Tenkara - Fly fishing the ancient Japanese way

Recently I bumped into a site that introduces an ancient (at least 200 yeas old) method of fishing from Japan called Tenkara, which has many similarities to (modern) fly fishing. Tenkara is now introduced to the western world thanks to the founder of Tenkara USA, Daniel Galhardo.

The most intriguing part is the radical different equipment. No reel, just a long rod (11 to 13 ft!), a line of woven monofilament which is heavy enough to cast similar to fly casting and a leader system. Yet thanks to modern technology the rod is extremely portable as well as ultra light.

The rod looks at first sight a bit like a rod we use here in The Netherlands for fishing roaches and bream with a bobber and what we call a 'vaste hengel' (these rods are albeit much longer, 16 to 20 ft). The Tenkara rod has a cork grip at the end.

The length of the Tenkara rod makes controlling the line very easy. Casting is involved, but only in a very basic way. No need to understand the physics of casting. Since the length of the line and leader is fixed, long casts are not needed. A couple of short back and froward casts are needed to present the fly and basically reach for the spot using the length of the rod.

Tenkara seems to be an effective method for fishing small streams. My first impression after watching several nice videos at the Tenkara site is that the method looks a bit like dead drift high stick nymphing and wet fly swing. The take of the fish is detected by sight as well as the quiver of the fine tip of the rod.

The flies used looks very similar to what we use: dry flies, wet flies and bead head nymphs. A dry fly is 'dropped' on the water and guided through the current pretty much dead drift thanks to the long rod. Fishing with a nymph or a wet fly looks a bit similar to Czech nymphing which involves dapping into fishy spots and eddies.

Well, it sure looks like a fun way to fish small streams. I think it's also a very fun way to introduce absolute novices (fly) fishing in small streams since very little knowledge of casting, mending and controlling the fly line is needed.

Here's a nice little video which shows a nice insight to Tenkara. For more information check out the excellent executed site at Tenkara USA.

Bamboo broker's new adventure

In a previous posting I wrote about the tonkin cane which is used for making bamboo fly rods. The Bamboo Broker is one of the two the companies that imports high quality tonkin cane exclusively for bamboo fly rod makers. Check out the site for some very interesting facts about tonkin cane.

Andy Royer of Bamboo Broker used the same business model to create a new company called Picky Bastard Cork. This company imports the best quality cork rings from Portugal for the cork handles on fly rods and probably any rod for that matter.

Check out this video to see what makes a high quality cork ring and how the different gradings are hand selected by Andy.




Update Jan 4, 2014:
Andy Royer is diagnosed with colon cancer and is fighting for his life…
Hopefully he will recover from it.

Update March 2015:
Andy has been given up by the doctors…
Here is an interview at Bloomberg about Andy's situation.

Update September 9, 2015:
Andy passed away today. RIP

Less is more

Back from our trip to Austria! This trip was one of those I like best: discovering new rivers, having fun with friends and enjoying the solitude.

We planned this trip to fish three different rivers. Two of them being new to us. The river Alm was our main destination this time. The pictures we saw in preparation of the trip was nothing short of amazing. Pristine greenish clear waters flowing through the majestic lower Alps. Take a look at the pictures, you get the idea.

The stretch we fished was about 3 km's long. During the three days on the Alm we encountered one afternoon with light rain. The insect activity was remarkably low. Turning rocks showed some mayfly, caddis and stonefly population in low numbers. This probably answers the relatively small sized fish, considering the size of the river, we caught. The fish were generally around 8 to 14 inches. We have seen some larger fish in the river, probably in the 16-18 inch range.

This river showed us that fish here are really spooky as well as very well adapted to the environment. The browns and rainbows were pale whitish, making them virtually impossible to see against the white cobbly bottom. During our fishing, we never saw another fisherman. Definitely a river to admire the beauty of the surroundings as well as willing to work hard for small sized fish.

Our next destination is a little mountain stream in the hills near the town of Bad Ischl. This little stream turned out to be the highlight of the trip. The stream meanders through the woody hills, boulders scattered randomly giving little pockets for fish to hide.

The fish are not picky, so no need to match the hatch here. A high floating dry fly will certainly keep the fish and the fisherman happy. The weather gods were with us: clear blue sky and hot. Surely no condition for chest waders and such with all the rock hopping and stealth crawling. Extensive logging probably makes moving around a bit difficult too. Hippers are the ticket here, or even wet wading.

We caught very pretty spotted brown trouts as well as feisty rainbows. Everything from 6 inches to 14 inches. There is a supposed to be brook trouts as well as some graylings in the system. I think I remember catching a small brookie. But I guess most of these guys were on leave this day.

We did a lot of walking this day. We only managed to fish the upper half of the nearly 7 km stretch. Next time I'm sure we'll see much more of the amazing little beauty. Did I mention that the surroundings are just breathtaking? The solitude and peace of this area makes you believe that this stream was solely made for us... A really nice stream to fish high floating dry flies on a very light rod. I used a 4 weight rod but next time I'm bringing my 3 weight.

The final destination was the German part of the Traun river system. Wow, what an amazing river this is again. The temperature tumbled down the two final days from the low 30's celcius to the low 20's as well as the humidity went up. So we had a few visits from Rolf's buddies the mosquito's. The cloudy conditions also made spotting fish a lot more difficult than usual.

The Alien Bug showed it's versatility again. I've caught several very nice fish on this high riding hopper imitation which also doubles as a strike indicator. Nymphs used most were either an olive bead head caddis pupa or a bead head Shop-Vac. A brown pheasant tail with a gray fur thorax or a bead head Prince were effective too.

The six days we spent in this area reminds me of how varied the river systems in this area are. I can't imagine how many rivers and streams there are in this area. I'm sure more than enough to spend one's whole life fishing.

Ah, I forgot about the nice 'apres fish'! We 'enjoyed' some nutritious Austrian gourmet as well as excellent Italian dishes at our favorite ristorante. This time we were surprised with some tasty grilled fish, prawns and lobsters together with the musical italian lyrics from a live performer. What more does one need to enjoy a nice week of fishing with friends?

Again life shows: less is more...





Here's a video I made of our trip: