I think tenkara has hit it's peak

Tenkara
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Buying a shit ton of old Japanese books on tenkara is way expensive.

The DT guys gave me a rash of shit because I didn’t look at their stuff. I didn’t look at it because I wanted a clear and concise info stream straight from the source. I had Japanese people that were anglers interpret to me. I shared this info with the masses and we had fun with this.

Making videos, not selfie videos, making quality videos that the DT folk do takes a lot of money, energy and time, it takes a lot of coordination and good will to make them.

What I found out about my own research, that expensive book research was pretty much what the guys at DT were doing. And then I bought their book and realized that they were on topic AND the best ADVANCED tenkara info stream out there.

Daniel restructured his company and about that time, I stopped working for him (project over) so I stopped working for him and stopped using his rods and got back to my own trip.

You can save so much money, time and effort by buying the DT book, watching their videos. I enjoy them much differently than most do because a lot of my friends in Japan are in there. I now watch them because I already have in my brain, a pretty good idea what tenkara is all over Japan. I have my own research on my own, I help forward the things I found with other Japanese fishers.

Who’s responsibility is it to teach people?

No one.

It’s your choice to do what you please with your life.

Find out on your own what you want to, when you want to, how ever you want to.

You can learn an advanced level of what tenkara is and how to do it with the DT stuff, Daniel’s info stream is basic, nothing wrong with that, at all, as a matter of fact, he is better at introducing people to tenkara than anyone except yourself taking a friend on stream and doing it yourself.

I think tenkara has hit it’s (discovery) peak.

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Thanks everyone for a great discussion. I’m very happy to see an honest (and respectful) dialogue going on and brining lots of folks out of the woodwork. Thanks.

I also appreciate the kind words everyone have said, thank you. However, this forum has nothing to do with me. This place is what we all make it to be. We may disagree with some people about what tenkara is and is not, I certainly have my opinions; but it’s this respectful dialogue that is great.

Frankly, I’ve been very saddened by how much hate there is for others who are different than another in this world right now (not this forum). This hate is (in my opinion) coming from every side (political, religious, ethnic, racial, etc) and it seems like open and respectful discourse has gone out the damn window.

I just want to say that I appreciate everyone who has participated in this thread for the honest and respectful discourse. It gives me a little more hope for this world. I don’t say that naively. If we can’t have a respectful and honest conversation about fishing, I think everything else that we need to talk about in this world, is completely screwed.

One last point. Thanks everyone for keeping the conversation about fishing and only fishing. I don’t know about you, but for me, fishing and by extension this forum, is a way for me to temporarily escape the other BS going on in the world right now.

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@notorioustoker Thanks for joining the forum. We’re really happy to have you join us and hope that you enjoy your time here. It’s great to have you here.

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Right on @Peder!

I appreciate your words.

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I think Misako’s presentation “Kebari” was mine.
“Bead Kebari” is originally intended for reinforcement
The head was hardened with lacquer to make it strong
After that, a good reaction of fish is obtained by applying gold leaf

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That’s really cool.

I finally got to meet Yoshikazu Fujioka after knowing him for so many years. It would be a pleasure to meet you to.

I was making bamboo rods for fly fishing when I found out about tenkara. I really enjoyed that I could replicate the rod actions, the tapers of the old guys that were long gone. I could take basically the same materials and replicate the rods, replicate the casting using modern silk lines.

I did this after a long history of using modern carbon graphite fly rods. I created and maintained a great resource where many of the best modern bamboo fly rod makers gathered to share secrets and experiences. We kept the site partially open to the public but protected the trade secrets.

Then I found out about tenkara.

And embraced the modern telescoping rods made of plastic resins and carbon graphite and fiberglass.

Wow!

The rods actually nest inside themselves!

And also made performance wise with engineers focusing on each aspect of construction.

…and I thought of the ways of old, comparing the single tenkara angler were it came from. The materials where it came from.

Nothing like the old ways.

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As I sat there in Sakura shop in Tokyo speaking with the elder Sakura, he told me of Suzuki Gyoshin and Yamamoto Soseki, as far back as he could remember supporting tenkara fishermen with modern materials. It was quite an honor to sit there and speak with him about it.

