Editors Note: The Kickstarter for the Tenkara Rod Co. Kita has ended. If you missed it, limited quantities of the Kita have been made available for “at once” purchase on the TRC website.
If you’ve been watching the Tenkara Rod Co.’s YouTube channel, you may have noticed that they’ve taken a little break from posting their Western Native Trout Challenge videos. Instead, we’ve seen a few videos of the guys fishing for rainbow trout in the Azores. Yep, the guys are in the middle of the Atlantic Ocean stalking the finned residents.
Probably not too coincidentally, they’re also seen fishing two brand new rods in these videos. The Kita series (330cm & 380cm), that will be launching for pre-sell this week – Tuesday, May 24th – on Kickstarter. Similar to the very popular Yari, released in 2021, the limited edition Kita rods are also made in Japan.
Tenkara gear aficionados were quick to identify the manufacturer of the Yari as Tenryu. A maker who is well known for their high-performance Furaibo series of tenkara rods. However, the Kita rods are made by a different Japanese company, one that I’m sure those with a keen eye will be able to identify rather quickly due to some somewhat unique design cues. That should bode well for prospective Kita owners. The other rods this company produces are excellent, traditional Japanese tenkara rods.
According to Tenkara Rod Co.’s Drew Hollenback:
“…we are working with a small Japanese rod maker to make these in 330cm and 380cm. The 330cm is 1.9oz and the 380cm is 2.4oz so these rods are extremely lightweight and have a very delicate and precise cast to them. The one thing with the Yari is they are so so expensive for us to make and so the price has to be high. The nice thing about the Kita is we will be able to sell them at a lower price but still provide a Japanese made rod to people…”
By the time you read this post, the Tenkara Rod Co. Kita Kickstarter may already be in flight with a ton more information than I’m able to provide today. However, here’s a bit more on each rod that was provided by a recent promotional email.
- 330: This is a fantastic small stream size. The Kita 330cm has a weight of 2.2 oz and is 99% carbon fiber. We recommend the Kita 330 for fish in the 6-16 inch range, though it can handle bigger.
- 380: The Kita 380 cm is your go to rod for any small to medium sized creek as long as you don’t have a lot of overhang. We recommend the 380cm for fish in the 8-20 inch range, though it can handle bigger.
We’ll insert a link to the Tenkara Rod Co. Kita Kickstarter HERE once it goes live.
For those that are interested, (and you should be), good luck on those early bird deals and happy backing!
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