I’m not one of those tenkara anglers that only fishes one pattern. But I do only fish one fly at a time. There’s no idealogical reason behind it and I don’t think there’s anything wrong with fishing a dropper or even a cast of flies. In fact, I fished droppers for years before I started…
I just received my Hinoki wooden fly box from Tenkara-Ya. “Hinoki” is Japanese cypress and is a very strong, high-quality wood that was traditionally used to build temples and shrines. The box comes in either a 4-compartment or 6-compartment version. Since I already have a very nice 4-compartment wooden box from Rick Setina, I decided…
I can’t remember who it was, but a long time ago, someone sent me this furled tenkara line. It’s made of black and dark green strands of thread. For months, it sat shunned on my desk because my first reaction was, “I’ll never be able to see it!” After all, every discussion I’ve ever seen…
1. Trophy Shots You know the ones I’m talking about. The angler is extending their arms, holding the fish as close as possible to the camera to make it look twice as big as it really is. It’s even worse when combined with a fish-eye lens. Flyfishing is not an extreme sport. If you need…
If you’ve followed my blog for a while, you’ll know that I’m a pretty big fan of rods from Tenkara Times. I’ve reviewed several of their models and am consistently impressed with their action and quality of workmanship. I’ve recently been testing their new “Try 360” rod for a while now and am happy to…
While I use fluorocarbon level lines for 99% of my fishing, I always like to experiment with different materials to see what applications they might have for tenkara. Last year, I wrote a post about using Cortland braided mono running line and many people seemed interested in it. However, I recently discovered that that line…
More years ago than I care to admit, I worked in a fly shop that catered to a pretty mixed bag of characters. On any given day, anyone from Barbour-clad Bogdan reel collectors, to redneck bait chuckers could walk through the door. It was during a time I consider to be the pinnacle of fly…
As a beginning fly tier, one concept was thoroughly drilled into my brain by the cronies at the local fly shop: match the hatch. The “goal” of fly tying was to imitate specific species of insects and the more realistic the fly was, the better it was. It made perfect sense. The trout are eating…
Tenkara Centre UK just released a new tenkara rod named the Hayase (which means “swift current” in Japanese). The new rod is the flagship premium rod in the company’s lineup and in addition to being constructed of higher modulus graphite for added strength and accuracy, also features some hardware upgrades that set it apart from…
I just got an email from Team Oni with the specs for the new 2014 Oni rods! There are three models with different actions designed for advanced casters, beginners, and even children. The big news is this year, there is a dramatic reduction in price. The top end rods are now only $271 USD and…
It’s time for a third round of tenkara memes. In case you missed them, the first one was here and the second one was here. Just having a little fun and hope you get a chuckle out of them.
Whether out of habit carried over from a fly fishing background, or from some ill-gotten advice, I tend to see a lot more false casting being used by tenkara anglers than I would expect. False casting is necessary in conventional fly fishing because you need to shoot line. So, you use false casts to build…
The more I fish tenkara the more I’m starting to think about flies in terms of “paradigms” rather than “recipes”. Instead of specific patterns like an Oki Kebari or Takayama Kebari, I’m starting to think more in terms of the general characteristics a fly has such as movement, silhouette, attention point, and size. One of the…
I’ve been using Rio Powerflex tippet for years and have been pretty happy with it. So, I didn’t really feel the need to shop around for a new tippet. But then I saw the freshwater tippet from Scientific Anglers and was intrigued–not by the tippet material itself, but by the spools they came with. The…