New Tenkara Store -- Three Rivers Tenkara

Anthony Naples, author of the popular tenkara blog Casting Around, as recently teamed up with Oleg Stryapunin of Tenkara Times to become the US distributor of the Try series of tenkara rods. His store, Three Rivers Tenkara, makes it now possible for US tenkara fishers to buy Try rods from a North American vendor.

Anthony states, "Why “Three Rivers Tenkara”? I’m from Pittsburgh and the term “Three Rivers” is practically synonymous with this city where the Allegheny and Monongahela rivers come together to form the Ohio. Pittsburgh sits at a great confluence of three rivers."

A cutthroat with my Try 360.

As many of you know, I really like the Try series rods. They are refreshingly new tenkara rod designs from the mind of Oleg Stryapunin. They are very light weight, ergonomic in feel and highly functional. They cast beautifully, have very little tip heaviness and are dynamic rods capable of handling most everyone's tenkara fishing needs. I've caught trout up to 18 inches in very fast water with the Try 390 rod; the rod handled the fish easily.

An 18 inch rainbow with my Try 390.

Try rods are available in a choice of lengths -- one to fit your needs: 330 cm, 360 cm, and 390 cm. From Anthony's store: "All rods come with an one year unconditional guarantee against manufacturer defects. Rod breakages, caused by general use, and user error, are not covered by the warranty. If a rod proves to have a manufacturing fault we will replace the damaged segment free of charge within that period. All you need to do is return the damaged rod to us for inspection to confirm the warranty claim. The exception is that the first 3 sections are not covered by the warranty because they are so easily damaged by user error."  Replacement parts are available. Again, from his site: "You can purchase spare parts at a low cost – $10 per segment (except handle segment) and note that the top 3 segments are actually sold all together at $10 for all three."

from Three Rivers Tenkara

Anthony was a one of the early adopters of tenkara in the US, having started fishing tenkara in 2009. He has used a lot of rods and his experience is invaluable for those seeking opinions on rods that would fit their particular purpose. In short, he knows great rods when he sees them and now he offers them to others. He's also a very nice guy -- I met him at the SLC Utah Tenkara Summit a couple of years ago.

If you are looking for a light weight tenkara rod for small, medium, or larger streams, then consider the Try series of rods.  I'm sure Anthony would be happy to help you with all aspects of your tenkara fishing.

Disclosure: I have no financial relationship with Anthony Naples or Three Rivers Tenkara. I personally own the Try 360 and Try 390. Anthony let me "test drive" his personal Try 330.  After I test it I'll be mailing it back to him as promised.