USA, Tenkara Adventure Outfitters and Wasatch Tenkara Rods.