About Wasatch Tenkara Rods
Wasatch Tenkara Rods is a Utah-based maker named for the Wasatch Range, co-founded by Ruben Garza, whose background is in carbon-fiber composite manufacturing and customer service, and Nathan Sutherland, who came to the company from fly fishing. The team describes itself as backcountry guides with military, manufacturing and sales backgrounds, and its stated approach is to design the rod for the way a customer fishes rather than follow tradition for its own sake. Blanks are stress-tested, then fished by guides and competition anglers before release, and every rod carries a warranty with replacement sections.
The range runs from the smallest to the longest tenkara rods in this catalog. At the compact end the Snub Nose IV zooms from 4' to 5'6" at 1.1 oz, the Darth Quattro from 5'6" to 8'6", and the fixed 8'5" MothRod weighs 1.9 oz. The triple-zoom family covers the middle: Maruki Sharpshooter (6' to 9'), Baby RodZilla (8' to 10'), Hankyu Middle Fork (9' to 12'), Akai Samurai (11' to 13') and Daikyu T-Hunter (12' to 15'). Most of these are offered in a choice of two flex profiles, 5:5, 6:4, 7:3 or 8:2, sold as separate builds. Above them sit the big-water rods, all 8:2: the RodZilla (16' / 17'6"), the glow-in-the-dark Siyco (14'6" / 16'), the Mega RodZilla (18' / 19'6"), the 20'2" Phoenix Rising and the 24'4" Open Waters, rods the maker lists for salmon, bass and snook as well as trout.
Every rod uses a carbon-fiber blank with a swivel lillian, aluminum butt cap, cork or foam reversed half-wells handle, and ships with a microfiber sock and carbon-fiber tube. Prices run $163 to $275, direct from the company's store.
What Wasatch Tenkara Rods is known for
The Hankyu Middle Fork triple-zoom (9' to 12') is the centrepiece of the range and the Daikyu T-Hunter (12' to 15') its big triple-zoom, both sold in two flex profiles. The brand is known for pushing tenkara past its usual limits: the RodZilla, Mega RodZilla, Phoenix Rising and 24'4" Open Waters are 8:2 big-water rods for salmon-class fish, and the Siyco is a full glow-in-the-dark rod for night fishing. At the other end the 1.1 oz Snub Nose IV zooms from 4' to 5'6". Most models come in a choice of 5:5, 6:4, 7:3 or 8:2 actions. In this catalog it sits with Tenkara USA, Tenkara Tanuki and Tenkara Adventure Outfitters.