Nick, unless you are living in Japan, and fishing for trout to bring to market professionally, you are fishing some dilute form of tenkara.
Scared to fish sakasa kebari?
Ok.
There are so many free resources online to learn about tenkara.
I tell people if they are going to Japan, learn about Japan and her culture. You don’t have to go to Japan to learn about tenkara.
You will learn a lot right here.
Indeed. I agree with you. The internet is a tricky space! While you are “interacting” with a person online it is very different than in person.
My only problem is getting the time to fish the remote places I want to fish and connecting more with “mentors” to learn in person…but for now life is pushing me toward other responsibilities…
Thank you Adam and I hope you too are well and getting out there!
I’m doing well this year. I caught some sizable fish on a big rod and long line in Idaho. I’m fishing the Colorado River, camping and escaping home by pack raft. This year seems to be the year of honryu for me. I’m not a big fish person but damn, it’s fun to catch big fish.
Of course, if you are ever out this way and want your Apache trout, I’m happy to help you.
I’m so sorry for your loss
Completely agree
I think if someone has the means to go to Japan and meet with an angler there, it is worth the time and effort. It is finding your tenkara on another scale.
My first trip, I used a book by Soseki Yamamoto, it was a Japanese tenkara book that described some streams he fished. My friend and I used the book to fish a couple of streams in it. That was amazing. It was personal.
But the fact of the matter is, Colorado, Idaho and many other western states have amazing fishing in alpine streams. Learning tenkara, listening to the rod, having a mentor that knows, you can learn a very intense level of mountain fishing.
I think we have seen the peak interest in tenkara.
I hope I am wrong.
Wow…this is like an old school thread…
Brought folk out of the woodwork…hahaha.
Definitely turning down…but thats ok with me…the last two years were not my cup of tea. What a mess for what started out so wonderful.
It was like overworking a painting…too much paint…not enough focus. The result is a muddy picture.
A little decay will do the community good. It will cull out the enthusiasts and just leave the fisherman.
David had a thread a year ago on the same topic.
Perhaps Tenkara will reach its peak when all books from Japanese are translated into English. But this will not happen soon. And how much do such statistics need for fishermen on the river? They are more interested in the presence of fish in the river. Statistics are important for rod manufacturers to plan production. In our country, Tenkara since 2010, but in percentage terms, this is a drop in the ocean.
David is one of the biggest reasons why I am here. That and you guys producing the site.
But David is analytical where as I go by feel.
I think it has peaked.
And I’m ok with it.
The selfie people are who they are.
The people who give do what they do and life moves on.
And I’m super stoked for the future. Got at least a years worth of new things to do and after that it’s just honing the knife.
Thanks for keeping the light on here.
This thread really reminds me why I don’t engage in social media. It would really bum me out if the views of other people made me want to quit one of my hobbies. Why do the views of other people have any bearing on whether or not you’re enjoying tenkara (or anything else)? Who cares if someone thinks you’re not “doing tenkara” right? Who cares if other people are doing things differently? Who cares if you’re not a master, or if you are? Just go out and fish if you like it. Everything else is noise.
My point of view is influenced by the fact that I really don’t enjoy fishing with other people though. It’s an intentionally solitary hobby for me.
My way isn’t the right way, or the only way, but it’s the right way for me.
Right on Mike.
I like the positives of social media and the Internet.
I met my wife of 15 years online, we have a beautiful son of 12 years old.
I’ve learned quite a bit about my interests.
I meet you!
But there are horribly dark things I’ve experienced online. We all have experienced it.
I have been attacked online by a group of people that knew me and didn’t know me from Adam. Those people have followers…
I have said it since day one, I would rather interact other one person 500 times than 500 people 1 time.
Since day one.
And that has been the reason why I haven’t just stopped.
There is good in it.
People like you.
I enjoy writing my web site. I’ve been doing it since 1995 starting with Arizona Small Stream Fly Fishing. I don’t copy people’s ideas. The web site I make today has the same formula as it had in 1995, the same person making it with the same ideas but hopefully more mature…
I can think of multiple popular people that have copied other people’s ideas and made them for their own. The followers they attracted made that person go farther down that road.
Popularity does not make things right.
Two examples: a lynch mob and our current *president.
Just because it’s popular, doesn’t mean it’s right. I could care less about the Internet and social media, trying to make things right there.
I like what you wrote Mike, I like the way you think.
Take care.
*no disrespect to anyone that voted for him. I am not your moral compass.
You should care… everyone should care. Its not like anyone is being a jerk about it, but frankly fishing in a style that is not tenkara with a tenkara rod, and calling it Tenkara does damage.
I just joined after leaving all the groups because I’m so sick and tired of people arguing and getting upset and angry at the handful of people who actually know what tenkara is and have devoted years to it.
