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Ol' Reliable

 Ol' Reliable

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Editors Note: This article was published to Tenkara Angler on December 27th 2024.

As an owner of too many tenkara rods, I often play the mind game of “If I had to sell all of my rods but one, which one would it be?” That seems like an unfair burden to put on anyone. After all, it’s not like hoarding cats is it? Truthfully, I had never really answered that question and I am generally a zealous person when it comes to most tenkara rods; as long as I am catching fish. However, the answer finally came to me one day while responding to a recent Facebook post showing an older gentleman holding two generous 16-18” rainbows and browns with the DRAGONtail Mizuchi clinched between his grinning teeth. I casually commented, “if I had to sell all of my rods but one, I would probably keep the Mizuchi.”

Ol' Reliable - Tenkara Angler - Mizuchi 1

The answer startled me. It felt controversial. The Mizuchi isn’t my favorite rod. It’s certainly sentimental to me since it was my first rod and I have never sold it off while downsizing my collection. In fact, I have had quite a few rods challenge the favoritism category immensely and I don’t fish the Mizuchi as often as others in my collection. But the truth of the matter is it’s just the perfect all around rod for my needs, and the more I talk to tenkara anglers of the Rocky Mountains and West Coast, I am learning that it’s quite applicable universally. 

I had to quickly reason why I made such a comment. The triple zoom rod kicks off at 7.88’ and measures up to 11.14’ fully extended. My preferred lengths are 10.5-11’ tenkara rods so this covers my sweet spots pretty well. Many creeks in the Rockies can be tight canopy and shrubby on the banks requiring a shorter length that 7.88’ requires.

Ol' Reliable - Tenkara Angler - Mizuchi 2

Now an opinion always comes with a critique and that is usually that the Mizuchi may have a more robust action to it than some may prefer. DRAGONtail combatted this with offering two additional soft blanks available to swap out which shortens the rod from 7.36’ to 10.62’ fully extended. That is six different options to choose from on one tenkara rod which stands as the leading argument on why I would choose this rod to keep if I were to forcefully rid my collection. The rod is also complimented by some eye appealing orange colors near the bottom blank, a subtle matte black finish for the majority of the rod, and the ever popular glue joint lilian. 

Again, it’s not necessarily the fan favorite among all, and it’s far from the ideal pack rod length but I would say that the Mizuchi really is an all around workhorse for the average tenkara angler. If you see yourself only owning one rod with a limited budget, I don’t see the drawback of this choice among the overwhelming list of other great tenkara rods to compete with.

I find myself packing for trips to different states lately. The challenge to pick a rod is overwhelming. Is the creek going to have more vegetation than I thought? How big are those trees on Google Earth? Do I have a backup to my first choice? The Mizuchi since summer may have not had the most uptime from me, but it’s my insurance policy for a bad day and often in my car for the purpose of Murphy’s Law and that is why I call my Mizuchi “Ol’ Reliable” in reference to an episode of SpongeBob SquarePants.

Can the Mizuchi go jellyfishing? Perhaps that is a Tom Davis question…

Ol' Reliable - Tenkara Angler - Spongebob

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