I’m interested in the Anglo Kowasa rod as my tiny stream rod. It looks like the collapsed length is similar to the Nissin Pocket Mini 270 which is what I’m after. I’ve fished with the Nissin 270 but not the Anglo. Does anyone have experience with the Kowasa? I’m wondering how it is, I’ve been wanting an Anglo rod and this seems like a good excuse. I was going to get the Nissin 270 for my 8’ rod, however the Anglo looks like a great option. Plus I like the grip on it better than the Nissin 270.
I am hoping someone chimes in myself. I want one and would love to hear from someone who has one. Anything I have found shows it to be in the 8:2 flex range. Keeping my eye on this thread. I will see if I can find anything with more information online from Japan.
It looks very similar to the Tiny Ten rod from the closed position. The Tiny Ten is about 5-6 ft in length and runs around 8:2 in flex. That rod runs around $55.00, rod sock, and a metal tube case. The Kowasa runs 41,800 yen = $384.65 in US currency from looking at their website and including shipping will cost you in the $410 range. That’s a lot of money for a rod when Chris Stewart has similar or better rods for half the cost. I only hope the Kowasa is the best thing since sliced bread for small stream fishing. 
I haven’t seen the Tiny Ten rod or used it so I couldn’t compare, but yeah on the cost side it’s clearly a fraction of the price. It’s shorter, but that may be a good thing. It will be interesting to see how people like it, I’d love to give it a test run, at that price it might be worth it, although I’d hate to buy it only to sit around.
Of course a similar quandary exists when comparing the Tenryu TF39TA to other far cheaper rods. Is a handmade in Japan Tenkara rod from a company like Anglo worth the money? I honestly don’t know. I do know the Tenryu TF39TA is one of if not my favorite Tenkara rods and to me it was well worth the money even though it can be five times the cost. The only rod I know of that Tenkarabum sells that compares with the Anglo Kowasa is the Nissin Tenkara Mini 270. If I’m missing one let me know (ie collapsed / extended lengths). That one is also almost half the cost. I just received a quote from them and the rod comes out to $349 and then I didn’t convert shipping but probably around $25 for that.
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I don’t have that rod but have the wasabi 360, it is a fantastic rod. Build quality is unmatched. Each rod is a custom hand built rod that is bar none one of the best rods on the market. The tiny ten which I also own is a bottom barrel rod. If money was no option I would go Angelo and Company every time.
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My tiny ten sits mostly
I bought a Tenkara Rod Co mini sawtooth off their Kickstarter a long time ago and I didn’t like it at all. I wound up giving it away to my brother, which probably wasn’t very nice and I should tell him to toss it and give him a better rod.
IMO it’s a little like comparing buying a Ferrari and buying a Yugo. They both have people that will buy them, but the build quality isn’t comparable. Some people will want one and someone the other, but they will run completely differently. They will also hold value and last differently.
There’s nothing inherently wrong with either choice, but there are consequences of either choice.
Chris,
If you do purchase the Anglo Kowasa rod please let us know what you think about the rod. If it is a great rod maybe I can scratch up some change and purchase one as well. You have my curiosity up now; I will go back to their web site and read more about the rod. I have been wanting the TF39TA rod. I know Adam Trahan has this rod as well and it is his main rod so it must be awesome. I bought the TF39 only because it was cheaper and at $500(+) it was a lot of money to drop on a rod when it first came out.
I put it on order so I’ll report back. They told me a month to build it and get it out. Adam and I must be attracted to similar gear. If I had to keep one rod it would be the TF39TA. It’s not perfect, but darn close. I like the idea of the small collapsed size and quality of the TF39TA. That’s also true for the Nissin Pocket Mini which I like as a backup rod or to have with me for small stream fishing. I do gravitate towards the minimalism idea, even though I have way too much fishing gear. I’ve been trying to narrow down my gear so that I only take with me what I really use and need.
