However, since the idea of sticking with one fly and relying solely on my technique is still relatively new to me, sometimes doubt creeps in. This is especially true if I find myself  fishing a bigger, slower river, like the Madison, for which everyone has advice on what fly to use and for which there are dozens of books on what specific patterns to use at different times of the year, etc. And, it’s also true if I find myself in the company of very experienced anglers, like John Gierach and Ed Engle, who may be using different patterns.  In these situations it’s very easy to lose confidence in my technique, in the techniques I can use to attract fish, and start thinking that maybe they are right! Are they?

Today I find myself in Ennis, Montana. I came here to speak at the Madison River Fly Fishing Festival. During my presentation I spoke about the concept of “one-fly”, of not paying particular attention to the fly but rather to fishing it. That’s usually the part of my presentation where I fear I’ll be thrown out of the room, especially given that my presentation was the day after  a great fly tying demonstration by Craig Mathews and John Juracek , as they demonstrated how to tie fly patterns for the Madison. I’d have to prove my “technique/one-fly concept” in their home water, a type of river I don’t usually fish, the Madison itself.  I’d have to stick with one fly, this was the ultimate test for me.

I typically fish mountain streams (I’ll no longer call them “small-streams”, as I don’t think that’s an accurate description for the best tenkara waters, I fish mountain streams, of many different sizes, which are defined by faster water and distinct features). In these streams I know any fly will work just fine and I no longer have any problem sticking with a sakasa-style fly size 12, if the fish dont’ bite when I do a drag free drift, I’ll work the fly in a couple of different ways.  If I still don’t catch a fish after some a few casts from a couple of different angles, I move on. Trout are very opportunistic feeders and they have to grab food quickly. Yesterday I met great success on one of the Madison’s feeder streams; I only had a couple of hours of fishing left and I wanted to fish my favorite type of water, so I bought a map and found a mountain stream about 30 minutes away. In a couple of hours, and despite the very cold water, I managed a dozen or so fish – one fly of course.  Today, when I told people that I caught plenty of fish, on that stream, with a size 12 only, and that I didn’t choose a fly in particular, they were a bit skeptical. Luckily I had a couple of pictures from last night (fly is a bit out of focus, but on the edge of the frame):

After the presentation I met with Bryan, a tenkara angler who lives in the area. He, a friend of his, his friend’s son and I headed to the lower part of the Madison, near town.  We fished for about an hour and nothing. The kid had a size 14 grasshopper on, I stuck with one tenkara fly. But we couldn’t manage a bite, not on the hopper, nor on the tenkara fly. That’s when confidence starts seeping out. However, there was relatively heavy boat traffic where we were fishing, and I attributed our lack of activity to that. Or, that fact that perhaps I still hadn’t figured out the right technique for such big water.

We left the stream, and went our separate ways. There were still a couple of hours of sunlight left, and I was trying to decide where to fish for the rest of the day. There a few good mountain streams in the area, the type of water I really like. However, I just couldn’t give up on the Madison. This would be one the few chances I’d have to say that “yes, you can also use any one fly in the Madison”. If I want to master my tenkara technique I’d have to work hard for it. And so I returned to the exact same location and was soon greeted by this beautiful sun light and rainbow, a good sign perhaps.

This time I was a bit freer to move anywhere and a bit faster; so I worked that area very hard. I went upstream, across, downstream, to the middle, and to some very likely pools, hitting all spots that I knew should have fish in them.  For an hour or so I only saw a flash or two. Then, confidence started seeping out again. I had a grasshopper and an elk-hair caddis in my box, two “just-in-case” flies I still haven’t had the confidence to put away. I tied the large hopper on,  this was the fly everyone  in town has been raving about for the Madison. About 10 minutes with the hopper and nothing but one tiny strike. I then tied on the size 12 elk-hair caddis, fished it for about 5 minutes on a couple of very likely spots, still nothing. I paused for a moment and thought about what  I could do differently to catch fish.  First of all, I should stick with my one fly, if the results with these “just-in-case” flies are not that apparent, I think I can make it work with my tenkara fly. I clipped the caddis off.  In reality any fly of reasonable size should work given the right presentation and manipulation.

How can I make this work? If I only had my tenkara fly, how can I catch fish with it?

