About Tenkara Rod Co.
Tenkara Rod Co. is an Idaho tenkara maker run by its two founders, Drew, who grew up in Japan, and Tuna, a fly angler of more than twenty years. They came across tenkara in 2010, took to how simple it was to learn and to carry, and set out to design a rod anyone could pick up and catch a fish with. The company describes its headquarters as within an hour of some of the best trout water in the country and credits Idaho's geography with shaping the rods. It does not publish a founding year or city.
The current line is four carbon-fiber telescopic rods, each sold as a package with a rod sock, tube and the Kebari Kit of furled line, a dozen flies, a walnut line holder and tippet. The Sawtooth (12 ft, 3.2 oz, medium action) is the all-rounder the company recommends first and has been fished on Alaskan salmon over 15 lb; the Sierra (10.5 ft, 2.8 oz) is a very soft small-water rod; the White Cloud (8 ft, 2.1 oz) is the shortest and softest, for tiny creeks and children. The Backpackr, funded on Kickstarter in 2025 with more than $130,000, is a triple-zoom (10'10", 11'10", 12'10") that packs to 13.5 in across 14 segments at 2.8 oz. Earlier models, the Beartooth, Rocky, Teton Zoom, Kita and Yari, are discontinued and survive only as replacement sections.
Rods sell direct from the company's store alongside lines, flies, packs and apparel, with individual sections available for the current and past models.
What Tenkara Rod Co. is known for
The Sawtooth is the reference rod, a 12 ft medium-action all-rounder and the company's first recommendation for a beginner with room to cast; the Sierra and White Cloud cover small and tiny water, and the 2025 Backpackr is the packable triple-zoom. The brand is known for selling every rod as a ready-to-fish package with line, flies, line holder and tippet included, and for a Kickstarter-launched pack rod that closes to 13.5 in. In this catalog it sits with Tenkara USA, DRAGONtail Tenkara and Wasatch Tenkara Rods among the US makers.