I just made a TenkaraTalk wallpaper for my iPhone and am pretty happy with the way it turned out. I don’t know why anyone would want it, but I’m offering it for a free download (I guess I just like giving away free stuff). If you want to add it to your phone, here’s how……
With the impending extinction of the famous orange level line from Tenkara Bum, many tenkara anglers have been on the quest for a good replacement. Sanyo has recently come out with a new orange fluorocarbon line of its own called Valcan, but is it a good substitute for the Tenkara Bum line? At first…
I swung by Angler’s Covey in Colorado Springs on Sunday and they had a sale on Umpqua Comepetition hooks. They looked like they might be good for sakasa kebari so I picked up a couple of packages in size #10 and #12. I got the C500BL model, which is a short shank heavier wire…
I just got word that the newly redesigned Stream Pack from TrailLite Designs will be available next week on the Tenkara Bum website. If the name TrailLite Designs sounds familiar, it’s probably because you know them as the creator of the Ebira Rod Quiver–an ingenious tenkara accessory which happens to have been named by yours…
They say there has to be a first time for everything. Well, today, the old cliche materialized in triplicate (two good, one not so good). And while people also say, “two out of three ain’t bad”, I’d summarize today as an all around great day despite the fact that one of these firsts just…
Many anglers tout the effectiveness of using red hooks in their fly patterns. While there appears to be some science behind it, I’m not a red hook fanatic; nor am I a foe. I don’t know if or why red hooks add some attractor qualities to flies or not. I’ve caught fish on them…
Even the most organized fly tying desks can have cluttered backgrounds that can be distracting when you’re trying to put the finishing touches on that perfect fly. It can not only adversely affect the quality of the fly you’re tying, but also cause eye strain. Here’s a simple, low-cost solution I came up with to…
A classic color combination in an eyeless sakasa kebari style. For video instructions on how to tie eyeless tenkara flies, click here. Hook: Owner Super Yamame #7 Head: Orange Uni 8/0 thread Loop Eye: #2 silk bead cord, white Hackle: Pheasant Body: Camel Uni 8/0 thread Rib: Small copper wire, counterwrapped
Hook: Owner Amano Tenkara Hook #2 or #3 Thread: Uni 8/0 Light Cahill Hackle: Light Dun Hen Body: Pale Yellow Dubbing I’ve been playing around with my Amano tenkara hooks and thought this simple pattern might be a good fit for their smaller size range. If you want to match the hatch, this would be…
In Japan, tenkara has been very narrowly defined in terms of gear, technique, and application. The gear part of the definition includes using a long rod, no reel, and simple, unweighted flies. The technique part includes things like using rapids and waterfalls to sink flies rather than weight, watching the line rather than using a…
I’m not sure how it happened but somehow over the last two years I’ve been fishing the Tenkara USA Ayu, I haven’t done a review. Maybe it’s because I’ve always considered it such an staple tenkara rod that it was easy to overlook. Sometimes, the most obvious things are the easiest to miss. But,…
I recently got some #2 and #3 Owner Amano Tenkara hooks to play around with and thought I would share some info on them for anyone who is looking for smaller hooks for sakasa kebari. These hooks feature a slight down eye, short shank, wide gap and, are made of fairly heavy wire to help…
With all the local trout streams low and clear, this was a good weekend for some tenkara bass fishing. In the late morning, I hit the ponds at South Platte Park, where I had caught by first tenkara bass just a couple of weeks ago and it didn’t let me down! I explored some…
If you’re interested in using horse tail as a fly body, here is another horse hair sakasa kebari I have found to be effective.Hook: Owner Super Yamame #7