Crafting a DIY Iwana-shiro Tenkara Rod

Article by Devin McPhillips

A few months ago I was wondering if I needed a 10-ft 6-in-ish rod and was also coveting the bamboo-handled version of the Tenkara-no-Oni Itoshiro. I decided the Oni rod was too extravagant (and still a bit too long) but the bamboo stayed in my mind. Eventually, I assembled an intermediate-length, bamboo-handled rod myself, which I dubbed the “Iwana-shiro”.

Editor’s note: Check out Jason Klass’ discussion of the bamboo-handled Itoshiro

My first tenkara rod was a 12 foot Tenkara USA Iwana, and I’ve always enjoyed fishing with it when the conditions are right. But I quickly found that it is too long for many of my local streams. My standby is the Tanuki Headwaters 240 (7ft 10 in). I still sometimes bring the Iwana as a backup, especially on windy days or for weighted flies, or for warm water poppers.

The inspiration for a D.I.Y. project came when I read that Tenkara USA once sold a conversion kit for the Iwana—you could swap out the lowest section and turn the 12 foot Iwana into the old 11 foot Iwana. The kit is no longer available, but Tenkara USA did sell me a spare second section (counting up from the handle). A quick consult with Chris Stewart at TenkaraBum convinced me that adding a generic grip to the spare second section was plausible, if less robust than the original. From there, I went in search of the right piece of bamboo.

Bamboo grows more or less wild along the fence in my yard, leftover from a previous owner’s landscaping. The little grove catches a lot of leaves when the wind blows. I found that I had to rake out the accumulated duff to find the best wood for rod handles. Bamboo is segmented, and the the lowest part of the plant has the highest density of segments. Closely spaced segments make a comfortably knobby grip and provide more interior surface area for epoxy to adhere to the rod blank.

I chose a relatively short length of bamboo because wood is heavy and the final rod is short. After sawing the ends clean and drilling down the long axis, I let the wood dry for a few weeks and then sealed it with linseed oil. When the other parts arrived in the mail, I slathered some epoxy on the blank and assembled the cork foregrip, bamboo grip, and aluminum butt cap.

The final product is 10 feet 3 inches and 19 pennies (compared to 21 and 23 for the 11 foot and 12 foot versions, respectively). This corresponds to an RFI of about 6.2, just a bit lower than the 12 foot Iwana. (Thanks, Tom Davis!) It weighs a hefty 121 grams, but because of all the mass in the handle, the swing weight is low.

As it happens, I bought a Suntech Kurenai AR33F over the course of this project. The two rods are interesting to fish one after the other: they are end-members in the category of “10-11 foot rods for casting fixed level lines”. The Iwana-shiro is stiff, and the Kurenai is soft, but both rods can do more or less everything I want them to do. I cast a thin #3 level line with the Iwana-shiro, and I’ve landed a 13 inch rainbow with the Kurenai. Choosing between them has more to do with style than functionality, at least for the streams near me. I do like the combination of the larger-diameter bamboo grip with the stiffer rod—it seems to provide more connection when I need to put more energy into the cast.

My creation is far less elegant than the real Itoshiro, but I’m happy to keep using my old Iwana in a new form!

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Devin McPhillips and his son, Owen, are tenkara anglers and fly tiers in Southern California. 

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