Tenkara: 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 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 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 More“Tenkara Fishing” vs. “Fishing with a Tenkara Rod”
Me "fishing a tenkara rod" on the South Platte
It was a beautiful bluebird day this fall on the South Platte when the revelation hit me like a miscast 4/0 Clouser to the forehead: I have never really tenkara fished! Now, before you use my own words against me and bring up the impotence of labels, let me explain. I was fishing with Daniel from Tenkara USA and Karel from Tenkara on the Fly. Of course, we all had our tenkara rods and were fishing tenkara flies but two things happened that lead me to my catharsis…
Read MoreIs Tenkara Fly Fishing?
I’ve seen this question come up in social media again and again (with some pretty heated debates). I’m not sure why people seem to focus so heavily on labeling tenkara as “fly fishing” or not. After all, we don’t obsess about the many, more incorrect labels and misnomers we use in our in our day-to-day lives. We say, things like, “get in the car” when it’s really a “truck”. We say, “hand me a Kleenex” referring to brands of tissue that aren’t actually Kleenex. We fluently use redundancies like “ATM machine” and “PIN number” without batting an eye. Why the obsession with accurately determining if ”fly fishing” is the correct label to use to describe tenkara?
Read MoreAmerican Tenkara Museum
Today, I got the first ever TenkaraUSA print catalog in the mail. Daniel was kind enough to not only autograph it for me, but also write a nice message. This is a truly special item and as soon as I opened it, it reminded me of something I’ve been thinking about for quite some time–establishing a tenkara museum.
Read MoreTenkaraphobia
Does more gear really mean more fish?
Why is it that some people instantly embrace tenkara while others reject it outright? I have been wondering this for a long time now. I’ve read dozens of social media posts where people have written downright malicious comments about tenkara and tenkara anglers. The funny thing is, by their own admission, most of these people have never even touched a tenkara rod. Without any empirical evidence, how could someone so strongly denounce an entire genre of fly fishing? After reading a recent blog post, I think the answer finally came to me.
Read MoreAdvantages of Tenkara for Winter Fly Fishing
Today was our first snow here in Parker, CO– a foreshadowing the long winter ahead. For many, winter means the end of trout season. Many will wait out the next few months tying flies or by turning to other winter sports until spring. But some will embrace the madness of winter fishing.
Winter Tenkara Fishing
When I lived in Western New York, I did plenty of winter fishing for Salmon and Steelhead and, occasionally, some spring creek fishing. Fishing to me was a year-round sport. But I haven’t done much in the last few years. I plan to change that this year.
While winter fishing poses some unique challenges, it also has one huge advantage: crowd control. Even streams that are shoulder to shoulder in the summer can be totally empty in the winter, giving you all-day solitude. If you want a stream all to yourself, winter is the time to go.
Now that I fish tenkara exclusively, I have realized some of it’s advantages for winter fly fishing. It solves a few of the frustrations I had when using a western rod and reel. These realizations have prompted me to put on the long underwear, fleece pants, fingerless gloves, and take up winter fishing again.
Go ahead--it's all yours!
Advantages of Tenkara for Winter Fishing
1. No guides to freeze up. Anyone who’s ever fished a western fly rod in winter knows the frustration of frozen guides. They can accumulate so much ice that the line can’t pass through, making it impossible to cast. And clearing the ice not only cuts into fishing time, but runs the risk of breaking a guide on your $600 fly rod. Since tenkara rods have no guides, this annoying ritual is completely eliminated.
2. No line to strip in. In winter fishing, cold hands can spell doom. Not only do you lose the dexterity to accomplish simple tasks like tying on a fly, but it can send you running back to the to warm up, losing even more fishing time. One of the worst culprits for cold hands in winter fly fishing is stripping in line. This makes your hands and/or gloves wet and wet = cold! Without any line to strip in, your hands can stay warm and dry in their gloves. And if you use a net and forceps, you’ll most likely never have to get them wet at all by avoiding touching the fish or the water.
3. Less line freeze. To be clear, if it’s cold enough, any line will freeze. But since tenkara allows you to keep more line off the water and do less false casting, your tenkara line will freeze less often than a traditional western plastic fly line. Line actually freezes in the air when you’re casting so the less line you get we to begin with and the less casting you do, the less your line will freeze. Like the frozen guides, the line de-icing ritual is not much fun either. Luckily, you’ll be doing less of it if you choose tenkara fishing.
Tenkara in winter = warm hands!
Fly fishing in the winter isn’t for everyone. You’ll probably catch less fish than you would in the spring or summer and did I mention that it’s damn cold? But for those who prize on-stream solitude and are up for a challenge, tenkara can take some of the headaches out of winter fishing.
Are you getting out this winter?
