I got to give my Oni rod and Tenkara USA Ayu II a workout today on clear creek again. This time, with avid tenkara angler, Phil Echelman. It was a great day with lots of fish caught, and some neat streamside discoveries. I actually started fishing just above tunnel #1before I met up with Phil.…
That’s right. Titanium. As in the metal. Believe it or not, some tenkara anglers in Japan use lines made of thin titanium wire instead of fluorocarbon or nylon. This might seem strange, but titanium lines have some interesting properties that give them some distinct advantages. I recently got to try out a titanium line that…
My first post on tenkara memes didn’t quite satiate my sense of the absurd, so I decided to create a few more. Whether they make you roll your eyes or bring a smile to your face, I hope they at least bring some levity to your Monday…
A few posts ago, I wrote about my initial impressions of the Tenkara no Oni rod and this weekend, I finally got a chance to give it a workout on Clear Creek outside of Golden, CO. Not only was the fishing great, but my field test confirmed a lot of what I had expected of…
Of all the tenkara tricks I have up my sleeve, this one is my favorite and the one in which I have the most confidence. As you’ll see in the video, it’s pretty simple, but it works.
Well, now that Daniel has let the cat out of the bag that tenkara was a hoax all along, I have no choice to but to come clean and admit my role in the scandal. You see, I’ve been on the Tenkara USA payroll for years as part of a sophisticated network charged with spreading…
Math is definitely not my strong point but I did a little to try to answer some questions I’ve been getting about the Japanese line rating system for fluorocarbon level lines and what it translates to in diameter. Please note: lb. test is irrelevant. Diameter matters more for turnover than test. And, test per diameter varies from…
Some tenkara rods come with a rod tube, and some don’t. Some anglers are hardcore tubers, some throw caution to the wind, and some are in between (like me). An included rod tube is a nice touch, but whenever someone laments the fact that a particular rod model doesn’t come with a tube, my response…
After several months of patiently waiting, my Oni tenkara rod has finally arrived! For those of you who don’t know what an “Oni” rod is, it’s the rod designed and used by Masami Sakakibara (a.k.a. “Tenkara no Oni”), who is widely considered to be the best tenkara caster in the world. He is notorious for…
While I certainly appreciate the advances in technology that have allowed us to have high-performance fishing gear, I have always also had a fondess for rustic, traditional gear. There’s something special about traditional, handmade gear that I just can’t resist. It could be nostalgia, but I think for me, it’s more about aesthetics. Modern gear…
“It doesn’t imitate anything”. That’s the response the 15-year old me got from a fly shop guy when I asked what a Royal Wulff was supposed to imitate. As a young fly angler, I was slowly learning entomology and trying to match up the different insect species with their feathered doppelgangers. Some patterns (like the…
I just got a package in the mail from Tenkara Fly Shop and am so excited that I couldn’t wait to share it with you! If you want to see some of the coolest, most minimalistic, gorgeous fly boxes, read on… Bamboo & Cedar Fly box The first box is my favorite and…
I’m sure we all could use some levity lately so…take a shot every time… A tenkara angler refers to a fly rod & reel as a “western” rod. Owl Jones refers to tenkara as “cane pole fishing”. There is a reported Tenkara Sasquatch sighting. Someone posts another post on “what is Tenkara?”. Someone else…
Many of the streams tenkara anglers fish in Japan are fast flowing mountain streams. In those streams, fish have very little time to “inspect” food. If they hesitate, it’s gone–lost to the swift current or a competitor. A good fly for these conditions is a larger, easy-to-spot fly like the Oki Sakasa Kebari. For fast…