Artistic Custom Line Winders by Jean Santos

On Oct 10th I was surprised & honored to receive a message from Jean Santos offering to make a set of line winders for me. Asking what art work I would like. The best thing for a poor artist to do is to let the real artist decide. Which is what I did.

On Dec 9th he sent me an update message & a link to a fun video he had made. (embedded below)
He mailed them to me on Dec 14th and they arrived today.

Included was a sheet of paper with sketches of the art work used to make the two pieces with explanation of the art work. It's a pity I'm having trouble with my scanner otherwise I would include a scanned image of it. It's also very fun to have. And I love Jean's cursive penmanship. It's has a grace & style I've been trying to develop over the last few years as my own penmanship style.

The top piece shows cutthroat rising, periwinkle flowers, and my name, David in Kanji. A kanji I had not seen before.


The bottom piece has Scotland Thistle, and the right side of the Submariner's Dolphin pin (my avatar on another forum shows the pin on a Polaris Military Tartan Kilt), a pin earned after a lot of study to have a basic knowledge of every system on a submarine. I thought it a good choice. Though I was not on my boat when it operated out of Holy Loch, I do have several branches of Scots dna, and there were two Kings of Scotland named David.

Here are two screen shots of the two pieces taken from the video, at 0:56 and 1:26.

Attachment 14385

Attachment 14386

There are many other examples of Jean's creativity and skill in the video. How do you like the Sting Ray covered rod grip ? Very cool I thought.

art & tenkara アートテンカラ

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ucZu...ature=youtu.be

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ucZu...ature=youtu.be



Thank you Jean Santos. Very much appreciated.


D

Jean Santos has sent me a link to an interview of him done by Eric Roberts on the website Tenkara Languedoc.
Languedoc is a former province of France. Its territory is now contained in the modern-day region of Occitanie in the south of France.
I think you will find it interesting. Some information about Jean's Tenkara outings on his home streams, where his artistic roots come from, and a fun story about the Shokuryoushi, 職漁師, the name for the professional Tenkara fishermen in Japan.

And it's a bit of fun to look around at other things on the Tenkara Languedoc website. Here:

http://roberi1.wixsite.com/tenkara-languedoc


However, to read the interview I had two challenges; I can't read French. Except for a few words that are similar to English words, from the fact that English has adopted a lot words. And for some reason Google translate will not translate the webpage as a whole, I had to do it manually. For some reason the translation page remains blank. Probably has something to do with how it is encoded or the dialect of French used in Languedoc. But generally automatic digital translations of whole pages are not as good as digital translations of small bites of the text where you can often use little tricks to force an English translation that is a little more accurate and a little closer to standard English sentence structure. Which is what I have done.

For those who can read French here is the link to Jean's interview:

http://roberi1.wixsite.com/tenkara-l.../untitled-coo1

For those who cannot read French. Below is the result of my attempt to translate it into something that is at least largely understandable. In some places I have tried to correct the default translation. In other places I have just left it to the default translation. Partly because it was close enough and in some cases I just wasn't quite sure what English word to use. The default translation in some places picked the wrong gender pronoun. I fixed some of them, but probably missed some of them too. And I didn't spend a lot of time trying to rearrange the translation into standard English, just letting it go if I could get the gist of what was written.

The Tenkara Art

I met Jean through the Forum Tenkara.fr.
We meet for the first time on the demonstration of the Joyeuse club in Ard?che.

He had shown these first Tamo Made in Santos well beautiful work,
we sympathize and later on a fishing trip organized by the Forum on the fountains of water plan connaux,
Then from thread to needle we find them to share our creations lines for me and superb engraving on titanium a skill of wow Jean.

Last season he helped me discover a jewel the Drobie, beautiful river with crystalline waters and beautiful design, and about the Balm another pearl of the Ardeche.
We did not fish much, but the sharing was there.

1) Hello Jean, can you give us a quick introduction presentation.

Hello Eric, I thank you for doing me the honor of this interview on your blog. I am far from being an expert of Tenkara, but during this first season of discovery of this technique, I fished enormously (3 or 4 sorties per week). So I am Tenkara-Enthusiastic

I have been fishing since I was old enough to ride a bike. My grandfather and my uncles initiated me, they fished in Spain by hand or by net.

When I was young I was reading the fishing stories of Maurice G?nevoix, Ren? Fallet and Ernest Hemingway;
A friend spent the reviews "La P?che et les Poissons" where my teachers of thought were Michel Duborgel and Henri Limouzin.

When I was able to drive, I discovered the trout rivers of the Ard?che and the C?vennes and since the 70's I have been fly fishing.

2). How did you discover this technique and why did you put yourself in the practice of Tenkara?

On the forum of the split bamboo fly-handler, someone talked about this Japanese ancestral fishing technique. And as he seemed to say that the throw was simplified without the reel, I wanted to try it;

The idea was to find a simpler fishing technique for my 7 year old grandson that I began to initiate in fly fishing. Finally I adopted the Tenkara for myself.

On the Internet we find a lot of writings and videos on Tenkara, so I explored the forum Tenkara.fr and the various blogs in French that deal with this technique. There is a lot of advice here to help those who take their first steps in Tenkara.

3). Describe some of your materials.

To begin I preferred to orient myself towards an inexpensive kit with the rod V390 at Tenkara.biz: I did not know if Tenkara would please me and I was afraid to break the cane (rod?) that seemed very fragile (it is not!)