Tenkara Tuesdays on Troutrageous!
Mike Agneta over at Troutrageous! has started a new feature on his blog called “Tenkara Tuesdays” in which every (or most every) Tuesday, he will feature a post dedicated to tenkara fishing written by either himself or a guest blogger. I was honored to be the first to write a guest post to kick off this new series and hope to become a regular contributor. Here is my Tenkara Tuesday debut article, “Tenkara for Western Fly Anglers”. Thanks for the opportunity Mike!
Read MoreWhy Every Beginner Fly Fisher Should Start with Tenkara
I headed over to my local fly shop today to pick up some hooks and there happened to be a fly fishing class going on. While I was scouring the hook wall trying to find some #16s, I was eavesdropping, listening to what the instructor was saying. And it was painful.
The “class” listened in a zombie-like stupor as the instructor spouted off all kinds of statistics, formulas, complex vocabulary, measurements, numbers, facts about gear, and philosophies.
When I turned around to check out, I could finally see their faces. They looked somewhere between bored and intimidated. It looked like a college lecture where half the students were daydreaming while the others were so afraid of failing, they were frantically writing down every word the professor said.
Then, I remembered how I gave my wife a Tenkara rod and she immediately caught three fish on her first try with absolutely zero fishing experience.
My wife with her first fish on a Tenkara Rod
I immediately thought, “this is no way to learn”. Here these people are, in a class room setting being bombarded with technical information when they could be out on the stream catching fish right now! And given the fact that they probably spent a lot of money to take the course, I actually felt bad for them.
Part of me wanted to sneak over there like a shady drug dealer, whip out a Tenkara rod and say, “Psst. You want to catch fish? I’ve got something right here that’ll catch fish”.
To me, everything about the situation was wrong. Why would someone who wants to fly fish start with the most complicated and confusing method? And, why would they start in a classroom? The stream is the best classroom.
Most of us who fish Tenkara today did it backwards. We started the complicated way and then gradually discovered the beautiful simplicity of Tenkara. We probably didn’t have much choice in the matter since Tenkara wasn’t really around when we started.
But for today’s aspiring fly anglers, wouldn’t it make more sense to start with Tenkara, then learn the more complicated Western fly fishing style?
Instead of spending hundreds (or thousands) of dollars on technical classes and complicated gear and not catch anything, why not spend $150 on a Tenkara rod and start catching fish right away (and, actually have fun)?
I would gladly bet $100 that at least 50% of the people in the class I saw today will eventually give up on fly fishing. They will be discouraged by the difficulty, cost, complexity, and lack of fish. I have personally witnessed this phenomena countless times when I was an instructor. People tend to believe that if they spend enough money on instruction and gear, they will become successful anglers. Then, reality hits them and they give up.
If I were still an instructor today, I would never put a Western rod in my students’ hands. And I would never start them out in a classroom. I’d hand them a Tenkara rod, head out to the stream, and make them fish. I’d build their confidence and motivation early on by getting them to catch fish right away. They can learn the technical stuff as they go. But to develop a passion for the sport, it has to be fun and rewarding form the start. If they wanted to progress (if that’s the right word) to Western fly fishing, fine. But don’t extinguish the spark before it ignites!
Here’s a video of a group of beginners using both traditional and Tenkara fly fishing gear. Which one looks easier?
Advice for Beginning Fly Fishers
If you’re thinking of taking up fly fishing, try Tenkara first. Courses and complicated Western gear are expensive and frustrating. Fly fishing should be enjoyable–not torture.
Most Astronauts are airplane pilots first. They don’t just jump into the Space Shuttle cockpit. They start by flying simpler aircraft and then learn the more complicated controls of a spacecraft. While the stakes for running before you crawl are obviously a lot lower when it comes to fly fishing, the same logic applies.
Fly fishing is a wonderful and unique sport. It can change your life and become a lifelong passion. I wish I had known about Tenkara when I was learning to fly fish. It would have had a dramatic impact on my learning curve (not to mention my stress level). If you’re reading this, you obviously already do know about it.
Just ask yourself this question: would you rather spend hours in a classroom learning technical jargon and the physics behind a cast or on the stream catching fish and having fun?
Do yourself a favor. Try Tenkara first. Catch fish. Have fun. Enjoy the sport. You have no excuse. 
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My Tenkara Story
The picture above is the first Tenkara fly I ever fished and is the first fly I ever caught a fish with using a Tenkara rod. It’s retired now and a little worse for wear with a tail missing and the dubbing roughed up. But it sits on a shelf in my fly tying desk stuck in the cork stopper of the original glass vial it arrived in from Tenkara USA.
I keep the fly there on its “trophy shelf” as a reminder of the day I officially became a Tenkara Angler and not just someone with a passing interest in the sport. Every time I look at it, I see it as a symbol of a major transformation in my fly-fishing life.
