In case you missed it in my recap of the 2019 Denver Fly Fishing Show, I thought I’d repost my chat with renowned fly fishing author John Gierach. Every year, we bump into each other at our mutual smoking spot just outside the main entrance of the show and talk trash about the industry over…
There are a lot of excellent graphics and animations available that show the knot used to attach your tippet to your level line, but they typically don’t show you what you actually do with your hands and fingers. The Tenkara Knot was shown to me by Daniel Galhardo of Tenkara USA who learned it from Dr.…
A guy came into the shop the other day and was filling his basket with handfuls of tippet material. We got to talking and he told me he replaces all of his tippet every year with “fresh” tippet. It was his ritual. I know the old argument–heat, UV exposure, and water absorption all degrade tippet…
If you’ve done any research at all into Japanese tenkara patterns, you’ve undoubtedly come across Yoshikazu Fujioka’s excellent site My Best Streams. It’s probably the most comprehensive catalog in English of kebari by region in Japan and as its curator, Fujioka, is a well-known expert on traditional patterns. Back in 2003, I interviewed him about…
You may have noticed I’ve been getting a lot of gear from Tenkara-Ya lately. It’s become my favorite tenkara gear site for a several reasons. For one, they carry some really unique gear that you can’t find anywhere else and are always adding new products. I make it a point to check the site regularly…
Over the last several years, a debate has been raging in the fly fishing world that comes up so frequently, I thought it better to write out my position on it so I can link to it rather than explaining myself time after time. The debate centers around felt-soled wading boots vs. rubber, with the…
Here’s a simple hack I came up with to carry my thermometer on my new Yonah Tenkara pack which allows me to clip it to my net in order to get a better reach. This just makes it easier to get the thermometer a little deeper so I’m not merely measuring the surface and easier…
Yuzo Sebata. AKA, “Tani no Okina“, or, “the old man of the valley”. I recently shared some pictures of his tenkara flies. But just as each Japanese tenkara angler has their own signature fly patterns, many also have their own lines–as unique as their own thumbprints–and settled upon by years of experience and experimentation. Sebata-san…
When I first started researching tenkara online, I noticed something peculiar. A substantial number of the Japanese anglers I saw in pictures and videos had towels wrapped around their neck. I was a little baffled at first. But having had a fair amount of exposure to Japan, and knowing that they’re a thoroughly pragmatic culture,…
Like many of you, I am continually striving to improve my on-stream carry system and I feel like I make small increments of progress with every iteration. For years, I’ve been carrying a Fishpond San Juan chest pack and it’s served me well. Every so often, I browse sites like eBay, Amazon, and Etsy, searching…
This is one of those “I already know someone’s thought of it (before I even say it)” ideas, but I had the thought last night to tie some simple stiff-hackle tenkara flies with Kevlar thread. I don’t normally use Kevlar, but I had some left over from my days tying bass and saltwater flies and…
Yesterday, I posted some pictures of my recent acquisition of some kebari from Yuzo Sebata for my tenkara fly collection, and today, I wanted to share some flies I got from Hisanobu Hirata. Hirata-san might not be a household name to many western tenkara anglers the way Dr. Ishigaki or Tenkara no Oni are, but…
I’ve always felt that flies were the “currency” of our sport. We trade them, gift them, hide them, steal them, covet them. Indeed, they possess something of intrinsic value. They embody part of the very soul of the tyer. And to me, they’re far more valuable than money. I’ve been lucky enough to amass a…
Ever since my passion for tenkara was kindled, I had the idea to somehow document the path of its “new” history as it would inevitably develop in the West. Early on, I started collecting what I saw as soon-to-be artifacts that would one day serve as markers of modern tenkara’s coming of age outside of…