What is Tenkara Fishing

With the recent Post on TUSA Blog about What's a tenkara rod , it got me wondering what is tenkara fishing. There have been topics in the past about some techniques that would not be considered tenkara fishing. It has also been brought up that tenkara fishing is a form of fly fishing.


Since I have never visited or probably never will visit japan I may never fully understand what tenkara fishing is. I mainly fish retention ponds using my TUSA Amago and TBUM's hi viz #4 line. I fish a variety of flies from foam poppers to bead chain eye crazy charlies and tube flies. I mainly fish for panfish and bass since there are not many trout streams near where I live in Indiana.


Some have said that if you fish anything besides streams with tenkara gear than you are not tenkara fishing. If this is the case than does that mean you can not fly fish still or salt water. I also like fishing from my kayak weather floating down stream or on a lake. I am tenkara fishing if I do this or am I just using tenkara gear to fish and putting a western modification to tenkara fishing.


I am trying to understand what tenkara fishing is without so called westernizing or modifying it. The only way I believe any one can fully understand is to go live in Japan and fiss the small mountain streams for there trout but not everyone can do this. Fishing as I see it in any form is always changing and evolving with every generation. What the ones they call the Masters of Tenkara are teaching to others have been modified from what it was 500 to 1000 years ago. The same can be said with any form fishing. Improvements from one generation, culture, region and targeted fish change and therefor change what is tenkara.


I am just trying to get a better understanding of what Tenkara fishing is. To means simple, uncomplicated fix line fly fishing. It has also been fun, exciting and relaxing way of ultra light fishing. Weather or not what I do is considered to be Tenkara or not I will continue to enjoy my time fishing with my tenkara gear.


Mike P.

To me tenkara fishing is when you are using a tenkara rod to cast a fly into whatever waters to whatever fish you choose to pursue. I think over time the technique will evolve and adapt better fit conditions found here in the US. To speculate more and get myself in more trouble yet, I think the name we use for tenkara here in the us may change to distinguish it from the way it is pratised elsewhere. Whatever definition you choose it is one heck of a lot of pure, unadulterated fun!

I really hate when this happens, but I wrote a long, detailed answer to your question, and when I went to post it I got a message that I had to refresh the page. Refreshing the page wiped out the answer.


What it boiled down to, though, was that it doesn't matter if the way you want to fish is or isn't tenkara. Fish the way you want to fish.

Trying to define tenkara is like trying to define the color blue. You might think "but we all know what blue is." The problem is in defining, precisely, just where is the dividing line when a color is no longer blue and is now green. And to make the analogy even more appropriate, the Japanese place that dividing line in a different place than we do in America. Our "green" traffic lights and interstate highway signs fall into the part of the color spectrum that the Japanese call "blue."

What is tenkara? That depends entirely on who you ask.
What is a tenkara rod? That also depends on who you ask (and what he has to sell you).

I don't know if this will add anything or not to what Chris posted but I was having a conversation with one of the more prominent folks in the Tenkara blog world today on this topic and I will try to paraphrase what we talked about.

Much of the law/rules of Tenkara that have been introduced to the US so far are coming through the perspective of one or two individuals. However the more some of us learn and study Tenkara as it is in Japan we find that the rules there are written by ten different authors of the same book....and they are all using pencil. :rolleyes: Nothing about Tenkara is carved in stone, there has not been any master of Tenkara have a burning bush experience. Many in Japan practice Tenkara with multiple flies in their box, some use a single pattern but not all. Some carry a single type of line or only one rod to the stream, yet others will have multiples of both.

Much of the "Dogma" surrounding Tenkara is coming from one interpretation. If you want to go fishing then go fishing, how you do that and with what cosmetic differences of one rod to the next don't matter to the fish. If you want to learn and study what Tenkara is, it's history and the deeper layers of technique then dig deeper than the surface layer of the past 3-4 years and find out what is beyond. Only then can you have a view that will let you see more than what is on the surface.

I feel a little Yoda-esk now...without backwards speaking I was.

With all due respect, I feel no obligation to honor the traditions of tenkara. When I bought and began to use a tenkara rod and line, I considered myself as having discovered a new and exciting way to fish. I had no sense that I had entered a holy order -- with rules to be followed and the ways of forebearers to be respected and emulated. At least not any more thanI already respect and emulate such fishermen as Lee Wulff, Craig Mathews, and Dave Whitlock.


And you know what? When I grab atenkara or tanago rod and head for the water, I'm just going fishing. If someone asks, I may use the word "tenkara" as shorthandto explain my odd fishing tackle, but that is only because that word makes the explanation easier.


I would call it pole-fishing if it didn't conjure up a picture of an unsplit bamboo pole, a bobber, and a can of worms. Come to think of it, maybe "pole fishing"is what I should say, even if I'm using one of my rods fromTenkara USA, Tenkara Bum, or Fountainhead and a sakasa kebari at the end of my tippet.


If this makes me a heretic, then so be it. I don't think it will interfere with my fishing pleasure.


~Paul

Most of the blogs and topics I have read on the internet keep talking about traditional Tenkara, but it seems they have been talking about modern day Tenkara in Japan as practiced by a few. I am sure tenkara will evolve the same as fly fishing as more people discover tenkara and continue to push the limits and try new things. As the materials that are used to build the rods and make the lines evolve so will the sport. My point of my post was really picked up by CM Stewart with his recent post on Tenkara Bum about rethinking rod choice (great read by the way). I may have been trying to Question Daniel's blog post about What is a Tenkara Rod. As Tom Kirkland from rod builder would say a rod blank is a rod blank. Take a so called fly rod blank and turn it into a spinning rod or casting rod. All blanks have different actions and stiffness. A cane pole could be a tenkara rod with say a 9:1 action. A so called tango rod could be a 4:6 or 3:7 tenkara rod. I can understand why TUSA posted the blog they did, because they sell rods for Tenkara type fishing. All in all I have gotten great responses here and on TUSA forums. Have fun fishing what ever way you decide to do even if it be noodling.

Mike P.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by scorpion1971

Daniel's blog post about What is a Tenkara Rod. As Tom Kirkland from rod builder would say a rod blank is a rod blank. Take a so called fly rod blank and turn it into a spinning rod or casting rod. All blanks have different actions and stiffness. A cane pole could be a tenkara rod with say a 9:1 action. A so called tango rod could be a 4:6 or 3:7 tenkara rod.

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I think Tom Kirkland is exactly correct. Many of the threadliners, the extreme ultralight spinning guys, use a fly rod blank for a spinning rod, and 6X or 7X tippet material for a line. The whole point is to match the action and stiffness (and rod length) to the fishing. Part of the problem in evaluating, or at least talking about tenkara rods, though, is that the only figures we are given (6:4 etc.) measure only action, not stiffness, yet people see the number and THINK stiffness much more than action because for the most common brand here, the 7:3 rods are quite stiff and the 5:5 rods are quite soft. It doesn't necessarily follow though. You can have a soft 8:2 rod (which is actually a much closer measure for the longest Soyokaze rods than 3:7!) They have extremely soft tips, but the longer ones in particular have lots of backbone. A "Common Cents" analysis of the 10'2" Soyokaze and the 11' Iwana yield identical ERN figures! The Soyokaze has a much softer tip, so it must have stiffer mid and butt sections to yield the same ERN. They'll cast the same lines and I would expect they'll handle about the same size fish.