Nothing about this has to do with being a master, or being the best. It has to do with understanding a definition, and then going out to learn something.
The fact of the matter is, that if fishing is “just fishing” to you, that’s fine. But you can just call it fishing then.
“Tenkara” has a definition, a set of techniques, a skillset, a type of water, and a singular type of fish… TROUT.
Good people care about these things. Most of us stopped arguing about it a few years ago when we got fed up and left the group. Seems like most of us are reassembling here now since the groups are all full of people who don’t want to learn, don’t want to be self critical, don’t want to accept the definition of this sport, don’t respect the Japanese, and generally just “don’t care” about anything other than catching fish.
Those who learned modern tenkara the sport, as defined in japan in the 80’s and 90’s after subsistnce fishing became economically impossible to continue… know that catching fish is almost the last piece of it.
Pretty much everyone who hates on or argues about the definition of Tenkara is someone that is new to fishing, new to fly fishing, or got stuck in “stage 2 of fly fishing” - the need to catch as many fish as possible.
Not sure why this thread bothers you, you could have just learned something. If you’ll note, pretty much everyone else here in this convo cares. You should too.
Good people care about these things.
Eye roll.
It is encouraging to see people showing off their kebari on facebook, more people seem to be catching on to tenkara as a method all its own a purely Japanese invention. Some will say this or that country had something very similar hundreds of years ago and that would be true, but the little I know of tenkara it was the Japanese with their bamboo that perfected the rods, lines, flies and techniques to make it portable and efficient enough to make a living and procure food with. Maybe tenkara as practiced in Japan will be where future growth lies, I see that as a big positive for the sport.
Western fly fishing has latched onto every gear technique out there, people use indicators and bead head flies with or without split shot which is similar to bobber and jig or float fishing with a spinning rod. Jim Teeny’s heavy sinking line technique is not much different than drift fishing for steelhead or salmon with pencil lead and a casting rod, the gear is different but the techniques are pretty similar. Swinging large cone head streamers is not much different than spinner or spoon fishing, it goes on and on.
But hey if fishing a certain way makes somebody happy then so be it, to each his own. I for one just call things as I see em, I like to see things correctly defined that’s all. Tenkara gear, flies and techniques are unique and simplistic but that’s where the challenge lies, take these simple tools and make them effective on waters small and large with skill not more gear, this still turns me on and hopefully will for some time.
I don’t care to argue.
I do care about continuing the story of Japanese tenkara. I do that with my Japanese friends. Keiichi san is currently working on his 44th story of genryu. Paul Gaskell just contributed to piece I wrote about honryu tenkara for Tenkara Angler.
Want to know what someone is going to do in the future?
Look at their past.
That reminds me, I need to finish up Jun Maeda interview.
Nice to see here you old friend.
Thing is, I don’t think I’ve ever said “I practice Tenkara”. So I’m certainly not doing damage to anyone or anything. That was kind of my point. I’m doing what I want to do because I want to fish that way…not because I want others to listen to me, or because I want to follow some specific path that others have followed.
I don’t “hate on or argue about the definition of Tenkara”. Never have. I don’t care if you (or anyone else) approves of the way I fish. That doesn’t mean I can’t learn things. It doesn’t mean I’m not trying to improve. It just means that I don’t feel the need to seek approval for my hobby. I can’t imagine quitting fishing (with a tenkara rod or otherwise) just because people online didn’t think I was doing it right.
Yes, indeed.
Paul, try this sometime. It may help you.
You have a tremendous resource base to work from.
NEVER worry about what people think of you, it’s none of your business.
I really like your perspective.
The irony is that I actually do about 98% of my fishing on small streams in what passes for mountains in the east (VA, MD, etc.)…and I only fish for trout. I’ll admit to, but not apologize for, drastically preferring dry flies, though.
But I don’t do that because it fits the historical, Japanese definition of “tenkara”. I do it because I enjoy it.
Gees, dry fly fishing is a part of modern tenkara.
I remember tromping miles up a Japanese stream, Adam K may even remember this. We had been leap frogging, taking turns on point. The stream was crystal clear and shallow. Rock bottom and one bad cast or shuffle and that section was done for the day (the Japanese said) Keiichi, our host had been following along pointing out good places to cast. His rod folded in his backpack.
As we were moving, this was far into the day, he held out his hand and everyone stopped. Keiichi put down his pack and pulled out his rod, attached the line, stretching it out, tying on a large dry fly.
It was amazing to see him do this so quickly and the anticipation of finally getting to see him fish was high.
He cast once and a nice sized Iwana slashed at the fly missing it!
Ahhhh!
But he cast again and the fish rose and fish on!
It was epic.
Tenkara is far more than what the purist say it is. Leaps and bounds more.
Dry fly fishing is tenkara for sure.