This pause was probably sufficient. I had primarily been sticking with dead drifts: casting upstream or to the side and following the fly down with no drag. Sometimes I would cast to the side, pause the fly in place for a couple of seconds, let it go downstream (in a straight line, not swinging), and pause. And sometimes I would cast a bit downstream and work the fly upstream, and other times I’d just cast upstream and try to get the fly deep by lowering my rod tip and gradually lifting it to keep a tight line. Pretty much the major tenkara techniques, in a simplified explanation. One technique I hadn’t been using, however, was giving the tenkara fly a lot of life by casting to the side and very abruptly pulling the fly towards me (with the line in the water). I did this vigorously, pulling at about 1ft intervals, a bit like a streamer. This worked! Suddenly I was getting into fish. The reasoning: the water was very fast in this area and the fish needed to really see the fly well, so giving it a lot of action was necessary. After a couple of fish I decided to switch to a bigger fly, a size 10 which “Tenkara Ouji” had sent me, to increase the visibility. This also worked very well, atlhough I know I could have just as easily stuck with the same fly I had been using.  I landed a few (maybe 4 or 5) 12 inchers,  lost 2 fish about 16-17″  when I was about to land them (yes, I’ll be thinking about these in my sleep, and yes, the bigger ones are always the ones that get away!), and missed a few strikes, a couple of which were very good.

For many months now I have made a point to stick with one fly pattern only (actually, my box has one fly pattern, mostly size 12, but also a couple of different sizes and color combinations -  all virtually the same. I’d have no problem having only one identical fly, but I like having different ones so I can show different tenkara flies to people). I pick the fly at random, except if the water is very high and I know I want more visibility (both for myself and for the fish), in which case I like using a light colored or bigger fly, still the same style. In the months since completely converting to one fly only, I have  fished more often than I ever have (fishing about 10-15 days out of each month). And, guess what, I continue catching fish, and probably many more fish than I ever have too.

I have embarked on a quest to fully embrace fishing technique, and let go of the accepted current thought of ”match-the-hatch”.  The longer I do it, the more confident I become in my techniques, and the fewer fish I catch “out of luck”, or because they “like” a specific fly. Most fish I currently catch, I know why I caught them. “Simple fly, simple fly”, as the Tenkara Bum says.

And so the “just-in-case” flies are now gone for good!

If you only had one fly pattern in your box, could you still catch fish? If you ran out of your “go-to” fly pattern, would you feel okay and continue fishing, or would your day be ruined?

It was with great relief that, while visiting Japan, we’d find a living proof that the young are still taking up the sport, at least via tenkara. During the tenkara event we got to meet young Taiga Watanabe, who was just about to turn 13. Taiga goes by the nickname “Tenkara Ouji”, translated as “tenkara prince”, and is well known for hanging out with the older “Tenkara Oyaji”, secretly picking up the masters’ tricks.

Tenkara Ouji showed us a tray filled with multiple tenkara patterns he tied himself, and which he sold like candy to anglers in the event. In an effort to foster his keen interest in tenkara, or perhaps to feed his insatiable appetite for cool tenkara gear, I put in an order for a few dozen tenkara flies. I knew anglers here would love to have them. His dad assured me Taiga would be tying flies through the summer anyways, so he may as well sell them to me so he could sustain his tenkara addiction. We shook hands and a few weeks later we received these beautiful flies. I kept a few for myself, and have caught plenty of fish on them. The rest are now available for purchase as sets, which include one of each of the flies pictured below. These flies wont’ last long, only a small number of sets is available. He’s currently tying new patterns for us, which should be available in a couple of weeks.

Tenkara Ouji's flies

Fly Rodders is one of the leading magazines on fly-fishing in Japan. The mention is very positive, mostly focusing on the fact that we’re now introducing the Japanese method of fly-fishing outside of Japan.

I have often wondered, and talked to a couple of people in Japan, about whether tenkara becoming popular in the US could lead to its further popularization in Japan. Often times people in Japan have looked at the US for trends, and someone told me Japan is about 2 to 3 years behind the US in fly-fishing terms…well, I say the US was at least about 200 years behind Japan on this one! So, I could be inclined to think even such a mention could be the beginning of more tenkara adopters in its home country too. Maybe that’s presumptuous, but I’ll just continue thinking it.

How can I possibly start writing about a fishing trip with two of the finest anglers in the US, if not by repeating an older post that I must have been living a dream? And that, if not overwhelmed, I am still trying to believe that I actually went tenkara fly-fishing in the company of such well known anglers as John Gierach and Ed Engle! These are two of the guys who most shaped recent western small-stream fly-fishing. Yes, tenkara fly-fishing with John Gierach and Ed Engle!