I meet a guy yesterday that practiced Brazilian Jujutsu. I said, “Where did it originate?” and he didn’t really know but he was enthusiastic about it and proceeded to tell me all about it.

I found out that I like hiding my bead and not making it a big deal to the fly. I take that metal bead an thread it on a Japanese bait hook. Some of my kebari you can’t even tell it’s there but it is a bead. A metal bead on a metal hook at a tenkara web site made in Arizona of all places.

I do not consider using a bead on a fly the point of definition where it becomes some other form of fishing.

I do believe that the Japanese tenkara fishermen that we study in old Japan, the original tenkara anglers. They made their gear to fish to make money. I do not believe they chose not to use beads because they wanted to be more tenkara. I just don’t believe that. But I do believe that they used what they had and could make to catch fish.

http://www.hi-ho.ne.jp/amago/b-streams/flytying/tenkara.html

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Yes, this is correct. I was at the event with @gressak and they were made by you. She gave two to each attendee as a gift and the remaining were donated to the fly fishing museum.

はい、これは正しいです。 @gressak と一緒にイベントに参加しましたが、彼らはあなたによって作られました。彼女は各参加者に贈り物として2つを与え、残りはフライフィッシング博物館に寄付されました。

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I heard from Misako
Thank you for your participation.
She visited Nagano last week and I guided the river and lake for two days

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Mr Gressak

Please use ”Kebari” material

I will send you again when it is over
I think Misako spoke

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@anon86692127

A note and a question.

I have found that an ugly, ratty, chewed-on-by-dozens-of-fish fly just has some sort of mojo workin’ for it. The exact opposite of keeping the body of the fly perfect by coating it with nail polish.

Have you ever thought of going to a slimmer body with similar weight and placement using the “Two bit hooker” route and with two 1.5mm beads a la Charlie Craven?

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Me too @Scott_T

The brook trout streams where I’ve had 100 fish days, before tenkara, the hopper I was using didn’t look like a hopper anymore. I would only change it out when The catch rate would fall off…

Hiding the bead is a sort of development in progress. The silk bead cord, the fuzzy nymph style of ratty thread you wrote, sticky to the teeth, coated thread wrap? It happened, didn’t even think it through, but it works.

Accidents or “it happened” are sometimes the only way things are moved forward for me.

Totally get what you are saying but this part isn’t that, it happened and it really works.

Ala jig hook style but with a Japanese bait hook. Before, I was catching, the thread would start unraveling after a bunch of fish so I concentrated on securing the whip, in that I got sloppy and it just gravitated to coating the whole fly.

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I tye in my bead at the start of the bend. It makes the fly swim and drag on the bottom like I like, no hang up.

Thanks for the link, it helped to understand.

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Yep, I was solely referring to the use of two smaller diameter beads to get the needed weight, but with a slimmer profile.

I understand your reasoning for placing the weight where you do on your kebari. I’ve been using the Umpqua C400BL jig hooks for a while now to keep hooks point up for a couple years now. But your method deserves investigation.

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I use Japanese bait hooks because they are sticky sharp. And for other reasons but I dig those jig hooks for sure.

The addition of two smaller beads sounds good! But I like the way this works and for me, when it works it works.

“The enemy of good is better.” I’ve always struggled with that one. I try not to overthink but inevitably I do.

I do appreciate your comments though. And I will try it because you suggested it.

Thanks.

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I lean toward agreeing with you. :wink:
Along with Paul Schullery, see his book Fly-Fishing Secrets of the Ancient. From which the below article is taken. Or maybe we’re just fooling ourselves into believing it is true.

https://midcurrent.com/history/the-mystery-of-the-ratty-fly/

I thought I had a good example to share. A fly tied on #8 barbless hook. Cahill thread body, with red sewing thread head. The body thread and hackle had become pretty frayed after catching 30 or so fish. But running out to the car to grab the line spool, I discovered the end of the tippet is bare. Must have snagged the tippet or fly on something on the way back to the car or on something inside the trunk.

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I’m a fuzzy nymphs Polly Rosborough fan. But I’m not thinking that way, I think my way. Coating the fly was sort of by accident. I fished them uncoated first, they worked just as well as coated which I use now.

No criticism to anyone, I appreciate the tangents.

But this is what I do.