I Guess I Just Don't Get It

[Allan]

Obviously many like new challenges and ideas on new ways to fish and fly fish. However, and with all due respect to the Japanese tradition, this type of fishing is not really new. Or at least it was typical but not necessarily with a specific name, when I was a kid fishing in country streams and rivers. Back then (1950s) it was just fishing with 'poles', line, hooks and bait or flies that we could afford. Typically that meant we bought inexpensive (cheap) 4 or 5 piece bamboo rods that were anywhere from 10 to 12 feet (maybe longer but I don't specifically recall). It had no handle, some type of ferrules and a tip top. We knotted a length of mono to the tip (length undetermined); wound any excess length of the mono (based on how high the bank was or depth of the fish) around the tip or spiraled up, down and back to the tip top; attached a hook and bait OR a fly and cast it to the fish. Historically, fly fishers even in the 1800s called something similar, but with specific fly fishing equipment, dapping. It's described in much of our angling literature. Even the idea of rods that 'telescope' is not new. I recall having one of metal. Of course things have changed and metal certainly gave way to other material but the idea is the same.
So, have at it. Have fun. But please ...

Allan

[Fly Goddess]

I did the pole thing too fishing. We did what we had to do, right? But how do you know the Asians were not doing this long before us? Or maybe they were the ones to put a title on it. Kinda nice saying Tenkara rather than long pole with mono attached and a fly or bait... It is the same in one word.
I still have my Grandfathers metal telescope rod Heck, Crappie fishers use a similar Tenkara style. Dapping is what you do isn't it? Tenkara is HOW you do it...
Maybe I ma not grasping what you are saying.

[kbproctor]

I agree with Allan. It's nothing more than a fancy stick and a string that is currently a fad in fishing.

[Allan]

I did the pole thing too fishing. We did what we had to do, right? But how do you know the Asians were not doing this long before us? Or maybe they were the ones to put a title on it. Kinda nice saying Tenkara rather than long pole with mono attached and a fly or bait... It is the same in one word.
I still have my Grandfathers metal telescope rod Heck, Crappie fishers use a similar Tenkara style. Dapping is what you do isn't it? Tenkara is HOW you do it...
Maybe I ma not grasping what you are saying.

Goddess,

Not saying we did it first. Matter of fact, I'd bet that the Japanese or Asians did it long before we did. I just wanted to say that it was done here long before it became commercially marketed as an impored method of fly fishing. Maybe I'm not saying it right. All I'm saying is that a very similar method of fishing began to be used here without knowing that that method was a traditional way of fly fishing in a foreign country. Not trying to take anything away from the tradition. Just that the method was used, at least by us kids and others, because of simply being kids, necessity, limitations, simplicity, and other reasons. We weren't copying anything.
So, today when people appear to make this a complicated, unique, expensive, off-shoot, whatever of fly fishing, I just have to say that it's not new or unique. It is in part, getting popular here because it's marketed exceptionally well and fly fishers will buy a lot of stuff just for the sake of saying they have it. How many of us have heard the phrase, "He who dies with the most toys, wins"? Well, some fly fishers just gotta have it.

Allan

[kbproctor]

Indeed, this is not new. Isaac Walton was using similar technique in the mid 1600's.

http://www.flyfishinghistory.com/erawaltn.htm#

The rod described would be fun to try to build.

[CM_Stewart]

Fishing with a long rod and line tied to the rod tip is not new or unique (and no one is claiming otherwise). What is new to the US is the modern equipment, which allows you to fish in ways that you can't do with the cane pole you had as a kid. I know because I still have my cane pole and I've tried. Comparing a modern tenkara rod to what you had as a kid would be like comparing a modern graphite 2 weight fly rod to the cane pole you had as a kid (after adding guides and a reel seat to the cane pole). No one seems to make THAT comparison but it is EXACTLY the same thing.

A tenkara rod is a very long, very light, very fast fly rod which is designed to cast a 12 to 20' leader without any fly line at all. And if you call making 20-25' casts dapping I guess you could say it is dapping - but only if you also said that making 25' casts with a fly rod is dapping because again, it is exactly the same thing. You are using the weight of the line to propel the fly. (In tenkara it is called a "line", but it is what in fly fishing would be called a leader, whether furled or just flourocarbon leader material). Stick and a string? Well, so's your Sage, which is just a shorter stick with a heavier string.