I was never too surprised that Gierach and Engle became interested in tenkara. And, then, not all that surprised that they would take up tenkara. I had read their work before, and knew they were small-stream anglers and pursuers of fly-fishing simplicity at their core. I also knew we shared many perspectives and ideals about the sport.  They would have to be drawn to the simplicity and effectiveness of tenkara. Though not entirely surprising, fishing with such well known anglers as Mr. Gierach and Mr. Engle is indeed quite a privilege, and witnessing both tenkara fishing exclusively and embracing tenkara as the ideal method for stream fly-fishing, was nothing short of a spectacular. That I could present anything new to these guys is something I’m very proud of.

Gierach playing a brown trout on the St. Vrain:

After being contacted by Gierach and communicating with him for a period of time, I finally invited myself to fish with him in his home waters near Lyons, Colorado. I figured, if Gierach writes about it, it’ll be set on stone, and thus I should share all I know about “pure tenkara” with him. It’s easy to overlook the real origins and techniques of tenkara as practiced in Japan for possible preconceived notions on tenkara, and I didn’t want that to happen. A few days before the trip, I learned we’d be joined by Gierach’s good friend, Ed Engle, whose work I also admired and whom I had contacted a bit over a year ago because of an article he wrote on fly-fishing simplicity, having as few elements between him and the trout, etc.  There you go, Ed, only a rod, line and fly between you and that trout:

What I didn’t know until I arrived is that both also had a bit more than a passing interest in Japanese culture. Both Engle and Gierach used to belong to a poetry group in their college days and were very interested in Japanese poetry. Engle had even studied Japanese and learned the Japanese brush painting technique of Sumie. Gierach has been cultivating bonsai trees for over 20 years, and had some striking bonsai in his living-room; in addition, Gierach also had done some very nice “Gyotaku” (the art of applying paint to a fish and transferring the fish’s details to paper), which now sit at the writer’s den – yes, it was cool to see where the magic happens.  Of course, the main topic of our conversations was fly-fishing, but that they had an interest in Japanese culture was cool addition. I spent two full days fishing in their company, staying at Gierach’s home. This gave us a chance to talk much, and at length about fly-fishing, tenkara’s origins and techniques and many other topics of interest; the conversations didn’t stop unless it was before the morning coffee, or for fishing.

Gierach’s 20+ year old bonsai:

We fished a couple of different forks of the St. Vrain, Gierach’s famous home stream.  What a beautiful stream. On our first day, we headed to the South St. Vrain, hiking down a trail past a picturesque lodgepole forest, and through a mossy trail, taking our time to observe juniper bushes that could become nice bonsai and, of course, also looking for branches that could work as tenkara nets – yes, I brought a tenkara net along, and I think both of them really liked the concept, so much so that their gazes now often shift from trail to trees as they walk around.

The point in the South St. Vrain where we started was pretty tight in places, making it challenging to cast, but we managed our casts and hooked some nice trout. As we fished, I tried demonstrating the main tenkara techniques: casting upstream and having a drag-free drift downstream, while keeping the line tight; casting slightly upstream, holding the fly in place for a few seconds, letting it go down about a foot and holding, repeating until the end of the drift; casting slightly downstream and pulling the fly upstream at about 1ft intervals; or simply casting upstream from the head of a pool, dropping the rod tip so the line would be dragged under, and effectivelly sinking the fly deep. The stream opened up a bit as we worked our way up the stream, and the St. Vrain became “tenkara-perfect”.

During our second day, we visited a more remote part of the St. Vrain, remote for a reason. This stretch required a serious 4-wheeler to get up there. For a bit over 4 miles Gierach skillfully navigated some treacherous terrain with large boulders one could think impassable. It was all worth it when we arrived at a lush verdant area, with a gorgeous “tenkara-perfect” stream running through it.

Ed working a nice pool, Gierach farther upstream:

The air felt moist and smelled of pine trees, my favorite type of place. We hiked for a few minutes through tall grasses, still a little wet from the previous days’ storms, and which had been flattened by what we assumed were moose.We later confirmed this assumption by finding some moose dropping. “If you see a moose, don’t piss it off!”, I was told, as if I would purposefully do that. As we fished, we managed a nice pace, leapfrogging each other to the next pool. I tried taking pictures in between, and every once in a while we’d reconvene, to either talk about the fishing, or to observe each other trying to fool a trout.

Neither of them really went for the “ one-fly” approach that I have adopted, and primarily used a two-fly rig (elk hair caddis and a dropper nymph). Nevertheless, we did very similarly in numbers of fish each of us caught (discounting for the time I focused on taking pictures instead of keeping my “one fly” in the water). I was happy to see that they didn’t bother changing flies when the fish didn’t bit, focusing instead of moving upstream to the next pool, a classic tenkara approach.

