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.
Many anglers have a fishing office (i.e. man cave) where they have their fly tying desk, gear, and where they like to put their tenkara rods on display. Some people have built their own tenkara rod racks, or used an off-the-shelf solution like these pool cue racks to show off their rods. But the innovative…
So, I just came across a Facebook post talking about how to land a big fish by throwing your tenkara rod in the water. It’s not the first time I’ve seen this “technique” advocated. It seems to appear on the internet every once in a while. And every time it does, I have to roll…
French company Tenkara Pyrenees recently announced that they are now offering personalized tenkara rods, allowing you to choose different graphics on the rod blank and tube. Each rod is also individually numbered and can feature your name, making it unique. The blanks are manufactured by a well-established Japanese tenkara rod maker and customized by a…
“It’s simple.” Ask most anglers why they like tenkara and that’s probably the answer you’ll get. That was my stock answer too for a long time. But the overthinker in me started to wonder why does “simple” = “good”? After all, “simple” isn’t intrinsically good. If my doctor tells me I need a simple surgery,…
How many times have you been in the middle of winding your line on your spool, only to suddenly lose your grip sending your spool flying down the bank (or worse, into the river) and unravelling your whole line? This happens because most tenkara line spools are round (they are “spools” after all). I recently…
Yesterday, the video below appeared on YouTube. It’s a video of Tenkara no Oni testing the casting action and fish fighting ability of the two new rods he’s launching soon. Please note: that’s not a real fish in the video. From this post on his blog, we know that the new rod will be offered…
This weekend wrapped up the 2014 Denver Fly Fishing Show and while I didn’t see much there that was innovative, I wasn’t disappointed. This was for two reasons. First, vendors have pretty much the same gear every year. I rarely see anything new or anything that surprises me so I go with pretty low expectations.…
Most people probably know Mike Agneta as the author of the wildly popular Troutrageous blog. But very few know that he is also one of the world’s preeminent authorities on Tenkara Sasquatch–an elusive bigfoot-like hominid thought to inhabit remote mountain areas and sustain itself by tenkara fishing. I wanted to know more about this fascinating…
I know a little about fly rod design from working in the industry for a few years. But the other day, it occurred to me that I know absolutely nothing about what goes into designing and building a tenkara rod. So out of curiosity, I turned to Tenkara USA founder Daniel Galhardo to get a…
Most tenkara line spools I’ve tried have been either plastic or wood, so I was intrigued when I saw the spools from Tenkara Pyrenees that are made entirely of cork. I liked the idea since a.) it’s unique, b.) it floats, and c.) the entire spool is made from a material that lets you stick the fly…
When I was 15, I got my first fly box. I can’t recall exactly what it was, but I remember it being just a cheap plastic box from K-mart (probably a Plano). Back then, I was too preoccupied with learning how to cast and the basics of fly fishing to be concerned with what kind…
You won’t get far in your research on tenkara without coming across the Tenkara Bum website. It’s one of the best resources for learning about tenkara and one of the most popular online stores with a wide range of gear. But many might not know much about the man behind it. Chris Stewart was one of the…
I’ve always been drawn to unique gear and have a special penchant for interesting tenkara line holders. I have a wooden line spool that I got at the Tenkara Summit that was handmade by Dr. Ishigaki’s friend. It’s gorgeous (see it here) but there’s one small drawback. The hole in the center is too large…
In case you missed the memo, the world’s first tenkara-only magazine is here! Created by Tenkara USA, the magazine is a very high quality 112-page publication featuring well-written articles and great photography from a lot of names you’ll recognize if you’ve been fishing tenkara for any significant amount of time. The wide range of topics…