If you can "get" the importance of drag free drifts, you ought to be able to "get" tenkara. The combination of long rod and light line allow you to keep nearly all of the line off the water so drag is minimized. Of course, having a rod that weighs 3 ounces, collapses to 20" (for walking through the woods or for travel), doesn't require an expensive reel, eliminates the necessity to mend or do a double haul or even take casting lessons may be advantage enough. Granted you can't cast past 25' but I would bet most of the fish most people actually catch are hooked within 25'.

What I don't get is why people don't get it. Not saying you have to like it, want to do it or even have any interest in it whatsoever. I don't understand why people don't understand that it absolutely is not the cane pole fishing they did as kids. No worms, no split shot, no bobbers. It is fly fishing without the reel; fly casting without the haul. And if that is truly what you did as a kid, I apologize. (But really, if that IS what you did as a kid, you ought to get it.)

Edited to add:
In order to get it, don't start from the premise that it is a cane pole. Start from the premise that it is a modern graphite fly rod. Tenkara fishing is much, MUCH, MUCH closer to fishing with a fly rod than fishing with a cane pole.

And if what you don't get is not the gear or the technique but why anyone would be interested in it, the reasons are probably as different as why different people like fly fishing. For me, I like it because with better drifts I catch more fish. I like that a small fish can still put a nice bend in the rod and a large fish feels a lot larger because of the leverage of the longer rod and because he can't take line so it is a very direct fight. With a fish of any size, you may actually need both hands to hold the rod. I like the light weight and the extreme portability of the rods. I really like that I don't even have to think about line management and never have excess line wrapped around my legs or getting underfoot (or wrapping around everything in sight when I fish from a canoe).

If what you really like about fly fishing is making beautiful 60 or 80' casts, you would not like tenkara. If what you like about fly fishing is anything other than that, you might. It is different enough from what you did as a kid, though, that you really have to try it and see for yourself.

One last point: I honestly, truly, sincerely believe that it is not getting popular because it is marketed exceptionally well. Heck, I'm one of the guys marketing it. I believe it is getting more popular because in some applications (streams under 40' wide for fish under 20" long) it really does offer significant advantages.

[pszy22]

Life would get pretty boring if everyone was exactly the same.

Quite honestly, if you took a poll, the majority of people who fish just don't get fly fishing. Why would anyone spend all that money on a fishin pole and some fancy string. I use a $9.99 Ugly Stick with a jig and pig and catch a bucket full every time.

The opinion of others should not deter anyone who enjoys fly fishing from doing so, and it doesn't make sense to get upset if you can't convince others to your way of thinking.

For the record, I can't imagine why anyone would voluntarily eat broccoli.

[fishbum]

Put me in the "don't get it" camp.

We were doing this as kids 60 years ago. Old length of level fly line tied on the end of a cane pole 12-16 feet long with a leader on the end of that and rubber spiders. North central Ohio is not exactly a trout destination. The whole rig was carried on a bicycle to the river or pond for a day of fishing that usually ended with some skinny dipping. When the tip of the "rod" got broken by any of the usual methods of breaking a rod, the pole was re-rigged for doodle sockin and used the rest of the summer. Every hardware store would have bundles of cane poles in the spring. The poles went for 10 - 25 cents each.

I guess as kids we were tough enough to fish with poles that were heavier than 2 -3 ounces. But then remember, we walked 3 miles up hill to school in rain, sleet, and snow and then walked 3 miles up hill in rain, sleet, and snow to go home.

[Paul Arnold]

I think that Paul (pszy22) at Fountainhead put his finger on it:

"For the record, I can't imagine why anyone would voluntarily eat broccoli."

Same sort of thing goes for tenkara: If you don't like it, don't order it, but please let the broccoli eaters dine in peace. Go find a gill netter to harass.

[PA Dave]

I think tenkara and cane pole fishing are exactly the same thing...just like a Ford F150 and a Formula One car are exactly the same. They both have wheels, they both have motors, and you can drive them. Yup, same thing.

Seriously, I don't do tenkara. It just doesn't intrigue me. Fortunately, my understanding tenkara is not the measure of it's value.

And I concur on the broccoli.