Today, on my first Father’s Day, I hit Clear Creek for a while just a few miles outside of Golden, CO. I’m not sure why I made that choice. It’s not my favorite type of stream–steep banks that you have to climb to get from spot to spot, vast distances between good pools, highway noise,…
The first fly I ever tied was composed of some fur and feathers I cut off a Mepps spinner, some too-heavy thread I stole from my mom’s sewing kit, and was precariously held in the chipped corner of my father’s tool vise as I haphazardly wrapped something resembling Cousin Itt on a bait hook (that’s…
It’s pretty simple math: a heavy wire hook + a soft-tipped rod = a lower hookup ratio. Physics is physics after all. Yet, for the longest time, this obvious formula eluded me (or, rather, deceived me). When I first started fishing the tenkara method (the “real” tenkara method), I was getting plenty of strikes, but only…
It’s hard to imagine how you could improve something as simple as a tippet spool but the geniuses over at Scientific Anglers have done just that. They’ve added a built in line cutter, a rotating hub that allows the spools to rotate freely (which will work very nicely with my DIY tippet spool holder…
A few tenkara anglers have asked me to take underwater video of sakasa kebari in motion in “real world conditions”. This proved to be a slightly more daunting task than I imagined. Here’s my first attempt. I’ll be the first to admit it’s not a great. It’s difficult to position the camera the right way,…
Today I had a chance to fish the Fall River in Rocky Mountain National Park for three hours. With high winds and ultra-spooky trout, I definitely had to work for my fish but the scenery and solitude were well worth it. I decided to fish downstream of the alluvial fan. My favorite section of the…
I met up with a bunch of fellow tenkara anglers on Boulder creek this weekend and what would you know but Larry Green from Granny Scott Pies showed up with a pie sporting the Tenkara USA logo. It’s just one more example of how cool, creative, and fun tenkara anglers are. Thanks for sharing Larry!
In my ongoing exploration of tying tenkara flies on eyeless hooks, I recently got a package of Gosen Torrents Ace GII hooks from Esoteric Tackle. These hooks have a very radical bend that makes them great for tying traditional looking tenkara flies, plus a couple of other features I really like. The hooks…
Right now, go to your gear closet, man cave, garage, armory, or wherever you keep your fishing gear. Grab your tenkara rod and shake it (vertically). Hear that rattle? It’s the collapsed segments of your rod slamming into the end cap. No, it isn’t broken. In fact, most tenkara rods do this–it’s just intrinsic…
The little voice inside my head said I should know better than to hit the stream Memorial weekend (let alone on actual Memorial Day) but sometimes it pays to go against your better judgement… Sure enough, the parking lot at Bear Creek was not only packed, but overflowing. I was lucky to get a…
I just made a TenkaraTalk wallpaper for my iPhone and am pretty happy with the way it turned out. I don’t know why anyone would want it, but I’m offering it for a free download (I guess I just like giving away free stuff). If you want to add it to your phone, here’s how……
With the impending extinction of the famous orange level line from Tenkara Bum, many tenkara anglers have been on the quest for a good replacement. Sanyo has recently come out with a new orange fluorocarbon line of its own called Valcan, but is it a good substitute for the Tenkara Bum line? At first…
I swung by Angler’s Covey in Colorado Springs on Sunday and they had a sale on Umpqua Comepetition hooks. They looked like they might be good for sakasa kebari so I picked up a couple of packages in size #10 and #12. I got the C500BL model, which is a short shank heavier wire…
I just got word that the newly redesigned Stream Pack from TrailLite Designs will be available next week on the Tenkara Bum website. If the name TrailLite Designs sounds familiar, it’s probably because you know them as the creator of the Ebira Rod Quiver–an ingenious tenkara accessory which happens to have been named by yours…