There are times when I suit up for a daylong fly fishing trip and start to suspect I’m carrying more gear than your average Navy Seal.
That makes more sense if I’m planning to invade Canada and secure strategically important bacon supplies than it does if I’m trying to outwit a particularly dumb animal. Still, it’s clear that no one actually forces me to carry more than a fly rod, reel, tippet, nippers, floatant and an Altoids tin of flies to a small stream.
But mostly, I do. Is it time to streamline things?
Gearheads probably won't find Tenkara that interesting - it seems pretty simple.
Tenkara is apparently a centuries-old Japanese style of fly fishing that sounds suspiciously like a high-tech version of the overlong cane pole and mono rig many of us used as kids (and I’m just going to say it: anyone belittling that kind of fishing may have lost the ability to have fun).
Frankly, the aesthetic of it all sounds so very zen – and it’s therefore interesting (from the Schenectady Daily Gazette) Fly-Fishing: Tenkara interest growing:
Tenkara, a centuries-old Japanese style of fly-fishing that uses a telescoping carbon fiber rod, 10-foot line, tippet and fly — no reel — is beginning to show up on trout creeks and Web sites across the country.
The first American tenkara tackle company opened for business in San Francisco last month, and a Japanese authority on the method will give a talk and demonstration at the Catskill Fly Fishing Center and Museum one week from Saturday.
Paradoxically, this style of fishing, designed for the smallest streams, employs 12-foot rods. The line, made of supple, furled (braided) monofilament, attaches to a short length of braided mono permanently fixed to the tip of the rod.
Tenkara rods collapse to 20 inches long, ideal for backpacking along small mountain streams. They are feather light (three ounces), elegant and sophisticated. There is even a nomenclature for the way they flex: a 5:5 is soft, while an 8:2 has a fast action. This is no cheapo crappie rod, so you don’t “swing†it open, but rather extend the sections, one at a time.
And while you can simply dap your fly if you want, you can also cast the tapered line, and even learn what tenkara USA calls “a large repertoire of casting techniques that may come in handy at different fishing situations.â€
I’m not at all sure this would be suited to fishing a brawling western river jammed full of big fish (or a lake), but it could be a hit with backcountry hiking types, who already drill the handles of their toothbrushes to reduce weight.
The full fly fishing catastrophe (waders, rod, reel, flies, junk we’re afraid to live without) weighs the backpacker’s equivalent of several metric tons (ounces = pounds, and pounds = pain), yet a three ounce rod, some tippet, and a handful of flies might just fall under the radar.
The length of the rod would keep you out of most streams, and when’s the last time you cast more than 10′ of line on that small stream anyway?
The Retail Solution
A few seconds with Google found me staring face to face with the Tenkara USA Web site, where the sight of new, untried fly fishing gear (predictably) made my palms itch. (I also found a discussion about Tenakara on the Field & Stream fly blog.)
Since this is the Internet, I’m going to exercise my inalienable right to Make Bold Assumptions Based On Absolutely No Personal Knowledge Or Even A Grasp of the Basic Facts and suggest that:
- This could turn most of us into better “hunters” of fish
- On the right stream, it sounds like a hell of a lot of fun
- On the wrong stream, it looks like a nightmare in the making
- A lightweight, simple rig like this could score on backpacking trips
- Fly reels are overpriced anyway
- Fishing traditional soft hackles tied on heavy hooks would probably kill with this technique
- We’re talking 13′ long rods on small, brushy streams, so the lifetime warranty is a good thing
Without getting too awfully zen about the whole thing, I admit the idea holds a certain appeal, in part because it feels like a simpler approach to a sport that’s famous for self-inflicting a lot of complications on itself.
Undergrounders? Thoughts? The floor is yours.
fly fishing, tenkara fly fishing, fishing, fly fishing small streams
Will Tenkara find a home in the USA? It’s hard to say.
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