Here’s an excellent mini-documentary on tenkara starring the Tenkara Guides. I think it captures the essence of tenkara very well. There is a full length documentary in the works that is being produced by Brian Flemming of Learn Tenkara that is slated to be released in about a year in which yours truly will briefly…
Here’s a quick video showing how the new Kevlar furled lines from Tenkara USA don’t tangle after being snagged like the traditional monofilament furled lines did.
Traditional tenkara flies don’t have weight like our western flies that use lead wire, copper wire, or bead heads to help them sink. Instead, tenkara anglers make use of the hydrodynamics of the stream to help sink their flies. Here is a quick video of Daniel Galhardo from TenkaraUSA demonstrating how you can use the…
I have been using the Fishpond San Juan chest pack for a while now on a variety of streams and really like it for tenkara fishing. I couldn’t find one locally, but luckily, Colorado Skies Outfitters (my local fly shop here in Parker) was cool enough to pick one up from their distributor and got me…
I’ve always considered myself a confirmed dry fly fisher but have recently taken an interest in fishing sakasa kebari wet flies. I’ve had a number of experiences lately that are convincing me more and more that they’re not only effective, but just as fun to fish as surface flies (though for different reasons). The main…
In my last post, I wrote about how to choose a tenkara fly line. Many people had questions about how to attach a level line to their Tenkara fly rods so I thought it would be helpful to post a quick video on it so here it is. I hope this helps: If you’re not…
All of us who tie flies have our own unique spaces dedicated to the craft. Whether crammed into the corner of a tiny apartment or sprawled out over the entire expanse of a finished basement, they are sacred places. Here is a quick video of my current one and some of the materials I’ve collected…
A lot of people have asked me what I carry in my pack for UL fly fishing and backpacking trips so I thought I’d do a quick video about it. It’s called the Trico and I’d be curious to hear what others carry and see if it’s similar to my setup or what other gear…
This was a fly fishing pack I always wanted but didn’t exist. So I designed it myself. PLEASE NOTE: The Trico is no longer available as I’ve been unable to secure a new sewer to produce it. If you’ve got a lead on someone who will and help me put it back into production, please…
The Ebira is a rod quiver for tenkara fly rods such as Tenkara USA rods and the Backpacking Light Hane. It features a removable pocket to hold a fly box and tippet spools that can be accessed without taking the quiver off. “Ebira” means “quiver” in Japanese and while they were traditionally worn over the…
If you’d rather fish a #14 fly during a heavy Trico hatch than a #22, check out the Traffic Jam
How to Tie the Traffic Jam Trico Cluster from Jason Klass on Vimeo.
Many of us who have fished Trico hatches probably have a love-hate relationship with them. These notoriously prolific hatches bring a lot of fish to the surface but it can be impossible to pick out your #22 imitation from the thousands of others on the surface. A fish could strike your fly and you wouldn’t even know it because there are so many rises surrounding it. Probably many of us have wished we could fish a larger, easier-to-see pattern that we could distinguish from the mayhem during these exciting hatches. This led some people to design double and triple Trico patterns that were a littler easier to see, but were unrealistic because of the way they are tied in perfect alignment (trunk-to-tail so to speak). After years of observation, I had an epiphany that led to the creation of the Traffic Jam.
To a Western fly angler who is used to a nail knot or handshake connection (loop to loop) to connect their leader to their fly line, connecting a Tenkara fly line to the rod can seem a bit baffling. Here’s a quick demonstration on how to connect a Tenkara fly line to your new Tenkara…
