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.