Yama, Yuki… Brookie!!

Article by Dre Fornasiero

It started one day while scrolling Instagram. I noticed a post from Tenkara Angler that featured a new rod from Tenkara USA, the Yama. Like many of us, my tenkara journey started with a Tenkara USA rod, so I was immediately intrigued. The Yama is what I would call a pack rod, not so compact as a “pocket rod” but slightly shorter than a standard rod. Truthfully, I find all tenkara rods to be extremely packable, but with a smaller collapsed size, a reasonable length (11 ft), and a bare handle, this rod caught my attention. I reached out to Mike and asked if I could borrow TA’s test rod for a little while to see how it fished.

As always, my interactions with Mike were great, and he kindly obliged… with one caveat: “Write an article about a trip or write a review about the rod.” I agreed, and in a week or so the rod arrived. One reason I found the Yama particularly intriguing was that I’d noticed a trend among my clients: they are carrying shorter and lighter rods. On top of that, I’d just dumped an absurd amount of money on an ultralight backpacking setup that I was dying to get out into the woods. Additionally, this was a chance to take my dog on her first solo trip to get her used to sleeping under the stars.

The Trip

I’ve been wanting to take my Akita, Yuki, on an overnighter into one of my favorite places in the Iowa Driftless for quite some time. It’s a beautiful, scenic valley that boasts the last native brook trout population in the state. The creek is narrow and overgrown along its banks, with a few larger pools that hold native brook trout and the wild browns that push up from larger water to prey upon them. This seemed like the ideal situation and environment to put the Yama through its paces. Additionally, I had recently upgraded to an ultralight backpacking kit and wanted to get it out before our mild fall weather turned to nasty winter weather.

Yuki and I set out early on a late September morning for a short hike back into our camp for a couple of days. Yuki was delighted to chase deer and pheasant from their hides as I leisurely walked along, taking it all in with a light pack and high spirits. For this trip, I wore my Zimmerbuilt Arrowood Chest Pack under my larger Gossamer Gear Gorilla 50 Ultralight Backpack. The setup was comfortable and unobtrusive, leaving me time to take in the landscape rather than fiddle with dialing in buckles and straps.

As we came into the valley, we were greeted by an old friend, a lone dead walnut tree standing proud, marking the halfway point of the valley’s fishable water. Yuki admired the open space for a moment, then promptly bolted into the underbrush, no doubt in search of critters to flush and chase. I continued south along the creek to our camp.

Like any backcountry angler worth his salt, I forwent setting up camp and got straight to fishing. I grabbed the Yama, which was perfectly tucked behind my Helinox camp chair, and abandoned my pack in favor of native brookies. I had taken the rod on a few walk and wade outings, so it was pre-rigged with level line, tippet, and a weighted version of my go-to kebari. A few casts later, I netted the first fish of the trip, a nice 6–7-inch brookie. I was hoping for some spawning colors, but it seemed I’d mistimed my trip and, while beautiful, the brookies didn’t display the blaze orange bellies characteristic of fish in full spawn.

After landing a few more trout, my thoughts drifted to setting up camp and early afternoon coffee. Yuki had since rejoined me, bored with harassing woodland creatures large and small, and obsessed with landing my fish for me. We wandered back to my abandoned pack, set up camp, and lounged in the backwoods beauty of our little valley.

Later, Yuki and I had dinner; kibble for her and udon noodles with egg, green onion, and sriracha for me. As the sun set over our little piece of paradise, I couldn’t help but exclaim, “We truly are lucky to have places like this, girl.” In response, Yuki cocked her head sideways, as if to say, “Duh,” then was immediately distracted by a commotion in the brush and took off like a missile to investigate. The night came and went with little fuss, other than a skunk that passed through for a little bit. Luckily, Yuki had gone for a moonlit run, so no one and nothing got sprayed.

We rose with the sun, made coffee, fished a little, and packed up camp. The hike out was uneventful and mostly uphill. Most of my gear was still wet with morning dew, but the weather was pleasant. Yuki was ready to be at home and on the couch, as she ran up to our trusty Subaru, then sat and waited to be let into the back seat. Once inside the car, she plopped down and closed her eyes, no doubt tired from a long night of guard duty.

The Yama performed well on this trip. It packed small, had a soft enough tip not to launch smaller fish into the underbrush with a good hookset, and it cast accurately enough to keep kebari out of the brush in tight situations. As previously mentioned, all tenkara rods are easily packed, but I appreciated the shorter collapsed length of the Yama when tucked into my chest pack, especially when hiking through overgrown sections of the creek. The shorter length also meant that it didn’t stick out of my backpack like an antenna, so it was more protected while hiking than a larger rod would be.

The Rod

Tenkara USA’s listed specifications for the Yama are as follows: 2.1 ounces for the rod alone, 16 inches (40.64cm) collapsed, and 11 feet (335cm). at fishable length. In preparation for this article, I performed a few measurements of my own to compare against the listed specs. The overall length of my test rod was 130 inches (312 cm or 10.83 ft), with a collapsed length of 16.25 inches (41.2 cm). The whole package including rod sock and rod tube weighed in at 8.625 ounces and the rod alone weighed 2.25 ounces. Measurement variances in production rods never really bother me, and honestly, they shouldn’t bother you either. Intangibles like rod feel and how it performs with your casting technique are far more important than a few millimeters above or below what’s listed on a website.

I fished the rod with a 16 ft (487 cm) #3.0 level line and 3-5 ft (91.4 cm – 152.4 cm) of 5x fluorocarbon tippet. That said, the Yama felt light(ish) in hand and cast my long(ish) line with very little fuss. I fished a wide variety of flies and kebari, both weighted and unweighted. Again, the rod did well with them all. Aerial mending was easy once I added a little more “oomph” to my casting stroke. My takeaway from this rod: it’ll do all the things your fancy Japanese rod will do, with just a smidgen more “oomph.”

As far as how it played fish, the Yama performed “as expected,” which is a good thing. I caught fish from 3 to 16 inches, and the rod never felt over or underpowered. I was railroaded by a foul-hooked 20-inch brown during my test period, and the rod held up great; my 5X tippet failed, but not the rod… as it should be.

Aesthetically, the collapsed rod strikes the eye with lovely paint and graphics and a gracefully tapered bare handle. Extended, the tip of the rod seemed thicker than many of my personal rods, but the bulky appearance didn’t seem to hinder its performance in the slightest. It should be noted that my personal rod preferences are longer Japanese rods like the Oni Type 1 (400 cm) and longer (20-25 ft), lighter (#2.5) level lines. The tips of these rods are extremely narrow, but as compared to some of my other domestic rods, the tip of the Yama seemed less bulky.

All in all, the trip was a success, and my time with Yuki and the Yama was lovely. The Yama is a great little all-around rod, especially for those who want to cast both weighted and unweighted flies and kebari. I could definitely see having one tucked behind a seat in the Subie.

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Dre Fornasiero is a tenkara guide, fly tyer, and 20-year outdoor industry veteran based in the heart of the Iowa Driftless. He is passionate about introducing beginning anglers to tenkara and helping people in the early stages of their outdoor journey through guiding, teaching, and speaking. An avid fly tyer and designer, Dre regularly holds classes for all skill levels.

This article originally appeared in the 2026 print issue of Tenkara Angler magazine.

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