Here’s our foolproof guide to an effective tenkara rod setup process. Following this will help you avoid frustration and potential accidental breakages of your line or even your rod!
The #1 Tenkara Rod Setup “SNAFU”…
The biggest culprit of broken tenkara rod tips is the temptation to fiddle with line where it attaches to the rod WHILE THE TIP IS EXTENDED. This is a very bad idea…
Ready for the golden rule? Whenever you touch the “lilian” (the cord at the tip of the rod), the delicate rod-tip must be hidden inside the handle-section. As a double safeguard, you should trap the lillian against the rim of that section with the thumb or index finger. Watch the video below to see how:
Ok, so the video above shows how to attach your line using a “girth hitch” knot when there is a “transition loop” of soft cord added to the butt-end of your casting line. We’ll soon add extra information on making the special level-line sliding knot for attaching directly to the lillian.
** ESSENTIAL TIPS: How to Choose Tippet Length and Casting Line Length **
Attaching a line is all well and good. How do you choose how long that piece of line should be? This article on Tenkara Line Length is the best way to work out exactly what you need for that.
Once you have that choice nailed down, you’ll need to know what length of tippet to cut off and attach as well: Our Tenkara Tippet Length article has got you covered for that!
Next you’ll need to know STRONG KNOTS…
Use Strong, Simple Knots
You can use a number of different knots when setting up your tenkara rod and line. Many different options will work really well. BUT, the most common knots that are suggested have a big weakness. Literally. When line wraps across the knot in certain ways, it will actually cut through itself.
Here are some of the knots that suffer from this in nylon and fluorocarbon:
- Clinch knot, Or even the Improved Clinch Knot
- The Ishigaki “One Knot”
- The two-turn or three-turn Water Knot
In JP’s tests, all of these knots only retained less than half the breaking strain of the un-knotted line.
This means that you might think you are fishing with line of 4lb breaking strain – but those popular knots reduce this to less than 2lb breaking strain. For a fixed-line method like tenkara, that is a big problem. The ones shown in the next video are really strong and simple to tie. You just need to practice them on the couch a few times before going out fishing!
N.B. Watch this space as we update to knots that are of similar strength – but even easier to tie!
When it comes to what tenkara fly to tie on, then there are lots of good choices in the article on this link: https://www.discovertenkara.com/blog/tenkara-flies
How to Extend and Collapse your Tenkara Rod
After tip breakages due to the #1 SNAFU above, the next biggest risk of rod breakage comes from collapsing the rod. Our own data – from supplying customers with replacement sections – tells us that “section 2” is the most vulnerable. This is the second section of the rod, counting backwards from the tip.
It might surprise you that this does not often happen during fishing. Instead, it is when the angler is pushing “section two” and “section three” towards each other in order to collapse the joint. The mistake that causes this is to hold the rod blank too far away from the joint. This is made worse by the fact that these two joints are often pulled very tightly together when landing big fish.
** Quick Stuck Tip Fix **
The trick is to use a patch of that “non-slip” matting that you can get for the bottom of drawers when you grip the rod. Pinch the matting firmly onto the blank and grip as CLOSE to the stuck joint as you possibly can. You might need to apply warm water to loosen a joint that is really stuck fast.
It’s a great idea to carry some of that non-slip matting with you – and an even better one to carry a small square of microfibre cloth to dry off your rod before collapsing it at the end of the day.
The Importance of Sequence
Before you even get to stuck joints, you need to avoid another pitfall. All breakages are made more likely by using the wrong sequence to extend a tenkara rod. You need to make sure the right method and routine is a cast-iron habit.
If you don’t then it is possible for the sections of your rod to “shuffle” inside the larger, hollow sections. When those sections get out of sequence, it is impossible to collapse them together again. Then you need to reverse the whole lot out of the thick end of the handle. The other risk is that you end up putting too much load on the middle and tip sections of the rod if you extend lower sections before upper sections.
Instead, here is the rule for a foolproof tenkara rod setup sequence:
- Always EXTEND the rod with the tip section first, followed in sequence by each section (going one thicker each time) and never rest the handle on the floor
- Always COLLAPSE the rod from the butt-section first – and follow in sequence with each section (going one narrower each time).
Watch the video below to see the correct sequence of extending your tenkara rod:
To collapse the rod, just reverse the process shown above. Notice, also, that managing your line is an important way of avoiding frustration.
Line Management in your Tenkara Rod Setup Process
Use your thumb on the spool (shown in the video above) to stop coils of line jumping off and tangling. Another important step is to stretch out any coils that are in your line BEFORE you fish. We don’t use the “EZ-Keeper” type of line management in our own fishing. If you do use any of those “on-the-rod” holders, you must take care that they don’t kink your line.
It is best to save them for using with furled thread casting lines because they have zero “line memory”. If you don’t use those kind of lines, then you should avoid this style of line-winder. Click Here for a full breakdown of the advantages and disadvantages of different tenkara lines.
Managing Long lines and line-twist
See the video above for a foolproof way to remove line-twist when winding up your casting line onto the spool. Even though it is possible to draw those twists all the way down the line to the rod-tip (and then let the tip spin inside the handle), a long casting line will usually tangle before you finish that move! On wet days the tip will also “stick” inside the handle – and this stops that trick from working too.
Tenkara Rod Setup: Summary
To help you quickly get into great habits, below is a quick list of the most important points to remember when setting up your tenkara rod:
- ALWAYS hide the tip of the rod when you are handling the “lillian” cord
- Avoid line-breakage by using strong, simple knots to make up your casting line, tippet and fly rig (The MOST COMMONLY RECOMMENDED KNOTS tend to be weak)
- Extend the rod by pulling out the tip first and pulling out each section in the sequence that INCREASES the section diameter by one step each time
- Collapse the rod from the Handle first, and then drawing each section back inside in the sequence that DECREASES in diameter by one step each time
- Never hold the rod with your hands far apart when you collapse each section (instead grip the blank either side of the joint as close to that joint as physically possible)
I hope that you find the above guide useful – and do look out for updates coming soon.
If you know someone who could benefit from these instructions, use the social share buttons on this page to spread the word!
Paul
