There is many times on a Tenkara trip that I get my Tenkara rod wet and sometimes it gets inside the rod. It is important to not let your Tenkara rod sit wet for a long time. It can grow mold, the joints can get a sticky residue, the paint can bubble, and a whole lot of other things… The worst is when someone puts their wet rod in the sealed Tenkara case for the winter and open it next spring to go fishing and find it is a moldy mess.
Some people will take the rod apart piece by piece and dry each part off, I don’t have time for that and it opens up opportunity to accidentally break a section on accident. So I have come up with a different way of drying out my Tenkara rods.
My Tenkara Rod Drying Method:
1. I take the butt cap and the tip cap off.
2. Pull out all the inside sections of the rod out together
3. Put the inside sections and the handle section side by side in a rod sock and put the butt cap and tip cap in the rod sock so I don’t loose them.
4. Then I set the rod sock vertical so water drains out overnight letting it completely dry out.
I find this method of drying out the rod very quick and safe to do. When it comes time to fish again it is easy to assemble your rod again in a mater of a minute and you won’t have any wet or moldy surprises.
I mentioned this issue earlier but I wanted to go in more detail on it. One issue I hear about every spring is someone who put their rod away after their last fishing trip before winter or hunting season and then opening it up the next spring to find a terrible moldy mess and a ruined rod, heart breaking. This can happen when your rod is put away with even a little moisture sealed up with the tip cap and end cap on and in a sealed rod tube for months. Always complete dry your setup before putting it away for winter hibernation, or any long term storage, to avoid a ruined Tenkara rod.
Hope this article helps some of you. There are many ways to dry out your Tenkara rod and I am not saying the other ways are wrong but this is the way I like to do it.