It all started years ago when I got in touch with Daniel Galhardo, owner of Tenkara USA, and the person single-handedly responsible for popularizing Tenkara in the U.S. and the West in general. At the time, I was doing a lot of backpacking in the Colorado high country and had the opportunity to fish some of the most pristine lakes and streams I could ever imagine. Yet, I felt encumbered by carrying Western fly tackle that was bulky and relatively heavy. When I first stumbled upon Tenkara USA’s website, I was intrigued and skeptical at the same time. It seemed like the perfect solution for fly-fishing and backpacking, but would it really work?
The simplicity, compactness, and light weight of the rods definitely seemed interesting. And given the fact that the telescoping design essentially eliminated the need for a heavy rod tube, my ears were perked up. I could just throw it in the side pocket of my backpack and it would take up very little space and weigh next to nothing.
But could something that looks like a telescopic “crappie rod” really be an effective fly fishing tool? Could it replace my $600 Thomas & Thomas rod and Hardy fly reel? After a good phone conversation with Daniel, my skepticism subsided enough for me to give it a try.
When my rod, furled line, and flies arrived I was both excited and slightly intimidated. I felt a strange mix of confidence and doubt about this alien new gear.
Some things were familiar. The furled line looked like just a longer version of the furled leaders I had already been fishing. No big deal there.
The caddis-mayfly variant flies were a little different in design than any pattern I was used to tying, but not a huge stretch. And they looked buggy enough.
The radical departure was the rod. No reel, no guides, a strange cord at the end to attach the line to, and the 12’ length of the Iwana felt monstrous compared to the 7 and 8 ft. rods I was used to fishing on small streams. I had never seen any rod like this before.
Half eager and half intimidated, I took my new Tenkara gear to a place I know I fish well—the Roaring River in Rocky Mountain National Park. If I was ever going to get the hang of this thing, I thought I needed a safe training ground–a place I was comfortable with.
I remember the day clearly (though not the date). It was a typical Colorado bluebird day. The water was crystal clear and at the perfect level for sight fishing. I rigged the rod up, tied on the fly in the picture at the beginning of this post, and started upstream.
To be honest, I felt a little embarrassed that other fly fishers might see me so I purposely headed for some pocket water that I knew was concealed by bushes to avoid the inevitable questions like, “Hey, why don’t you have a reel?” (The answer to which, I still did not know at this point).
I spotted a couple of small Cutthroats in a nice pool and started casting the way I would normally cast my 2 wt. Western rod. But the line and fly weren’t going where I wanted them to go. Something didn’t feel right. The rod was “telling” me I was doing something wrong. It wasn’t long before I figured out that I had to use more wrist and a shorter stroke than I normally would to get good turnover and more accuracy.
Within minutes, I “listened” to the rod, adjusted my cast, and caught my first fish Tenkara style! It wasn’t a monster—just a typical, 6” gorgeous cutthroat that RMNP is famous for. But to me, it was a monumental event and that first fish instantly obliterated whatever doubt I had when I first held that Tenkara rod in my hand.
From there, my confidence and catch only got better. The more I cast, the better I got and at the end of the day, I had landed about two dozen fish with ease. The big epiphany for me that day was that Tenkara casting is intuitive whereas Western fly-casting is counter-intuitive.
I was immediately struck by how much easier it was to get a dead drift since you don’t have a thick, heavy plastic fly line to worry about creating drag. With a lightweight Tenkara line and the extra length of the rod, it was easy to keep the line off the water. Whatever line was on the water was far more supple than a normal fly line and created a lot less drag.
Plus, there really was no line management to speak of. I didn’t have to worry about stepping on stripped-in line at my feet or slack line getting caught in rocks or vegetation. I could just concentrate on fishing and keep my fly in the water more often. What an unburdened way to fish!
As a person who has instructed countless people over countless hours on how to shoot line, double haul, and mend line, I felt almost as if I had deceived them into a more complicated technique when such a simpler technique is more effective, easier to learn, and more enjoyable. Of course, on the stand, my defense will be that I didn’t know about Tenkara during my guiding days so I don’t think I’ll get the chair (witnesses please?).
Since that day, I have not used any of my Western fly gear for trout. My Orvis, Sage, Powell, and even bamboo rods are collecting dust as showpieces in my office. It’s not that I’ll never use them again. It’s that I literally haven’t felt the need to use them. I’m sure one day I’ll pull out a 5 wt. for some deep nymphing or streamer fishing but not until I absolutely have to. In the meantime, I’m just enjoying fishing the way I want to fish–simply.
What is your Tenkara Story? What got you into it? Why do you stick with it?
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About 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 Latest Video
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