Tenkara Rod Co. brings a little Japanese simplicity to McCall’s waters
There are certain things in life that seem simple until you try to explain them to your fly-fishing friends.
Tenkara is one of those things.
At first glance, it looks almost suspiciously easy. A rod. A line. A fly. No reel. No giant vest full of mysterious tools. No shoulder bag packed like you’re crossing the Continental Divide. No forty-seven knots to memorize before breakfast.
Naturally, traditional fly-fishing purists may require a moment.
But that simplicity is exactly what drew Drew Hollenback to tenkara in the first place. Drew, along with his wife Megan Hollenback, owns Tenkara Rod Co., a company that has spent the last 13 years helping people discover a lighter, easier, and very fun way to fish. And now, after years of operating between Boise and Driggs, the company has officially made its home in McCall.
Which makes sense, really. If you’re going to build a company around compact rods, mountain lakes, moving water, and getting people outside, McCall is not a bad place to land.
From Boise And Driggs To McCall
“We moved up here in 2019,” Drew says. “Boise was just getting a little too big for us, and we didn’t really have a reason to be there anymore.”
The company’s operations had been based in Driggs for much of its life, while Drew and Megan were still living in Boise. Drew handled marketing, finance, and the “higher level business stuff,” as he puts it, while his former business partner managed operations on the other side of the state. Eventually, Drew and Megan bought out the partner and brought the whole operation to McCall.
Now, Tenkara Rod Co. is fully based here, with Megan taking on a bigger role in the day-to-day operations, including shipping, fulfillment, customers, and what she jokingly calls “the manual labor.”
“We just moved it to McCall in October,” Megan says. “I hired an employee, and we’re going to hire another one here soon. We’re excited about the new space and getting more involved in the community.”
For now, the business has been operating out of their garage, with storage units helping handle inventory, though they recently found an office and warehouse-style space to help move the growing operation out of the house. Anyone who has ever run a small business knows this stage well: the glamorous intersection of entrepreneurship, cardboard boxes, inventory shelves, and the realization that your garage is no longer your garage.
