Tenkara Fly Fishing, What Is That?

It's 66 degress in the mist covered mountains of a far away land of ancient traditions and mystery, Japan.

A lone man wades up stream of a small crystal clear high mountain stream with tenkara rod in hand. He methodically scans the stream moving with Ninja like stealth stalking his elusive goal. There it is, a small eddy of water below a beach ball sized boulder in the center of the stream. He crouches low kneeling in the cool water and casts his fly with the precision of a modern sniper. The fly lands perfectly in the water and begins it's textbook drag free drift that tenkara fly fishing is reknowned for.

BAM! the strike is hard and fast as the trout devours the fly. Success at last.

In the space between the spaces in the modern fly fishing world, an ancient method and tradition of fly fishing has recently arrived in the western world. Tenkara has found a new generation of fans and addicts 10,000 miles from its land of origin thanks to a small company based in the United States called Tenkara USA. Tenkara dates it's origin to sometime in the 9th century B.C. and for the first time in it's history, Tenkara has left the high misty mountain streams of Japan and has found a new home.

This is not the traditional image 99.99999% of the world has when they think of fly fishing. For most of us it is the image of a slightly overweight, overly indulged middle-aged white man loaded down with a 20 pound fishing vest with every little pocked stuffed with several fly boxes with hundereds of dollars worth of fishing flies and every imaginable wiz-bang, doodad, and gizmo guaranteed to make the trout just willingly jump into his net.

That same fly fisherman is pictured in our eyes as standing in thigh deep water of a large slow moving river like the Madison river in Montana or the Battenkill river in Vermont. On a cool fall morning he can be found casting a $1,000 fly rod with a $500 reel and with a large slow back cast he begins to launch his fly to the eagerly awaiting trout. When a new western style fly fisherman catches his first trout, that fish is worth roughly $3,500 dollars per pound.

In contrast, the tenkara fisherman hikes up steep canyon mountain streams in water that ranges from ankle to waist deep crystal clear fast moving streams in pursuit of smaller native species trout. His gear is minimalist, a collapsable carbon fiber/graphite fly rod that extends from 18 inches to 12 or 13 feet in length, a furled or braided fly line affixed to the tip of the fly rod and a small box of perhaps a dozen very simple patterned flies called Kebari and his landing net. Total weight of his gear 2 pounds. His first fish caught with this gear costs about $175 dollars per pound.

I don't want to come across as a tenkara elitist. Each method of fly fishing has its strengths and weaknesses. Western or tenkara. Does one have to choose one path or the other to enjoy the sport of fly fishing? No, most of us in the tenkara world pursue both methods of fishing. Each has a multi-generational rich history of traditions and skills. They are just different.

Welcome to my world as a professional Tenkara Fly Fishing Guide. I will share with you the history, traditions, skills, and insights of someone who is fortunate enough to make a living guiding and teaching others something that I have come to love.

My company is Tenkara Guides LLC. My two partners Erik and Rob and I formed our little enterprise in the summer of 2011 and as we evolve as a business, as guides, and tenkara fishermen, I will share those journeys with you

John