Win a Free Fly Box!
Didn’t win anything in the last tenkara gear giveaway? No problem. Here’s another one. This time, I’m giving away a brand new Streamworks fly box with a multi-tool.
Read MoreBasic Tenkara Casting Motion
Here’s another quick video clip from the Denver Fly Fishing Show of Daniel Galhardo breaking down the basic tenkara casting stroke. Sorry for the bad audio. It’s hard to get good sound at a trade show without a lapel mic. Plus, the lighting at the show was horrible. While the quality might not be great, I think you can still get a few good tips out of this video.
Read MoreTenkara: Diversity in Simplicity
This weekend, I sat in in a cabin next to a wood burning stove with the Arkansas River not 20 yards away from me. I brought my Yamame and Ito hoping to get some fishing in but it was not meant to be. The winds howled, rattling the wood stove chimney and everything else in the cabin. All I could do was “window fish”–scanning the runs and pools I would have dissected with my tenkara rod if it weren’t too windy to fish. Now before you say, “it’s never too windy to fish”, consider the facts that the highway was closed due to “high winds” (I’ve never even heard of that before) and the American flag affixed to an old, rickety wagon in the cabin’s front yard was literally torn to shreds by the wind. I even had a hard time controlling the car to get there. Believe me, there’s not much that can get between me and a river full of fish. It was that bad.
Read MoreGear Giveaway Winners Announced!
It was tough, but I’ve finally chosen the 1st, 2nd, 3rd, and 4th place winners for last month’s sticker contest. People really thought outside of the box on this one and I was really impressed with some of the entries. So, without further adieu, here are the winners…
1st Place – Michael Volensky
Tenkara USA Net & Net Leash
Michael from Dub the Thorax went above and beyond by making this video. Never thought anyone would impale the Tenkara Talk sticker on a turn table and make a mix out of it, but, hey, I asked for creativity and I got it! Congratulations Michael and enjoy the net!
Read MoreRed Fluorocarbon from Japan
Red fluorocarbon tenkara line
I came home from work today to find a nice package from Japan in the mailbox waiting for me. Red fluorocarbon! I’ve been talking to a company there about getting some bulk hi-vis level line and they were gracious enough to send me some sample line. Here’s what it looks like and my initial thoughts…
Read MoreIs Being a Tenkara Gear Junkie Hypocritical?
I’ve never seen any discussion of tenkara where the word “simplicity” didn’t come up at least a few times. It’s true that simplicity is an easily identifiable attribute of tenkara but this seems to put gear addicts like me in an interesting dilema.
Is our love of gear antithetical to the intrinsic nature of tenkara? Does owning a dozen rods, piles of lines, and countless boxes of sakasa kebari mean that we just don’t get tenkara and we’re missing the message?
Read MoreClaret & Gold Sakasa Kebari
I’ve been getting a lot of questions about the materials I use to tie my tenkara flies and realized that I’ve been doing a bad job of posting them. So, from now on, I am going to try to post the complete recipe for all the flies I post in the future. Here’s the first of many more to come…
Hook: TMC 2499SPBL #10 or #12
Thread: Claret (or red) 8/0
Body: Claret (or red) 8/0 thread tapered to thorax
Rib: Fine gold wire
Hackle: Jungle cock spade feathers
You can easily substitute regular grizzly hackle for the jungle cock and it will look just as good (or better).
Read MoreTenkara Rod Action
Jason Klass Casting a 6:4 tenkara rod - photo by Chris Hibner
One of the questions people seem to struggle with most is which tenkara rod to choose. After all, there are a variety of different lengths and actions. And since (on paper at least) some of them seem very similar, making the decision can be even more confusing. I happen to own the entire Tenkara USA lineup (plus have tried some other brands) and can tell you that it’s amazing how different tenkara rods actually feel on the stream even though their specs would lead you to believe they’re almost identical. After a lot of experimentation, I can say that they’re definitely not. And not only that, but I’d like to share with you a catharsis I recently had that might make you rethink your philosophy on rod action.
Read MoreHow to Land a Fish with Tenkara
I got a lot of footage of the Tenkara USA demo at this year’s fly fishing show and thought I would break it up into shorter, more digestible videos on specific topics rather than post it in its entirety. In this video, Daniel shows us how to land a fish with tenkara–with a special focus on using long tenkara lines. Pay particular attention at 01:02 when Daniel points out the poor form of landing techniques we’re used to seeing in the western fly fishing magazines.
Read MoreA Tenkara Car Kit
My Tenkara "Emergency Preparedness Kit"
After a recent discussion with Karel from Tenkara on the Fly, I finally decided to sit down and do something I’ve been meaning to do for a long time: put together a tenkara kit to leave in my car for when those unexpected fishing opportunities present themselves. The conversation went something like this…
Read MoreAllen Fly Fishing Octopus Hooks
Sakasa Kebari on Allen Fly Fishing Octopus Hook
Even though I already posted about my general experience at this year’s Denver Fly Fishing Show, I left a lot of loose ends. So, over the course of the next couple weeks, I will probably have a few posts here and there telling you about some of the gems I found there. One such gem was the Allen Fly Fishing Octopus Hook.
Read MoreDenver Fly Fishing Show 2012
Denver Fly Fishing Show 2012
I just got back from the Denver Fly Fishing show where Tenkara USA made its first official presentation. I usually go to the show every year and it’s pretty much the same old stuff so I was really excited to see people learning and talking about tenkara this year!
Read MoreLong Line Trick with the Ito
For those of you who own the Tenkara USA Ito (or any tenkara zoom rod for that matter) here’s an interesting trick that can come in handy if you’re fishing longer lines.
Read MoreTenkara USA 3rd Generation Traditional Line
Tenkara USA has just updated their traditional furled tenkara lines and I recently got mine and had a chance to do some test casting with my 13 footer. Here are my thoughts comparing it to the 1st generation monofilament lines and 2nd generation spectra lines.
Read MoreNew Year’s Tenkara Resolutions
It’s that time again when we’re all supposed to make a list of things we want to accomplish in the new year. Instead of making the cliche list of resolutions that people never achieve like losing weight, quitting smoking, or exercising more, I’m going to make a more attainable list about things I actually want to accomplish. So, here goes…
Read MoreAbout Me
Jason Klass is a former fly fishing guide who now exclusively fishes Tenkara for trout in the streams and lakes of Colorado...Read More OBN Member
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