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Thanks Chris, for getting back with us. This really sounds interesting and I hope this will be an awesome rod for you.
Pictures! Thoughts!
Here’s some pictures, the blue rod cases are the cases from Tbum, the medium case fits the two smaller and the small case has the TF39TA. I took pictures with the Tenkara Mini and the TF39TA as reference. The Tenkara Mini is basically the same size without the tip cap. The tip cap on the Kowasa is larger. I tried a Fuji tip on the Kowasa and it would work great, I may pick one up for it. The fit and finish on the Kowasa is really amazing. The rod just has a feel that is very high quality. Even compared to the Nissin Tenkara Mini it feels like a higher quality rod and the Nissin Tenkara Mini is very nice. I have yet to cast it since I just received it today. I’ll report back when I have a chance to test it out. I may try to make a video with it, we’ll see how ambitious I get.
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First fish with the Anglo Kowasa. I hit up a little creek with lots of overhead and tricky situations. I really like it, the action feels slightly slower than the Tenkara Mini, but similar. It feels a bit smoother if that makes sense. I used a 2.5 Vulcan line since the fish here are very spooky. That felt a bit light and the wind was going making casting tricky. I need to try a 3 or 3.5 line. I suspect 3.5 would be ideal.
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Woo whooo!
I like the idea of that little rod. I almost bought one.
I hope you continue to like it.
Thank you for the information. Looks very nice.
So far so good, I’ve tried it on some different places and really like it. It was either this one or the pocket mini 270 and I figured I had tried the 270 so I might as well go for this one since it looked nice. It is a very high end nice rod.
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The Pocket Mini V3 is sort of fragile.
This rod seems much more serviceable.
You have good taste in equipment!
I received an email a couple of weeks back from Tenkara Tanuki, Luong Tam’s forthcoming Tenkara Pocket Ninja rod. Which is a kickstarter project. Funds appear to be about 2x the stated goal amount. Maybe it will be more robust than Mini V3..
Kind of depends on you opinion about Tanuki rods if this would be an attractive option. Some people seem to love them, others not so much. From the video it appears to be a tough rod. Full flex which appeals to some people, not others.
Details of rod specs are a little confusing, comparing early blog post vs the kickstarter page. Where in one place collapsed length is listed as 35cm at another place as 38 cm. Extended length of 335cm. Ten sections I guess. And blog list 2 models, Pro and Sport of different extended lengths. On the KS page I only see the option of different colors, Snow or Black. Early backers are told they can expect limited production run with rods available by December.
https://www.tenkaratanuki.com/single-post/2019/07/20/Tanuki-Pocket-Ninja—fly-fishers-best-friend
fwiw. Info not intended to highjack the thread from discussion about the Anglo Kowasa rod.
For me it wasn’t the rod I was looking for. It seems to compete with the Nissin Tenkara Mini (Pre the new lengths) at an 11’ extended length. It is confusing though since he lists different lengths. It looks like the collapsed length is 13”. That puts it outside of what I was looking for since I wanted a 2.7m rod that is in that 9” collapsed range. The only two I looked at were the Nissin Pocket mini 270 and the Kowasa. The new 270 Tenkara Mini would be a great option though. In fact if that was available I may have gone that direction. I already have the Tenkara Mini in the 320 size and really like it. However it’s fun having an Anglo rod and it is really nice.
The big advantage with the Tenkara Mini 270 is the grip is superior over the Anglo. Unless you want to use a tip cap. I find that the grip on the Anglo works well though since the cork section fits nicely in my hand and I rest my index finger on the rod part. It’s a nice feel. Given the cost though the TM270 is very appealing. It’s really awesome that there are so many great options for pocket Tenkara rods that are really excellent rods. I think I could have just the Tenryu TF39TA and either Kowasa or the TM270 and really don’t need any other rods. Of course I do like to fish with other rods for other circumstances so I probably won’t sell off my rod collection yet.
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