Hands-Free Tenkara Rod Holder?

Tenkara
1

New to Tenkara as of 2018. Did a search on this and didn’t find anything.
After switching from a vest to a chest pack and then a sling pack I no longer had the rod holder loop and tab to conveniently hold my western rod and reel in mid-stream when unhooking a fish, changing flies, etc. After seeing the Smith Creek holder I got the idea to steal one of my wife’s spring-loaded hair clips and attach it with a short length of Spectra cord to the pack. It works pretty well because the balance point on almost all my western fly rods with the reels is at the handle just under my thumb so if I clip it at the front of the rod handle where it gets a good grip, the fairly strong spring has (so-far) secured my rods pretty well and they slant upward a little keeping the tip out of the water. Using a sling pack complicates things but attaching the clip to the lower front left edge of the pack makes it easy to reach when wearing the pack and it is in a good position to hold the rod when the pack is slung around in front of me.

Since the balance point on a Tenkara rod is some distance up from the handle the hair clip doesn’t get a good purchase, and the rod slips down. Even if I were still using a vest I’d have to slip the rod butt into some sort of cup or band under tension to keep it from slipping down.

A Tenkara rod is longer and the tip is a lot more fragile than western rods so I need to be more mindful of the tip but has anyone tried using a hands-free rod holder for a Tenkara rod?

2

I tuck the handle of mine into my wading belt whilst re-rigging or dealing with a hook not in the fish’s lips.
I like your idea and hope something comes from it.

3

Belt or front pocket for me. In the front leaning against the torso.

My waist high waders have front facing pockets perfext for the purpose.

I do this mostly for tying flies…and replacing tippet.

Landing fish. I tuck under arm or will set down the rod. Often with barbless the hook pops out once the fish is netted. So i will just lean the rod down somewhere.

4

I got the Smith’s rod holder as a stocking stuffer a couple years ago. It works great. Tucking the rod into my arm pit also works pretty well.

5

I tend to do one of two things. If I am standing in more than a foot or so of water or I am in a tight space I will just hold the rod under my arm. If I have plenty of room and the water is shallow enough I place the grip section behind my knee and kneel down thus holding the rod behind my leg, freeing both hands. This works great for when I want to take a picture while holding the fish. It’s something I started doing years ago while spin fishing when I sometimes needed both hands free to remove those gruesome treble hooks.

2 Likes