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.
Don’t be put off by the title. I’m not about to incite a heated debate about what is or isn’t a “tenkara” fly and delve into an infinite loop of semantic minutia. Instead, I thought I would simply list out the criteria I use when selecting patterns that I think work well for tenkara. And…
If you’ve been reading this blog for a while, you’ve probably seen some changes over the years. So I thought it would be fun to give a little history on the site, and where it is now. 1. This website started out as backpackflyfishing.com. Originally, the main focus was on fly fishing and lightweight backpacking…
No matter how many times I see a sakasa kebari underwater, I’m always surprised on how alive they come underwater–with even the slightest twitch. No wonder they’re such effective flies. Here’s a quick video I shot today in both normal speed and slow motion to show how well the hackle moves in the water.
I recently posted about Masami Sakakibara’s (AKA Tenkara no Oni) new English-language website and how it opened up a world of information to the western world. Well now, I’m pleased to announce that Sakakibara-sensei has agreed to do an interview with me! My first reaction was to send over a list of my own questions…
Tenkara line spools seem simple enough. After all, they’re basically just spools. And this might lead on to believe that they’re all pretty much the same. But I’ve found that some actually better than others. I’ve mostly been using spools from Tenkara USA and Leica and have been very happy with them but when I…
I recently wrote that I’ve been tying and fishing palmered flies for tenkara lately. My theory is that if the hackle is spread out over more of the body of the fly, it will give the pattern more movement and, thus, be more attractive to fish. So I started tying flies with hackle palmered through…
Today, there was big news in the tenkaraverse. Tenkara master Masami Sakakibara (AKA “Tenkara no Oni”) launched a new, English website, unlocking a treasure trove of information about tenkara to the Western and English speaking world. The site is still under construction but already features a wealth of information including videos, posts, & articles directly…
Tenkara Times is a relatively new player in the rapidly growing tenkara market and I recently had a chance to field test one of their rods. Here’s the good, the bad, and the ugly on it… Specs Length: 365 cm (12 ft.) Closed length: 56 cm (22 in.) Weight: 73 grams (3 oz.) Handle length:…
While the majority of my tenkara fishing is done with a sakasa kebari, I’ve also been experimenting with some hybrid flies that combine the fish catching qualities borrowed from my days steelhead fishing and classic British palmered flies. “Palmered” just means that the hackle is wound through the body of the fly rather than just…
I know this isn’t a great video but I’ve been getting a lot of interest in Eiji Yamakawa’s furled tenkara lines since my recent post. This is footage I took at the 2012 Tenkara Summit and while it was difficult to get a good shot because of all the people crowded around and I’m not…
It might sound strange, but I have come to believe that fishless days can actually be a good thing (well, every once in a while, that is). And I’ll even take it a step further and add that ultimately, I think they make us better anglers and deepen our appreciation of the sport. I’ve been…
Over the weekend, I got a chance to field test a prototype line made by John Veterlli of Tenkara Guides. It’s a hybrid line based off of a formula invented by master Japanese tenkara angler Eiji Yamakawa (a.k.a. “Eddie” on the Tenkara USA Forums). While I’ve pretty much been fishing tenkara level lines exclusively over…
My daughter Emma doesn’t know it yet, but she’s the world’s youngest tenkara angler. I say this because even though she’s only four months old, she embodies the spirit of tenkara. She takes pleasure in simple things, lives completely in the moment, and basically just takes a beginner’s mind approach to every experience. My wife…
Let’s face it. Even the most expertly tied fly is not immortal. Though it might have escaped the perils of underwater snags, tree branches lurking in our backcasts, or weak knots, it will eventually succumb to the merciless jaws of countless trout ripping it to shreds. And at some point, it’s time to retire it.…