I’ve tried many furled tenkara lines and most of them are pretty similar: a single-material, single-color, line that tapers from butt to tip. But the new Oudachi line from Moonlit Fly Fishing is a whole different animal. The Oudachi is billed as a “nymphing” line and I’d say that’s accurate. First, rather than a consistent…
At my neighborhood Starbucks, they used to have this fancy dispenser for those cardboard sleeves you slide over your to-go cup to prevent you from burning your hands while holding your $6 drink (probably to avoid a lawsuit). It was a clever design–a plastic box with two rows of sleeves spring-loaded like a Pez dispenser.…
I don’t know what it is about trade shows or conferences, but they always seem to turn people into zombies scouring the convention center floor for freebies like vultures circling over road kill. I’m no exception. And at this year’s Tenkara Summit, I managed to snag a few gems. The first was a Summit poster…
On his excellent blog, Tom Davis posted a picture of an X-ray of the handle of an Oni rod. The X-ray appears to show some kind of insert near the butt. This sparked much speculation that the Oni rods are only so light in the hand because there is weight added to the butt of…
I just returned from the 2014 Tenkara Summit in Boulder. This only the second Summit I’ve attended but I was amazed not only by the turnout, but by how strong our community has grown. We may have our squabbles on social media from time to time, but at the Summit, it’s pure camaraderie with people…
Imagine listening to a symphony where the conductor put their baton back on the podium in between every motion they made with it. With the music stopping each time the baton is laid down, it would be painful to sit through. There would be no flow and the piece would probably take twice as long to…
You’ve probably seen the meme “Tenkara +” going around social media. It’s the idea that tenkara compliments other outdoor hobbies such as “tenkara + hiking”, “tenkara + mushroom hunting”, “tenkara + mountain biking”, etc. While the portability of tenkara gear certainly lends itself well to being combined with other activities, it got me to thinking…
Apparently, in the Tenkaraverse, Christmas comes in September. In the last 3 days, I’ve received as many gifts from fellow tenkara anglers. The first, was a beautiful tenkara-inspired watercolor I posted about a couple of days ago from John Vetterli of Tenkara Guides. Then, today I got a couple more surprises in the mail. One was…
Today, I received a painting in the mail by Kiyoshi Ishihara. Ishihara-san is a prominent Japanese tenkara angler and a member of the storied Harima Fishing Club (of which, I’m probably the most deadbeat member in the club’s history). It was an extraordinarily generous gift from another very prominent tenkara angler back here in the…
When I first started tying soft hackle flies, the conventional wisdom was that you should make the body as slender as possible. I practiced a lot to achieve perfectly smooth, anorexic bodies that were literally no more than a few silk strands thicker in diameter than the hook shank. They definitely worked great and were…
I had a philosophy professor in college that wore exactly the same thing every day: black pants, black shoes, a black t-shirt, and navy blue socks. Halfway through the semester, I couldn’t take it anymore. I had to ask, “why blue socks instead of black?” Everything else was black. He told me that his wife…
When I first started tying tenkara flies on eyeless hooks, I thought I had found a goldmine once I discovered that silk bead cord was readily available on eBay in a myriad of colors. It took a little trial & error but I finally found what I considered to be the right diameter (#2) and…
A testament to tenkara’s continuing growth in the West, another new gear company has just entered the market. Online retailer Three Rivers Tenkara officially opened their e-doors on July 19th, 2014. The company was started by renowned blogger and avid tenkara angler Anthony Naples of Casting Around. Anthony was one of the earliest adopters of…
Anthony Naples of Casting Around and I recently teamed up to start a new tenkara podcast series called “The Tenkara Cast”. In this first episode, we talk about a variety of topics that were submitted by friends and followers on social media. We had a great time doing the podcast and are planning on making…