jjhiker posted this on FB.
I feel I am aligned with the article…and thought it was a refreshing read.
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I agree with you. It was enlightening and I totally agree - small fish are my bread and butter.
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Quite timely, as I am currently trying to tie up some very small flies to catch the ‘micros’. It gives me a lot of satisfaction when I catch those irritating small fish that create little dimples in the surface of the river. After all a fish is a fish regardless of size and a tenkara or fixed line fly rod is an ideal weapon of choice.
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I micro fish. I have a lifelist of species caught, and many of my most memorable have been some of the tiniest. In the last year, I’ve spent far more time pursuing fish that, when fully grown, grow to much less than a pound, many max at less than 3-5 inches.
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I love it. My fishing is more defined by where I fish (with a very strong preference to small streams) than what specifically I fish for. So I find myself catching smaller fish…but I’m very OK with that. I’m perfectly happy catching small wild/native fish on beautiful small streams with nobody else around.
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I have read the article several times now.
I like how its not just about being happy with what the river gives you but also sort of a link between us and the river and its dwellers.
My most favorite fish are the ones that I allow the river to present the fly for me. Those presentations where there is a lot of lost and found, where you do not know exactly where the fish or your fly are. The one where the river draws your fly deep into some hidden hold…and then the line jolts forward from a savage strike!!!
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Great article! Also cool that it has a soundtrack!
I love wild native fish (literal period). The size of them does not matter. I prefer tiny streams in the middle of nowhere. I love those places and the beauty that lies both on the surface of these places and from below the water’s surface.
In places where there is a chance for stocked fish to be present…I get excited when the fish is indeed small…because that might mean he/she was born there and from there…somehow that is more special.
I am not into sight fishing or “stalking fish”. I like to read the water, plan out my approach and implement it. When I do as I intended and a fish strikes…that gives me excitement!
I prefer this plan/implementation to all happen in a hard to cast to place, with the fly manipulated on or near the surface so that it draws a surprising strike that gets my heart pounding and causes me to yell out loud 
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That is more succinct and well said than I could have ever put it. Brilliantly done. It also captures how I feel and what I seek when I fish.
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In Japan, there are many anglers catching small fish and loving it.
I’m glad to see it alive here too.
I’m not into it but I’m into fishing.
Stoked for you.
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Here is a video that I took of some tiny targets
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I think that it is an interesting movie if it becomes reference of fishing of microfish
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And these are the special hooks we fishTanago
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I really enjoyed this video.
Will you teach me more?
タナゴ釣り Try to copy and paste these word into You Tube!
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Or try an internet search using any of these 6 phrases:
タナゴ釣り道具・仕掛けとテクニック [ Tanago fishing equipment, devices and techniques ]
タナゴ釣り 餌 [ Tanago fishing bait ]
タナゴ釣り針 [ Tanago fishing hook ]
タナゴ おすすめ [ Tanago recommended ]
bitterling micro-fishing
creek micro fishing
These two are kind of fun:
https://web.tsuribito.co.jp/beginner/tanago-lecture1701
https://www.honda.co.jp/fishing/enjoy/season/season-201209/tool/#tool
It is a bit off the topic here.
But you might want to take a look at the Dry Fly Tenkara link at the bottom of the page on the above web tsuribito website. (The two links with the young woman angler, pages 1 & 2).
The second page features some photos of 下田香津矢さん , Shimoda Kazuya-san, casting instruction. Something I have only seen on older websites. Maybe they are new photos of Shimoda-san’s instructions or older photos reused here.
And an interesting Tsuribito video on the first page. Over the past 3 years or so Tsuribito videos have been blocked from playing in the USA. Not sure if the video has been uploaded to a new Tsuribito youtube channel (つり人チャンネル) where the videos are not blocked. (though that is possible because the oldest videos on the channel was uploaded 3 months ago). The video features angler Ōsawa Kenji-san, 大沢健治さん. He has some interesting kebari in his kebari box and is fishing with a 2.7m tenkara rod.
Feel free to start dry fly Tenkara [ 気軽に始めるドライフライ・テンカラ ]
However. There are 12 or so short tanago videos on the Tsuribito Channel (つり人チャンネル).
Most of them have the title prefix: 【美しきタナゴの世界】(Beautiful Tango World or World of Beautiful Tango). They mostly highlight different species of tango in aquariums. But not all of them, one or 2 are different.
Here are two of them:
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Another Owner tanago video uploaded Oct. 2017.
#157 in the upper country where grass and trees sprout playing with tangago… Edo-style fishing tangago fishing …Special guidance-
[maybe, if my translation isn’t wildly wrong]
#157 草木が芽吹く上総国でタナゴと遊ぶ
～江戸前風タナゴ釣り特別指南～
Near - Mobara City, Chiba Prefecture. [ 千葉県茂原市。 ]
The guide is Furuyama Teruo-san . [ 案内人は古山輝男さん。(ふるやま てるおさん) ]
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I would rather be taught than blunder around wondering what to do.
I want to learn Japanese technique from a Japanese person.
Out of respect of course.
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l want to teach how to fish Tanago.
But no Tanago in your country,
that’s the biggest problem isn’t it ??
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Not at all. There are just different species of tiny fish in the USA than in Japan.
It doesn’t attract me much. Not yet anyway. But it seems to be a growing interest here.
A link found on Tenkarabum website (where Chris also sells gear for micro-fishing) seems to be the spark that ignited interest here.
npr - Little Fish Tales: Micro Fishers Focus On The Species, Not Size
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No, this is not what started my interest.
With respect, the owner is an American rod seller. I am not interested in learning a Japanese technique from an American person that sells Japanese equipment.
No disrespect intended, he is not the reason.
I am interested from speaking with Japanese tanago fisherman at a traditional rod shop in Japan. I posted a video I took here showing their catch.
I want to learn from a fisherman that is Japanese.
This is about respect and authenticity.
Thank you.
Will you teach me?
Can we do this privately?
Thank you for your time.
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