In western fly fishing, a lot of emphasis is placed not only on the fly pattern, but also on fly size. It’s considered standard practice to carry both a wide variety of patterns and a variety of sizes of each pattern. The mentality seems to be that if you don’t have a good selection, you’re…
While fishing with some of the Japanese anglers the day before the summit, I found myself admiring a strange looking contraption at the end of Masami Tanaka’s tenkara rod. It was a clear plastic sleeve with a black strap around it. Much different than the wooden rod plug most of us in the West are…
I recently wrote about some of the flies I got from the Tenkara Summit. Two of them were very special to me since they were from Dr. Ishigaki. I was tempted to fish with them but decided to have them framed instead. I figured I’d get more joy by hanging them on my gear room…
It’s with great sadness today that I announce my resignation from Tenkara USA. Some of you might know that about two months ago, I joined the Tenkara USA team to help out with marketing and content development. It was a great opportunity and of course I jumped at the chance but after getting into it,…
Today, I was lucky to head out to some absolutley gorgeous water with fellow tenkara angler Paul Vertrees. We saw tons of animals, caught tons of fish, and absorbed more scenery in four hours than many people see in a year. Here’s my trip report… The Stream Paul took me to a spring creek outside of…
I’ve written before about some unique line tenkara holders such as the bamboo line holder I got on eBay and the wooden line spool Dr. Ishigaki donated for an auction at the Tenkara Summit and the moose antler line spool made by Chris Kulhow. At the summit, I was able to add to my collection…
I just got back from a quick trip to Rocky Mountain National Park with Anthony Naples from Casting Around. Anthony and I have had a long-term online relationship and many people might not know that he actually designed the graphics for the header of this blog. In addition to being a great graphic designer, Anthony…
This new tenkara fly tying DVD series was just announced today but I happened to receive one in the mail prior to launch (Thanks Brian!). This DVD isn’t good. It’s GREAT! The clarity and quality is amazing and the running commentary by tenkara experts is surprisingly informative. When I first opened the package, I was…
Last weekend, Karel from Tenkara on the Fly and I headed out to Barker Reservoir in Nederland, CO. He heard that there might be grayling near the inlet so we thought we’d give it a shot. Our last attempt at getting grayling new Joe Wright Reservoir was somewhat of a disaster. But this time, we…
I hit Clear Creek again today, hoping to do better than I did last time. Luckily, I did because this time I really wanted to get some footage with my new Go Pro camera. I’m still learning to work it, but I hope you like this short video I took with it. Also, here are…
Today, on my first Father’s Day, I hit Clear Creek for a while just a few miles outside of Golden, CO. I’m not sure why I made that choice. It’s not my favorite type of stream–steep banks that you have to climb to get from spot to spot, vast distances between good pools, highway noise,…
The first fly I ever tied was composed of some fur and feathers I cut off a Mepps spinner, some too-heavy thread I stole from my mom’s sewing kit, and was precariously held in the chipped corner of my father’s tool vise as I haphazardly wrapped something resembling Cousin Itt on a bait hook (that’s…
It’s pretty simple math: a heavy wire hook + a soft-tipped rod = a lower hookup ratio. Physics is physics after all. Yet, for the longest time, this obvious formula eluded me (or, rather, deceived me). When I first started fishing the tenkara method (the “real” tenkara method), I was getting plenty of strikes, but only…
It’s hard to imagine how you could improve something as simple as a tippet spool but the geniuses over at Scientific Anglers have done just that. They’ve added a built in line cutter, a rotating hub that allows the spools to rotate freely (which will work very nicely with my DIY tippet spool holder…