I just got my Tenkara USA Bamboo Fly Box and it is beautiful. I got to see a sneak preview of one at the Fly Fishing Show in Denver a few months ago and couldn’t wait until they were for sale. I’m a sucker for wooden fly boxes so the day they went up on…
Sakasa Kebari are great attractor patterns and most classic attractors incorporate some kind of contrast or bright colors. So I thought why not carry this idea to tenkara flies? The idea is simple–the body is made up of two different colored threads. The brighter (contrasting) thread color covers 50% of the back of the hook…
Sitting on the bank during one of those all-too-familiar fishless days on the South Platte, I started thinking about rod design. With my current favorite in my hand (the Tenkara USA Ito), I began to think about what makes a rod “good”. I’ve done a fair number of tenkara rod reviews and if you’ve followed this…
A long time ago, I wrote a post about five common tenkara myths and busted them. With all that’s been written about tenkara since then, I still find it amusing when people tweet statements like this: Let’s carry that statement to its logical conclusion, shall we? 4 weight rods are a joke because…
The big news this week for lovers of level tenkara lines is that Tenkara USA will be listing a new yellow fluorocarbon line on their website within the next few days. I recently had a chance to field test the line and here is my initial review. Any discussion of tenkara level line inevitably involves mention of the orange…
Tenkara line spools make both long-term storage and moving from spot to spot more organized and convenient. But just like every piece of gear, people will have their own preferences and demands. Today, we’re lucky to have a few different designs we can choose from to suit our individual needs. In this video, I…
Today, I finally got to fish my Nissin Prosquare rod I recently got from Japan. While I wasn’t sure what to expect, at the end of the day, I was pleasantly surprised.Like many low to mid priced rods in Japan, the Prosquare comes in plastic packaging with a nylon rod sack and no tube. This is fine…
Today, I came home to a small stack of packages on my doorstep. If you’re an unapologetic tenkara gear junkie like me, you know what such a site causes: an adrenaline fueled, single-minded mission to find the closest box cutter. Oni Tenkara Line Spools The first package came from a friend in Japan who got me…
I was recently able to test out the Stone Fly series of rods from Fountainhead and was actually surprised by the quality. By the price, you’d think that they are low end rods–and they are. But in this case, “low end” doesn’t mean “poor quality”. Here are some of my basic observations about this line…
Today, I got my moose antler tenkara line spool hand carved by Chris from The North River Blog. This spool is a work of art reminiscent of Dr. Ishigaki’s wooden line spool and I just wanted to share a few photos…If you follow my blog, you know that I have a deep appreciation for…
[/caption] Today, I got my long awaited Nissin Prosquare tenkara rod in the mail (review coming soon). A friend in Japan who bought and sent the rod to me was kind enough to also include a 20 ft. furled line he made himself and one of his flies. Thanks Eiji! The line looks a…
If someone asked my what the best all around hackle for sakasa kebari, I would answer (without hesitation) that it’s brahma hen cape from Whiting Farms. Here’s why… Two Hackles for one I think probably the main reason I think this is such great hackle is that every cape really gives you 2…
There seems to be a fair amount of confusion among tenkara newcomers when it comes to level lines. People talk about level lines in terms of “lb. test” or “breaking strength” and people don’t seem to get the rating system used in tenkara so I thought I’d make a post to clear it up and…
These flies might not win any beauty contests above water, but I’m sure they’ll be sexy enough down below. With some classic color combinations, nice contrast, and a bit of weight and movement, I can’t see how these “plain Jane” sakasa kebari wouldn’t catch fish. Here’s the recipe… Hook: TMC 2499 SPBL # 10 Thread:…