FAOL has done a great service to the tenkara community by hosting this forum. From the beginning, it has been a place where members can exchange tips and techniques, and most importantly, where people who are curious can get their questions answered by someone who has actually done it and can speak from experience.
I remember seeing somewhere a question asking if 2012 would be the “year of tenkara.” I don’t know about that, but based on my own business and the emails I get, the growth is clearly accelerating. I suspect there will be more people stopping by here from other FAOL forums to see what all the buzz is about.
I think FAOL deserves our support and I am happy to give it by becoming a sponsor.
I am delighted this forum has been so well received. Once we are back in Montana I will be no doubt part of it as well - really looking forward to learning something new.
Thanks Chris for supporting it!
Hugs,
LF
Welcome aboard. I have noticed not just on this sight but others in the past year have really picked up on this type of fishing. In your opinion, what are some of the better websites about Tenkara fishing and also, what is the price range to get setup with an outfit. Again Chris welcome from Virginia
I try to put a lot of information on my site http://www.tenkarabum.com but you should also look at http://tenkarausa.com not only for basic information about tenkara but also a very active forum. One of the better blogs is http://www.tenkaratalk.com/. I also look at http://www.tenkaraonthefly.net/ and a few others that are partially tenkara and partially other topics. Both of those blogs have links to others that are worth a look as well. Being from Virginia, you also ought to look at Tom Sadler’s blog http://middleriverdispatch.com/. Tom also offers guided tenkara trips, which would be a good way to see what it’s all about.
Rods run anywhere from $45 to $80 at http://tenkaraflyfish.webs.com/, $85 to $100 at http://www.tenkara-fishing.com/index.html, $140 to $235 at http://www.tenkarausa.com/index.php and $345 to $415 for the rods I sell on TenkaraBum.com. Lines are roughly from $12 to $25. You can use the tippet and flies you have now as long as the tippet is 5x or thinner and the flies aren’t particularly heavy or wind resistant. The average tenkara fly in Japan is probably a size 12 wet fly, although people here fish everything from beadhead nymphs to hoppers. Wet flies are deadly, though, so even if you’re a died in the wool dry fly guy, give the wets a try.
It has all the simplicity of a cane pole with the added benefits of portability (collapses to roughly 2’ or less for walking through the woods or slipping into a backpack), light weight (3 ounces give or take), the ability to cast a weightless fly on a line no heavier than 0X tippet and still protect 5X tippet and land 20" trout.
It’s just as much fun, though. (And I suspect Letort Crickets or San Juan Worms would work about as well!)
If any fly angler is interested in trying out Tenkara, they can do it on the cheap! Saying that I need to explain a few things.
[i]I[b] am a Minnesotan, when Minnesotans go on vacation, they put on a clean pair of blue jeans…put $10 in our back pocket…and don’t change either one the whole time they are on vacation…
[/b][/i]Before you rush out to purchase a Tenkara Fly Rod, you can see if you like fishing Tenkara Style with a light weight fly rod you already own… Just remove the reel from the fly rod, and attach the tapered leader to the Tip-Top Guide of your fly rod… 9 foot 3, 4, or 5 wt…with a 9 foot tapered leader and some tippet line…a soft hackle wet fly…and you are in business!
If you find that you really like fishing Tenkara Style, and wish to purchase a Tenkara Fly Rod…I would recommend our newest sponsor of FAOL… Or as grandpa always said, Needs, Wants , and Gets are three different items.
[i][b]Minnesotans make a Frugal Scotsman seem like they are “Bloody Spentthrift”…
You can do that (the fly rod thing, not necessarily the $10 in your back pocket for your whole vacation thing). I did that and decided I liked the “proof of concept” enough to continue - going from a 9’ fly rod to a 13’ crappie rod (and then a bunch of other crappie rods trying to find one with a suitable action). The only caution I would give is that if you don’t like tenkara style fishing with make-do equipment, you won’t really know if you would like it had you started with proper equipment (and by that I mean a rod actually designed for the type of fishing you are trying to do). How many fly fishermen would have continued with the sport had their first introduction to fly fishing been a fly reel and line attached to an old spinning rod? It just doesn’t give you the same results. Also, the prime benefit of tenkara - from a fishing standpoint - is that the long rod and light line allows you to keep all or virtually all your line off the water, minimizing drag. With a rod as short as 9’, you may be unable to do that with enough line to avoid being so close to the fish that you spook them. You will almost certainly catch more fish with a longer rod. You have a higher chance of getting skunked with a 9’ fly rod and then deciding it’s no fun than you would if you started with even an 11’ rod and caught some fish.