Both Gierach and Engle agreed that any one fly pattern would probably work just fine in a stream like that. And so it did. I continued using one tenkara fly only, or more accurately, any fly picked at random from my box, which probably had 3 different tenkara patterns with a few different colors.

The fly resting on the flat part of my tenkara net:

The two newest tenkara converts will probably be letting their reels rest for a while. I won’t blame them if they choose to take their cane rods to the water every now and then, but for some reason I suspect that will not happen that often anymore.

Ishigaki sensei and Chikara helping with translation

After knowing Ishigaki sensei for about a year and having  had many communications with him via email, and after spending several days talking and fishing with him while visiting Japan, I thought there were some questions I should ask him “for the record”. An interview was in order. On the 3-hour drive back from the Itoshiro to Nagoya, I turned on the recorder and had a nice conversation with Ishigaki sensei. We had so many other lengthy conversations in my time there, and we covered many specific aspects of tenkara, this time I had some slightly broader questions to ask him.

NOTE: Ishigaki sensei gifted us with a few tenkara flies he tied himself, which are now available here for the benefit to an environmental non-profit.

CONVERSATION:

Daniel: Dr. Ishigaki, could you describe your path to tenkara? What led you to pursue this simpler way of fishing? What is your story with tenkara?’

Ishigaki sensei: I first learned about tenkara through a book, “Keiryu no tsuri” (stream fishing). The book was published about 40 years ago by the company “Tsuribitosha”. This book covered  3 types of fishing: lure fishing, live bait fishing and tenkara. In the book, tenkara was not called tenkara, but rather “kebari tsuri” [kebari = fly, tsuri=fishing, but different from western fly–fishing which is specifically referred to in Japanese as “fly fishing”]. I learned about it through that book, but didn’t start tenkara right away; I was into bait fishing back then. One day, while bait fishing, I saw the first person practicing tenkara; that day, I wasn’t catching anything, but the tenkara angler caught 2 fish in front of me. I was surprised, so this is tenkara! When I returned home, I remembered the book mentioned tenkara, so I picked it up and started reading that section again. Based on the book, I tied my first fly, and made a tapered line. Back at that time there were no tenkara rods available to purchase. So, as a substitute I used a “hera rod” [rod for a type of carp fishing]. The rod was a bit too short.  Thus, I started tenkara, but barely caught any fish in the beginning. There was no information on tenkara besides that book, so I thought I couldn’t catch fish because there was no information about it. At that time I was doing lure fishing, bait fishing and also tenkara, but didn’t do much tenkara in the beginning. I was 27 years old at that time, the same age as Daniel.

I gradually started getting better at tenkara,  and then tenkara rods started becoming available, at first made of fiberglass.

Daniel: Were tenkara rods really not available at that time, or were they just hard to find?

Ishigaki sensei: I couldn’t find the fishing rod in stores, sometimes there were rods advertised in magazines, but very hard to find.About 30 years ago, gradually books on tenkara started being sold, and magazines slowly started introducing tenkara, and then rods started becoming available. But, I rarely saw anyone doing tenkara at that time. I couldn’t catch many fish, but I still thought it was a very fun way of fishing. So, I started thinking hard about why I couldn’t catch fish.  I just assumed that fish held the bait longer, but spit the fly right away.  Out of curiosity  I decided to conduct an experiment about how quickly the fish would spit the fly and how fast a fisherman could react.

I went to a hatchery that had 3 ponds, one with Amago, one with Iwana [two types of Japanese trout] and one with Rainbow trout.  Using photo-sensors connected to a hookless fly, I analyzed how long a trout held the fly in its mouth before spitting it out. The fly was held right on the surface of the water, so a fish would jump to it, hold it in its mouth and spit it out.  Then, I did an experiment with anglers to measure their reaction time between seeing a flashing light and trying to set a hook with a fishing rod. The average time for the fish to spit out the fly was 0.2 seconds, but the shortest reaction time for a fisherman was 0.3 seconds.  In other words, by the time someone reacts to the visual cue of a fish, it’s usually already too late because the fish has already spit the fly out.  So, I though be best way to catch a fish would be to make the fish hold the fly in its mouth longer; one way I thought would increase the time a fish held the fly in its mouth would be to have the fly in the water, not on the surface. Doing an experiment with the fly under water, the time a fish held the fly in its mouth increased to 0.6 to 0.7 seconds.

