Tenkara Memes, Round 3
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.
Jason is an avid fly angler and backpacker. As a former fly fishing guide originally from Western New York, he moved to Colorado and became an early adopter of tenkara which perfectly suited the small, high altitude streams and lakes there. He has not fished a Western-style fly rod for trout since.
The False Casting Fallacy
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…
Maribou-bodied Sakasa Kebari
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…
Scientific Anglers Freshwater Tippet
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…
Otter Butter Line Dressing
While there are a few companies out there that offer floating tenkara lines such as RIGS Adventure Company and Zen Outfitters, sometimes, you just have your favorite line that you wish would float. The Eclectic Angler (the same company that brought us 3D-printed line spools) recently released a product called Otter Butter, that can easily be…
Zen Outfitters Tenkara Lines
I’ve been testing some furled tenkara lines from Zen Outfitters. I’m really a level-line guy, but these seemed interesting to me so I thought they were worth a look. The first thing you should know about their lines is that they’re made of UNI thread (the same thread used to tie flies). This makes for…
Theo Bakelaar Talks Tenkara
If you’re an American angler and love bead head flies, you have one man to thank: Theo Bakelaar. While bead head flies have been fished in Italy for as long as 100 years, Theo was the first person to introduce them to the United States, earning him the nickname “Mr. Goldhead”, and sparking a revolution…
3D Printed Tenkara Line Spools
Another sign that tenkara is continuing to grow–we now have 3D printed line spools! Michael Hackney of The Eclectic Angler has been taking advantage of the latest in 3D printing technology to produce some really interesting tenkara line spools. Specs Diameter: about 50mm/slightly less than 2″ Center hole diameter: 20mm/.78″ Width between flanges: 5mm/.2″ With…
Tenkara Magic!
Tenkara angler and magician Dennis Vander Houwen swung by the Tenkara Talk headquarters today (OK, technically my basement but “headquarters” just sounds so much more official) and wielded a little tenkara-related magic. If you’ve ever wanted to learn how to attach your sakasa kebari to your tippet without tying a knot, watch the video!
The 2014 Wintertime Blues Project
Last year, Anthony Naples of the Casting Around blog put together a great collection of tenkara and fly fishing inspired content called the Wintertime Blues Project (read it here). The idea was to provide some relief from cabin fever during the frozen winter months. This year, it’s back and Anthony is now accepting submissions until…
Custom Tenkara Rods
Have you ever found a tenkara rod that has all the right properties except for that one thing you wanted to change? Maybe you wished the handle were longer. Or maybe you just want to get a blank and build your own rod from the ground up. Well, now you can order all the components…
The Bi-vis Hi-vis Tenkara Line
Tenkara level lines are so thin that, by nature, they’re hard to see. To combat this, manufacturers dye their lines in bright colors to make them more visible. But conditions can change throughout the day (and even from spot to spot) so rarely is one color trackable in every situation. It could suddenly become overcast,…
The Clear Creek Kebari
I’ve been meaning to share this fly for some time but for whatever reason, haven’t gotten around to it until now. It’s one of my most productive flies and although tenkara flies typically don’t intentionally match the hatch, I call it the “Clear Creek Kebari” because it’s a top producer on my home river of…
Sunline Tornado Tenkara Line
I recently got a spool of Sunline Tornado fluorocarbon line from The Tenkara Times in size #2 (o.235mm). When I first started fishing tenkara, I preferred a #4 line. Then, as my casting got better, I started using lighter lines such as a #3. I liked the way a lighter line was easier to keep…