I started the winter with this V390 in tank (?). I immediately liked the sensations and the pleasure that the fishing brought with a material so light.

The pleasure of the tenor was confirmed in the river: My usual rivers are rather small and cluttered, so I took a second rod of 3.30m which was better suited to streams.

At the end of the season, considering that I liked it more and more, I decided to order a cane from Japan: a (Nissin ) Zerosum of 3.60m, with a weight of 70g which launches very light lines.

This winter I am building a Tenkara bamboo cane of 3.2m, I want to go back to the sources. To go with this cane, I ordered a horsehair line at Tenkara Languedoc: This kind of line is very rare, and I find great Eric that you managed to make one !

4). What are your Preferred Fly Mounts?

I can not get away from the "classical" flies I used before the Tenkara: They are well adapted to the lively and very brewed waters that I fish.

I tried k?bari, but I'm struggling to identify the keys:
The trout is often hung (caught?) without my seeing it. While with a sedge floating in the broth, I have the pleasure of seeing trout gober (take the fly?).
For me the first choice is therefore to to use highly visible floating flies and if I fish in dishes during outbreaks I pass on emerging in No. 16 or 18 (Hare's ear or deer) that float down.

Tenkara forces the fisherman to get closer to the fish, so I had to look after my approaches. My way of fishing is also slightly different: I drift with very little line in the water. My biggest pleasure is to succeed in putting a fly in the swirl that I was aiming at and to see the trout climb in the second that follows.

I was able to observe when closing with strong waters that the cane Tenkara (Tenkara rod) allowed a good guidance of the nymphs.
But just like the kebari, I miss there also the visual side of the gobage.

5). If you can remember (recommend?) 3 rivers, what would they be?

We are lucky to have in France many rivers that are well adapted to tenkara. I could mention at least 20 rivers that I fished in 2015 in the Basque country, in the Alps or on the plateau ard?chois, on which I'm dying to return to throw a fly.

But since you only ask for three:

1) La Bourne: On the north of the plateau of Vercors, very pretty in the plateau around Villard and grandiose in the gorges of Choranche and Rencurel.
2) La Gervanne: Pretty little river of the South of the Vercors,I like its crystal clear waters and very perennial trout.
It even has a waterfall of 70m, not bad for a small river.
3) The third river is ... a lake, meadow Preys, above the station Corren?on en Vercors
I enjoyed fishing in Alpine Lake in the Vercors: there is the effort of the climb and the reward when reaching the lake. Provided it is morning, it is magical to see the sunrise over a mountain lake, and trout swallow a few meters from the edge ... to reach to launch a Tenkara cane.

6) You are fond of drawing and above all, you perfectly master the engraving of where does this passion come from?

My second grandfather was a stonemason and a sculptor. I'd often hang out in his studio during my vacation and he lent me a little hammer and chisels to make my own "works of art."
I improved in engraving much later, I loved the manual and artistic work that changed me from my daily work on a nuclear site;
At retirement I have even more time to satisfy this passion, I engrave hunting weapons, jewels, and of course it occurred to me to engrave my fishing rods.

Mister Jean Really great art

(due to forum limits here, the last part is in the next post)

7) You were at the European summit of Tenkara 2015 which was held in the Basque country and you met Misako Ishimura can you tell us more?

I was lucky to be on vacation in the Basque country while this 3rd summit was held in St Etienne de Ba?gorry. I would also like to thank the organizers, Maxime Miquel and Yvon Zill.
This allowed me to get to know Misako I had read the book she co-wrote: Tenkara Radically Simple.

She gave us a very documented presentation on the history of Tenkara as discovered by the English diplomat E. Satow, posted in Japan in the 19th century. His guide was a professional fisherman: Shinaemon Toyama. Its lines, flies and its bamboo cane are preserved in the museum of Omachi .

Misako showed us braided sandals of rice straw, similar to those that Shinaemon had to use to avoid slipping into the torrents; Her presentation was rich in interesting documents.

Misako was a teacher of traditional Japanese dance, this adds a natural grace to its wearing. One might think oneself in Japan if there were no pointed bell-towers, no?

:cool: Do you have an anecdote to tell us?

Since fishermen are often liars, I will not tell the story of big trout ....

A little anecdote told to me: Misako told us that professional fishermen in Japan worked mainly for the innkeepers who lodged the pilgrims going to the temples lost in the mountains. These innkeepers required trout from the fishermen that were all of the same size (to avoid complaints from customers who would have been upset by seeing their table neighbor eat a larger one than theirs ...) Not only should they be identical in size , They also had to be SMALL, so that customers would eat them quickly and free the space.

On this point, I think I am the perfect fisherman in tenkara: during this first season that I was able to get out was small fish!

But as you know, in Tenkara even small fish defend themselves, so I also took a lot of fun.

CONCLUSION of the interview: Thank you Eric for your involvement in the promotion of Tenkara in France;

I hope that many others will join us and practice their Tenkara, the one that is best adapted to their river and their fish. And even if they do not take record fish, they will have fun!

In my personal case, the initial goal is achieved, I was able to catch my little son fly with Tenkara cane.
He went out alone in 2015 for trout in tank and he almost took in river, here on Bourne, but that day they did not rise.

I think next year on it will bring a wild one on his fly .... And will release his tamo.

Full circle is achieved his great-grandfather would have been happy!

A big thank you to Jean for concenting to this interview.



My hope is that you have enjoyed reading this interview.
D