MUTANT zx380 Zoom Tenkara Rod
The Ultimate 3-Length Full-Flex Action ZOOM Tenkara Rod
380cm (12.5ft), 350cm (11.5ft), and 315cm (10.3ft)
Covering 3 of the most popular lengths in one Tenkara Rod
Features/Performance Overview:
Zoom sections lock to give you 3 adjustable lengths in one rod (sometimes called a triple zoom rod) so you can use the same rod for all the different conditions you run into on the water. Whether you want long reach, a medium casting length, or need to shorten things up around over hanging trees this MUTANT zx380 Tenkara Rod has you covered with just the zoom of a rod section (or two) mutating into the rod length needed.
Excellent soft 6:4 Full-Flex casting action in every length, perfect for Light Level Lines to medium weight furled or tapered lines.
Excellently balanced tip-weight in every length, feels very light in hand when casting and fishing.
You’ll most likely love the rod action in every zoom length, not just 1 or maybe 2 like many other triple zoom rods.
Deep rod flex action allows the rod to distribute pressure evenly throughout the entire rod when fighting fish. This deep rod flex also makes for a smooth casting action with little effort to cast light level lines.
Excellent tip dampening so you have very little (IF ANY) oscillation while casting giving you very precise accurate casts with great presentation, even with very light level lines.
This rod is designed for targeting small to medium sized trout on light lines in creeks, streams, or small rivers. That does not mean you can’t use outside of those parameters if you so desire, have fun doing what you like. Although if you want to target big fish then this is probably not the tenkara rod for you.
Review From Tom Davis
We let Tom Davis (of Teton Tenkara Blog) take the prototype for a test drive, check out his review here >>
Tom’s Spec Measurements of the MUTANT Rod
Fully collapsed (with tip plug): 65 cm (25.5 inches)
Extended: 314, 351, 381 cm (10.3, 11.5, 12.5 feet)
Weight (without tip cap or plug): 81.5 g (2.87 oz)
CCS: 13 pennies (380cm), 12.5 pennies (350cm), 12 pennies (315cm)
RFI: 3.4 (380cm), 3.6 (350cm), 3.8 (315cm).
Rotational Moment: 6.1 (in the 380cm length)
Review From Tenkara Addict
The MUTANT Design Story
DRAGONtail has listened to people in the tenkara community over the years through comments, messages, conversations, and even reading though peoples rant posts. From paying attention to the tenkara community we have learned many things about what people want, like, and don’t like.
We decided to we needed a rod more focused on premium level line casting in our DRAGONtail lineup. But I didn’t just want a nice level line rod, I also wanted to do a 3-length zoom level line casting rod that covered the most popular rod lengths and that felt excellent in each zoom length. Many people don’t believe that is possible to achieve in a 3-length tenkara rod but we went for it anyway, and I feel like we have actually succeeded in that with the current MUTANT Tenkara rod design.
We have been working on this rod design for quite some time and finally made a lot of progress getting it the to performance level we wanted it to be late last year. After finishing our co-creation project of the MIZUCHI Tenkara Rod with Tom Davis (of Teton Tenkara) for tight fishing quarters last summer we learned many design elements that helped move the MUTANT rod design to a whole new level of performance.
(By the way, conversations with Tom Davis through out the years and reading through his blog posts has been very enlightening us and an influence in many in many things we do here at DRAGONtail. We thank him for always sharing his thoughts and experiences.)
The current MUTANT Rod Design is more than we could have hoped for, we are very pleased. We are so excited to finally be offering the MUTANT rod now in our rod lineup.
Our MIZUCHI Tenkara Rod has been very popular since it’s launch last September and people seem to be loving the rod for fishing tight quarters on small creeks and streams, like many of the creeks Tom Davis fishes. We are so happy to soon have the new MUTANT tenkara rod to cover the longer rod lengths for fishing more open casting areas (my kind of water) and still have a shorter length (10.3ft) to make casting in many tighter casting quarters easier. Really with the MIZUCHI rod and the new MUTANT rod together you can fish just about any water situation in a preferred length.
I really think a lot of tenkara anglers that prefer light level lines are going to love how this rod casts them with ease, although the rest of you are still going to like how smooth it casts most tapered lines as well.
It blows me away how much I like the MUTANT rod in each of the 3 zoom lengths, more so than any other zoom rod I have tried; and I have tried many from USA brands to Japanese brands, we do a lot of rod research here at DRAGONtail. I think you will be very pleased with the MUTANT rod’s performance for you.
How to Use a 3-Length Zoom Tenkara Rod
The Mutant has become my go to rod along with the Mizuchi, another favorite of mine. It has handled small to pretty large trout in the medium sized rivers I fish here on the East coast. I love the versatility of the three lengths and have casted all sorts of flies on it, from traditional kebari to many western variations. I would recommend it to anyone as a starter rod or a second in your Tenkara lineup.
This is the best rod in the line up. Bar none. I just absolutely love to fish with it. I actually owned it once before and stupidly sold it (seller’s remorse); once it went on sale again I just knew I needed to have it again.
Casts a level line beautifully. Really “pins” the trout once they’re hooked: just let the rod do the work. Trout can fight all they want; the Mutant bides its time. Sure: you may not be able to horse a bigger fish around, and that’s okay. The Mutant is still capable of playing them until they’re ready to glide to the net.
Again: love this rod. Bravo to the DT team.
I’m new to Tenkara, but I can tell this is a quality rod. Casting is intuitive and simple. I’ve used this mostly on a pond and it’s so much fun catching sunfish after sunfish, along with the occasional bass or crappie. I keep trying the local stocked streams for some trout but have not had any success yet. I bought the extra tips with it, but I don’t have the sense that this thing will break under normal conditions - especially on a bluegill, even though they put up quite the fight.
season opens in April 1 so haven't fished with it yet so that's why I left a star off. Been practicing in my yard, and aiming at a tin pie with a fly that I cut the hook end off. one thing I will say making a hell of noise with it.
I very much like using this rod, but it has something of a crippling flaw (just to note, I have and use about a dozen other tenkara rods, and have been using the Mutant, and more than one of them, for some years now): Something about the carbon material from which its made periodically causes the lower sections to get unmoveabley stuck in the extended position, and then nothing can get these sections to collapse (e.g. , the rubber band trick). A couple of times I've had to return stuck lower sections to DragonTail for replacement (which they were very good about; great service). It also happened to my girlfriend's Mutant, and it doesn't happen with any other rod I own, so the problem apparently isn't in the way I'm extending it. I sat down to write this now because it's happened again, the time to a couple of the replacement sections DragonTail sent me. It's as if the carbon material is slightly 'soft', and/or absorbs a bit of moisture, and then gets 'fused' in the extended position. It happened this most recent time yesterday when I was fishing in the rain, and the lower two sections of the Mutant are now 'fused' in the extended position (although rain isn't the only condition under which it has happened; seems to be a characteristic of this particular rod). Just spent 10 minutes trying to unstuck it with the rubber band trick, to no avail.