If all tenkara rods were $400 I suspect a lot of people realistically might want to try the 9’ fly rod approach first. Now, though, you can get a tenkara rod for less than the price of a tank of gas. If you are going to spend the gas money to drive to the stream to try a new style of fishing, it isn’t unreasonable to get a rod that will allow you to give the method a valid try. If you don’t like it, I have a Used Rods page on my site, and I’m pretty sure a used, inexpensive tenkara rod would sell quickly (and I take no fee from buyer or seller - it is provided as a free service to the tenkara community).
I don’t want to discourage anyone who has a 9’ fly rod from tying a 9’ tapered leader and a bit of tippet to the rod tip, and I certainly don’t want to discourage frugality (I think my family’s motto is “Make it Last, Make it Do, Make it Yourself”). I just want to caution that if you don’t like it, it might be because of the equipment rather than the method.
There is no way using a 9’ tapered leader with some tippet attached to the tip-top of a 9’ fly rod compares to Tenkara. With the 9’ fly rod approach, the rod will not load at all so basically you are using a “buggy whip” to get the fly to the water.
Now, I’m not satisfied that a Tenkara line really loads a Tenkara rod, and it may be that the movement of the rod alone is what accounts for the apparent loading, but casting a Tenkara rod is quite similar to casting a properly loaded conventional fly rod, and not at all a “buggy whip” experience.
The 9’ fly rod experiment starts misleading the “experimenter” at the very outset, and just goes downhill from there. First, you miss the pleasure of casting a loaded rod, you will have less control over where that “buggy whipped” fly goes, your “reach” or effective fishing area will be greatly reduced by the shorter rod, control of the fly on the water will be less efficient, and feeling the fish on the line will be very different.
Not saying you can’t effectively fish with a 9’ tapered leader plus tippet attached to the tip-top of a 9’ fly rod. Just that it will be such a different experience than using a Tenkara rod that it won’t give you a clue whether you will enjoy fly angling with a Tenkara rod.
Chris, mail delivery problem…I sent one to you 2 days ago, got a “delayed” message yesterday, and “refused” today. I sent it to the same address which you used to write me. Help?
Hugs,
Deanna
[b]I’m glad Chris has become a sponsor here, I have been trolling around various Tenkara sites for a couple of years now,
since I had my cataract operation and was able to get on-line again, and Chis’s TenkaraBum site has been the most
informative and helpful, not that there are not other good sites, but TenkarBum has excellent info.
I have had contact with Chris a lot longer than the Tenkara craze, I had a quite extensive communication with him and
Mike Connor on Loop Rods before my eyes went kaput. I rather lost contact with him and Mike during my “peering” years.
I just received an order for various items from him, not the least some fine white horsehair strands, I have been looking
for some good clean white horsehair for more years than I care to remember. Anyway, to end my blethering, thanks Chris,
all items arrived ok.
As Donald mentioned, I had been interested in loop rods for some time before I learned of tenkara, and actually first came across tenkara on the internet while searching for information on the horsehair lines that were used on loop rods. The “traditional” tenkara line was horsehair as well, which is how tenkara popped up in the search.
On the one hand, it is fascinating that very similar styles of fishing should be found in the UK (loop rods and soft hackles), in Italy (pesca mosca Valsesiana and Alpine Spiders - see Donald’s website for more info on the Italian flies) and in Japan (tenkara). On the other hand, the long rod and light line is such an effective tool that it isn’t at all surprising that it was developed in various locations around the world.
I hope we’ll have good discussions of the other methods in addition to tenkara. For me the Japanese origin of tenkara is not the draw nearly as much as the method itself. It’s just that the most highly developed equipment is Japanese and because of the technological advances in rod materials, even lighter lines could be used - which allowed anglers to develop techniques that took best advantage of the equipments’ capabilities. I really think the techniques drove advances in equipment, which allowed the development of different techniques, which led to more advances in equipment, etc.
I do not like or use commercially manufactured tapered leaders… I started out building my own knotted leader. Later I started building furled leader. Being a mathematically inclined, I developed the “Big Furled Leader Formula” which can be use in Tenkara for the casting… perfectly balanced and the three loop formula creates a 5 segmented tapered furled leader.
The best part is these furled leaders (using the formula’s that I have written, are parabolic) any length any loop sequence, any looping material.
If you want a free CD of my work, just email me your mailing address at parnelli@comcast.net I will mail at not charge the Big Furled Leader CD. I have now added a metric (centimeters) version to the original inches calculations.
I built my own tenkara fly rod, and use furled leaders for the fly fishing… these leaders are wonderful for casting any type of fly rod… ~Parnelli
