Tenkara Fishing, really?

[riverdep]

I believe the year was 1949 when with the help of my dad I discovered Tenkara fishing. Really. I had a nice, thin bamboo pole, a long piece of string (level line) with a hook tied on the end with an impaled "wormfly". Little did I know that 67 years later major fishing manufactures would validate my little country-boy outfit, modernize it, and with a bunch of accessories sell it for around $250.00. Add to that, guides who specialize in Tenkara fishing, and you can see where all of this is going. I am all for simplicity and glad that some of my fellow fishermen enjoy it by getting back to basics; and of course those ancient villagers who had very limited resources had to make due with what was around them in order to fish. But to be true and honor what the tradition of Tenkara really is, shouldn't it be practiced in its most purest form? To me that means how you do it and what you do you do it with. Modern equipment, telescoping rods, 5X tippets and fluorocarbon lines seem to be getting away from what those ancients really had to use. I don't have my original bamboo outfit up in the attic somewhere. And if I did, I surely wouldn't use it as it took me way too long to to save up from my paper route and get one of those newfangled fly fishing outfits from the Sears & Roebuck catalog.

[Eric-WD]

I'm sorry, is there a point to this?

[Paul Arnold]

Indeed, riverdep, you arrived early at the tenkara party. 1949. I'm curious as to what flies you used with your thin o bamboo pole and piece of string. But, aw, c'mon. There is no need to mock something that others enjoy. How's about a little live and let live? ~Paul

[James Smith]

Down South, many people still use cane poles for fishing, albeit most of the time with a bobber and bait. I also know that the Native Americans employed a similar method of using a long thin branch with twine of some sort tied to the end of it, with a hook tied with a bunch of feathers dabbled along weed and brush lines for LM bass. I believe that Tenkara fishing as we know it, originated in Japan over 200 years ago. My two points are, 1. There are not a lot of actual "new" ideas as much as old ones reinvented. -and- 2 People can enjoy this type of fishing anyway they want to. If you prefer the way you learned it from your dad come on down South, you'll have plenty of company. Just bring along your five-gallon bucket to sit on and keep your fish and enjoy the company.

Jim Smith

[1hook]

I never got the point of tenkara, seems like having a reel just make sense, to each there own

[FishnDave]

The REEL problem (pun intended) is that good, straight, thin, flexible sticks are rather hard to find these days. Especially so for city folk. So we buy 'em. ;o) We pay good money, because somebody had to research and manufacture a good product for us to enjoy.
I don't currently own a Tenkara Rod, but I've certainly had fun many times fishing the same way Tenkara rods are used. I can appreciate the allure.

[philip43]

Italians used tenkara style rods in mountainous regions too. They were market fisherman. That also goes back a couple of hundred years (who knows, maybe more). Adios Philip

[BigA]

I will weigh in on this thread about Tenkara Fishing. Last November, I won a Tenkara rod setup in raffle at a local fly fishing show. I used it a couple of times in November and I caught a few bluegill in ponds, but that was not a real test, since the weather and water were pretty cold in northern Illinois at that time of year.

Once the warm weather started up in the spring, I used the Tenkara rod several times for pond bluegill fishing in local pond and for fishing on canals for panfish in southern Florida. I also used it a bit in the spring creeks of the Driftless region of Wisconsin and I used it for fishing in some canyon creeks for trout near Salt Lake city. I caught fish in all of locations.

My impression of using a Tenkara rod is that it is a good tool for in the right situation, but those situations are limited. A big advantage of a Tenkara rod is that it is light and portable. My Tenkara rod fits into a carry on suitcase, so it was easy to take on trip where I am packing light. The trip to Utah was a business trip and it was nice to not have to check bags just to take some fishing gear for a few hours of fishing. The portability of a Tenkara rod makes it easy to take along on any trip as a backup rod.

The Tenkara rod is fun to use in open areas where you do not have to cast far. It is great for bluegill fishing when the fish are close to shore. It is also good in meadow streams where the long length of rod makes is easy to keep the line above tall grass a vegetation. The biggest downside to using a Tenkara rod is that you are limited to where you can use it. In both the Wisconsin Driftless area and in the small creeks that I fished in Utah, many of the streams on are in pretty tight cover, where it is pretty much impossible to use an 11 foot long rod. That means that if you either have to fish on only in wide open areas with the Tenkara rod or you need to also carry a regular fly rod to fish the tight spots.

The biggest down side that I have found in using a Tenkara rod is that if you need to cast the fly a few feet farther you can't do it unless you move. If you are fishing for trout in slow water, you don't want to step in water just to get the fly a few feet farther, because stepping in the water will spook the fish. Pretty much any time that I have used the Tenkara rod, I have felt that the limitation of the distance that I can cast was somewhat frustrating.

I will continue using my Tenkara rod in the right situations and I will pack it on trips as a backup rod. I will never be a Tenkara "enthusiast" because it is just too limiting of a tool. I would never take it again on a trip to a stream that I have not fished before because there it too much productive water that I have to pass over without fishing due to the limitations.