I came home from this year’s Fly Fishing Show with a few flies from Paul Vertrees and thought they were good ties so wanted to share a few pictures. For those of you who don’t know Paul, he is the tenkara guide for Rigs Fly Shop in Ridgeway (the first to offer guided tenkara trips…
If you’re anything like me, you’ve accumulated a bunch of level lines that live in anonymity. You’ve long forgotten the size and have no idea what the length is. And they all start to look the same after a while. Rather than getting the micrometer and measuring tape out every time you uncoil a mystery…
Tenkara USA recently introduced their first minimalist fishing pack and I got one this weekend at the Denver Fly Fishing Show. Here is a brief review… The pack immediately reminded me in many ways of a UL pack I designed years ago called the Trico. It’s compact, lightweight, and designed to be carried multiple ways,…
While fluorocarbon has proven itself to be the ideal material for tenkara level lines, its density makes it sink. When using subsurface flies, this is an advantage. But when fishing dry flies or other techniques, it can be a real drag–literally. Having the line underwater can prevent you from getting a drag-free drift or even…
When I first heard Rigs Fly Shop (a Tenkara USA dealer here in Colorado) was coming out with a new level line, I wasn’t really all that interested. After all, how much can you really innovate a level line? But when I first laid eyes on it, I knew it was something special. And when…
I hit the South Platte today since it was one of the only rivers that isn’t frozen over right now. I didn’t expect to catch much because, well…it’s the S. Platte in December. And, my expectations were met. I only caught one (small) rainbow. But I can’t complain. After all, it was a frigid day…
When I fished with Dr. Ishigaki at Last year’s Tenkara Summit, the first thing that struck me about his style was his laserlike concentration. As soon as he locked his sights on his target, you could practically feel being shut out of his world. His focus was so intense, I felt like I didn’t exist–like…
The Seiryu is actually the second rod I’ve field tested from Tenkara Centre UK. I recently viewed their new Masu rod and while it’s a great rod with a specific niche action and a lot of nice finishing touches, I think of the Seiryu more as an all purpose workhorse. Specs Length: 360cm…
Last Wednesday, I had the privilege of giving a tenkara presentation to the Fly Fisher’s Club of Colorado at their monthly dinner. The event was held in the prestigious University club of Denver and if you’re wondering why I wasn’t wearing my signature baseball cap and Jeans, it’s because the club has a strict dress…
Some rod manufacturers may cringe at me suggesting this tip to remove line twist when you’re winding your line on to the spool for fear of broken rod tips. But I have been using this technique for over two years and have never broken a rod. You just have to take the same care you…
It was a gloomy day on Bear Creek today. Surrounded by dark waters, cold grey rocks, scraggly leave-less trees, dead grasses, and overcast skies, I felt like I was fishing in a Tim Burton movie. Luckily, the fishing was better than the weather… It’s been an eternity since I’ve fished Bear Creek. For much…
I just got a new tenkara rod today from Tenkara Times (review to follow) and it included a free sampling of some of their sakasa kebari. I didn’t think much of it at first until I opened up the packaging and saw the quality of tying. These are good tenkara flies. Here are some closeups…
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…
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…
Today, Karel from Tenkara on the Fly, Joe from Dragon Fly Fishing and I headed up to the west side of Rocky Mountain National Park to fish North Inlet Creek just above Grand Lake. I normally fish the east side of RMNP and haven’t been to the west side in years so today was a…
Not too long ago, I wrote a post about using Red Amnesia as a sighter for tenkara level lines. Having fished it for a while now, I can say really like it. The bright red Amensia is easy to see in all lighting conditions and makes it much easier to follow your fly and detect…
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…
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, I found that it wasn’t feasible due to one factor that I overlooked: time.
For those of you who couldn’t go fishing today, here’s a little Tenkara porn. At 1:57 you’ll see one method I use to store my like when moving between spots where it might be brushy. Sometimes, I wrap it around the rod instead. What do you do with your line when you have to move…
