A Scandal in Tenkara … Years ago, there was something of a controversy in the tenkara community. There were some who accused suggested that Oni rods were counterbalanced in the butt end of the rod and that’s why they felt so impossibly light in the hand. It seemed to be logical, and there was even…
My favorite tenkara rod and the one I use the most also happens to have the least ergonomically designed handle possible. It’s perfectly straight with no taper whatsoever. It’s an Oni Type I–an old one–back before they were mass produced like they are today. The originals were literally hand assembled by Oni himself in his…
I love winter fishing. For the same reasons the warm-blooded amongst us do: fewer crowds, less pressure on the fish, no biting insects, and just overall quiet solitude–serenity amidst a white, Norman Rockwell blanket of snow. Of course, there are also downsides to winter fishing. Here in Colorado, many of the smaller streams get completely…
Sometimes, I find overlaps between tools I use at the tying desk and tools I could (and should) also use afield. Case in point: scissors. I used to trim materials from my flies on-stream to better suit the situation at hand using my tippet clippers. But I found that a small pair of tying…
I recently started a new hobby: pipe smoking. And already, I can see many parallels between it and tenkara. That’s for another article, but one thing I’m particularly struck by (or perhaps reminded of) is that just like learning tenkara, fly fishing, climbing, guitar, stamp collecting, or any new endeavor, one has the option to…
Using a patch to dry your flies while fishing is a good practice for at least two reasons. The first is that you never want to put a wet fly back into your fly box (that is, unless you want to start a rusty hook collection). The second is that if your fly uses CDC,…
Necessity may be the mother of invention, but sometimes, the best innovations come from the humble junk drawer. Yesterday I was rummaging through (one of) mine and stumbled across two pieces of clutter that inspired me to improve my experience at the bench. They’re extremely simple, but worth a share. You can probably replicate them…
A while back, I wrote an article about how to make your own fly drying patch out of simple materials. It’s easy and a fun project for winter. But I failed to mention that you can use the same technique for making your own fly boxes and they’re even easier. Plus, they give you a…
I recently wrote a post about how to make your own DIY fly drying patch. And it works great if you want to switch out soggy flies for fresh ones or just want to dry out your flies before you retire them to the box. But, what do you do when you’re down to the…
Whether you need to swap out a waterlogged dry fly for a fresh one or are just switching patterns altogether, it’s never a good idea to put a wet fly back in your box. To avoid rusting the other flies in your fly box and to allow them to dry faster, it’s best to allow…
As fly tiers, we pride ourselves on the reward of catching fish on flies we tied ourselves. But what about catching fish on flies we tied ourselves using tools we made ourselves? I think taking tying to this next level deepens our connections to the humble origins of our craft and strengthens ourself-reliance as anglers.…
Even though in the last few years I’ve almost exclusively fished subsurface flies like sakasa kebari since adopting tenkara for trout, during the course of my overall fly fishing career, I’ve probably used gallons of fly floatant on dry flies; mostly paste such as Loon’s Aquel. And while it’s effective, I’ve never been happy with the application…
Back in May of 2010, I introduced the (then tiny) tenkaraverse to the concept of using EZ Keepers as an on-board line management system. Since then, I’ve seen more and more people adopt this method of storing their line on their tenkara rod without the need for a separate spool. Some people love it, some…
Have you ever found a tenkara rod that has all the right properties except for that one thing you wanted to change? Maybe you wished the handle were longer. Or maybe you just want to get a blank and build your own rod from the ground up. Well, now you can order all the components…