Excellent rod supplied with a high quality rod sock and metal tube.

Had a Rocky from Tenkara Rod Co. and lasted only 2 days before it broke. The Dragontail Hellbender is much better quality. Grips is more comfortable and the rod is much more sensitive.Using Tedachi furled line and 5x tippet. Cuts through the with with streamers very well.

Great rod for bigger fish, I use it for bass and sunfish, carp as well. Good casting rod, despite being a stiff, I just love it !!!

This is not my first DragonTail Tenkara rod and won't be my last (I already have a Ragnarok 400 on pre-order), but if I put all the DragonTail Tenkara rods in a line unlabeled, I wouldn't even guess that this was manufactured by the same company or even the same brand.First of all, just the overall craftsmanship, build, and design is very different. The labeling, graphics, paint, and even the cork is glaringly different (inferior?) compared to even my cheaper DragonTail ShadowFire 365. I also own several rods not manufactured by DragonTail (one SeaQuest and two MaxCatch), which are a fraction of the price of the Hellbender, yet offer superior features and craftsmanship.One of noted missing features is a swivel lillian. When trying to fish this rod I had a lot of problems with my line wrapping around the tip section (since there's no swivel lillian), and that's bad news if you should happen to catch a fish because it will almost certainly snap your tip section. Having read in several reviews that it supposedly does come with a swivel lillian, I contacted DragonTail to see why mine didn't. They did quickly respond (because they're awesome), stating that they removed it because they felt it was better not to have one since this is a rod designed for larger fish. I can understand that, but it doesn't address the likely tip breakage from the line wrapping around the non-swivel lillian. I mean, I'm not a mechanical engineer and far be it from me to give rod design advice to DragonTail, but I just know what I encountered when fishing it and there were several times that I was very surprised I didn't end up with a broken tip section. I would think that a better solution would be to use a heavier duty micro swivel rather than just completely removing the swivel lillian.The other design issue I had with this rod was the strange bulge right after the first (handle) section. I have included a photo. What is that? It looks like I broke my rod and repaired it with duct tape. I own a couple zoom rods (both are triple whereas the Hellbender is only double zoom) and neither of these zoom rods have that bulge. I just think it's really unsightly and looks like a manufacturing defect.I did not really care for how the rod feels when fishing it. I do realize that it is a heavier duty rod for catching larger fish, but this rod feels heavy and poorly balanced. Honestly, I feel like I'm fishing with a cane pole rather than a Tenkara rod. I just did not like fishing with it. My other non-DragonTail rods are actually heavier than the the Hellbender by several ounces, but they are much better balanced so the fatigue factor is much less.Again, I'm a huge fan of the DragonTail brand. I love my ShadowFire 365 and feel sure I'll also love the Ragnarok 400. I also love all their line (furled and level) and their tippet. I also really like their flies. I literally have over a dozen of their various products/accessories, and I'm very happy with them. The Hellbender is simply not up to their same standards and really doesn't deserve to have their brand on it. I would highly recommend a re-design (like what they did for the Nirvana/Ragnarok). If they do ever re-design, I would definitely be willing to try it again.

I was hesitant to buy this product due to the lack of reviews, but I'm glad I made to order. I am a new Tenkara fishermen and am trying to build my fishing toolbox.The shipping on this rod was super fast. First impression, the quality of the rod is awesome. The color is beautiful and it comes with a nice protective tube and rod sock that are also of nice quality.For now, five stars, but I will update once I go fishing this weekend. I have a Tenkara USA Iwana rod (12ft) that is most impressive, so this rod has big shoes to fill.Update: I took the HELLbender out the weekend and it was definitely different than my Iwana rod. When I casted the rod, my line seemed to continually bunch up at the top of the rod. It totally could have been user error. I never did catch a trout on it as I swapped rods just prior to hitting a good fishing spot. All and all, I would reccomend this product to a friend and I would purchase from this company again...BUT...I will most likely use these rods as a backup to to my Tenkara USA rods.