Banned from Tenkara USA Forum

[CM_Stewart]

I certainly did not intend to start a "bash Tenkara USA" thread. There are people on this forum that also participate there, and I wanted to let people know that I wouldn't be posting there anymore (and that it wasn't because I'd lost interest in tenkara). On the whole, the T-USA forum is very positive. However, I definitely believe tenkara fishing in the US has grown to the point where there should be an active forum on which discussion of rods other than Tenkara USA rods is possible. T-USA was the first "company in the western hemisphere dedicated to the sport and arts of tenkara fly-fishing" but it clearly is no longer the only one.

[MR.JML]

I agree. Tenkara should not be fragmented, but it was bound to happen like every other area of Fly Fishing. The problem being, is that it is are other products and Rods other then what Tenkara USA puts out. For them to feel so threatened means that they are very insecure, and not confident with the products that they are promoting. I do not see that as bashing in any way. That is sad reality. Daniel simply was not being a good ambassador of Tenkara. Sad reality. There needs to be a forum (or forums) that can freely discuss the tools of the trade and techniques. If something is great, then fine. If something is crap, then it is crap.

[Bpfrocket]

I wondered where you were Chris, although I haven't been on over there much myself since the "Flea Swap". I realize that the T-USA forum is a manufacturers forum, but it's hard to claim to be the voice of a sport when you only allow one color of the "ten colors of Tenkara" and refuse to consider anything non-traditional as a new "color". I love my T-USA gear, but I also love my Daiwa Soyukaze, my AFB Wakata and my horsehair lines. It will be interesting to see how things will change now that Orvis will be selling T-USA gear. I don't see Orvis caring too much about tradition, or the Orvis retailers trying too hard to keep the Zen purity aspect of Tenkara foremost in their minds.
I'll still be active there, but other places as well.
It's good to find you "Sensei"
Bruce

[Dusty]

It's a shame that many people's first encounter with tenkara will be through what is essentially a site built for marketing one company's rods and lines. Chris' site, as well as some of the other great blogs/sites out there (tenkaraonthefly; tetontenkara; tenkaragrasshopper; troutrageous, tenkara-fisher, etc.) provide history, experiences, objective reviews, fishing locations, etc. At this point I won't even include TUSA on a list of recommendations to people who ask me about tenkara (although the original video of Daniel's exploratory trip to Japan is still worth watching: http://vimeo.com/22824065). Tenkara existed in Japan for hundreds of years. There was a tenkara renaissance in Japan in the 1970s (many books - see Soseki Yamamoto's books from the mid '70s - '80s on Adam's site: tenkara-fisher - and many new practitioners). Misako Ishimura introduced tenkara to the US when she brought Dr. Ishigaki, who became Daniel's teacher, to the Catskill Fly Fishing Center and Museum. Certainly Daniel has turned many people onto tenkara, and certainly he can claim to have founded the first comprehensive commercial tenkara gear site in the US, but that's a small part of a bigger story. The fact that Daiwa, Shimano, Nissin, Sakura, etc. have continued to make and sell tenkara rods should provide a clue that tenkara was alive and well in Japan, even if it has been a small niche in an otherwise big sportfishing industry. You can't "discover" something that's been around in modern form for 40 years.

I have high hopes that FAOL will become the host of a truly active tenkara forum. It's only natural, right?

[JC_Hall]

Dusty I am hoping the same for this site that is why I came here. I was asking Chris if there was another forum besides TUSA. That site turned me on to tenkara and turned me off at the same time. So here I am.

[Paul Arnold]

Dusty -- You stated your opinion well and truly. I agree totally, and thank you for saying so felicitously what I believe many of us are thinking. ~Paul

[Donald Nicolson]

I have come to this thread a bit late. Sorry about that, the old eyes y' know.
I had a bit of a relapse, but to stop blethering.
I have known Chris for some time, long before Tenkara became the
popular style of fly fishing it is now, and we had a three handed series of
conversations, with Mike Connor. Some by forum and some by e-mail about long rod, fixed line fishing. It was then seven or eight years ago, maybe more, being practised in the UK and in Mikes case Germany, by adapting a European coarse fishing rod, by removing the rings and adding a tying point to the rod tip for a fixed line. Mike had a lot of knowledge (of course) about materials and lengths for the fixed line. I had also added an article on North Italian reverse hackle flies to my web-site before this. What had got me interested was David Webster's book 'The Angler and the Loop Rod' (1885), this was actually the same as Walton's 17th century rod. So you see Chris has a very good pedigree as regards long rods and fixed line fishing. I was thinking that it is about time that there was a Tenkara forum not tied to a specific brand of tackle. Sometimes people get a bit po faced about mentioning another brand.
I also thought I detected a slight touch of the Halfordian exclusivity.
I have said many times on many forums, this is fly fishing, not holy writ.
Anyway, sorry I am a bit late, glad to see your posts Chris.

[NewTyer 1]

Mr JML, I have that book and it is a great book. It's very intuitive and full of knowlege and technics. I would definitely recommend it to anyone interested in Tenkara

[LadyFisher]

I believe Tom Travis also has the book - he is quiet the historian...but i will mention it just in case..
Thanks so much.

[Paul Arnold]

Based on a review of prior posts, I believe the book you refer to is Tenkara: Radically Simple, Ultralight Fly Fishing, by Kevin C. Kelleher and Misako Isimura.

If so, that is the book that put me on the path to tenkara. I ran across it last summer in the fly-fishing section of The Country Bookshelf in Bozeman. Now, a year later, I own five tenkara rods and am hopelessly hooked.

Rather than being a history of tenkara, it is very much a How To Do It book. Tenkara is competently written and artfully illustrated and is a truly helpful way to learn about fishing with tenkara tackle and techniques. All of the info in the book is available on the Web, but it is darned convenient to have all the basic, important stuff in one source and stripped down to a manageable quantity.

To my knowledge, it is the only book about tenkara published in the English language.