I conducted several experiments in this fashion.  Once a month for a period of 6 months I conducted similar experiments and wrote a report for a popular fishing magazine published by “Tsuribitosha”. Then, NHK, a very popular tv station,  decided to make a program on these experiments. The experiment was shown on one of the most popular tv shows at that time, which was watched by about 20% of the people in Japan. Many tenkara anglers watched the show, and then many of these people contacted me with their opinions on the research.  So, Tsuribitosha and other fishing magazines contacted me to conduct similar experiments, and they offered put me in touch with many tenkara experts and to interview them. For the very first time I had the opportunity to see several tenkara experts doing tenkara. I was 38 years old at this time [about 25 years ago].  As a result, I became good friends of many of these tenkara experts.  With these tenkara experts, we made several videos on tenkara.  This is how tenkara started spreading out, now people could learn from these videos we made.

Daniel: So, Ishigaki sensei was one of the main drivers in introducing tenkara in Japan.

Ishigaki sensei: That’s right, with several friends we started spreading out tenkara in Japan. This was the beginning of tenkara becoming popular in Japan.

Young Dr. Ishigaki featured in a magazine

Daniel:  Was this research in any way related to his profession, as a scientific researcher in the field of Visual studies, or purely a hobby?

Ishigaki sensei: Just a hobby. But, this is what got me started in tenkara, and was related to my interests too.

Daniel: What motivates Dr. Ishigaki to introduce others to tenkara, and teach tenkara to others since he makes no money from it?

Ishigaki sensei: Tenkara, compared to other methods of fishing, is a very fun, and fairer way of fishing. Above all, it’s fairer as the angler really needs to depend more on his technique. It’s also a simpler way. I like to introduce people to this. I’m also a professor, so I like to teach others.

Daniel:  Since you didn’t catch so many fish with tenkara in the beginning, why didn’t you give it up and just continue fishing with bait?

Ishigaki sensei:  I didn’t catch many fish with tenkara, but at the same time I could see that many fish were coming up to the fly, but I was wondering why they didn’t bite. This was very fun . I wondered why they came to the fly, but didn’t bite, and that made me conduct the experiments.

Daniel:  Dr. Ishigaki, you often say the main reason you like tenkara is its simplicity. Why did simplicity become the main appeal of tenkara to you?

Ishigaki sensei: About 15 years ago, my thoughts and philosophy on fishing got really solid. Fishing is really simple, you only need three things: fishing rod, line and fly. Even for fly, only one type is really necessary.  How you catch fish, with that simplicity, is based on a person’s experience and techniques. In my opinion, that’s a very interesting thing. If one’s skills improves, then he can catch fish. It doesn’t depend on the fishing gear. I really like that you do not have to depend on the fishing gear to catch fish. To me, that’s the most important thing about fishing, to think.  For example, to think about where the fish will be in certain conditions, and how I’ll go about catching it in that condition. It all depends on the person’s experience and his technique. To think about where the fish is, and then implement a technique, that’s the most important thing.

Daniel: When I watched Dr. Ishigaki fishing, I could see the thoughts going through his mind, and him trying different techniques to entice the fish.

Daniel:  Did you have any mentors when you were learning tenkara?

Ishigaki sensei: I didn’t really have one mentor, but I met and fished with many experts. I learned much from each of them, and picked the best things from each of them and tried to use that knowledge.

Daniel:  Nowadays, Dr. Ishigaki only uses one fly pattern. In the beginning, did you use many different fly patterns? When did you realize he could use only one fly?

Ishigaki sensei: I met many different experts, and I saw their flies. Everyone  was using different flies, but each of these tenkara experts used only one fly style.  To me, that meant that any fly could catch fish, so only one fly should be fine. So, I started using only one fly [later Dr. Ishigaki would come across the fly he now uses in a tackle shop, he really liked its simplicity and adopted that fly as his own].

The first book I read said that you should change flies. It even had different suggestions based on the time of year, “summertime use a black fly and use a big fly, in the spring use a green fly and small”, the book said. A different book mentioned the same thing, so I kept changing flies when I couldn’t catch fish. But, then I saw the different experts’ flies, and realized one type was fine.

Daniel: While learning tenkara, Dr. Ishigaki did a lot of different things to learn more about its history and where tenkara came from. As tenkara was originated by professional (i.e. commercial) fisherman in the mountains of Japan, this included dressing up as a professional angler from decades ago. What did you learn from these experiences?

Ishigaki sensei:  I wanted to learn and experience what they may have experienced on my own. The first thing I learned is that a long time ago the job of a professional fisherman in these mountain streams was a very tough job. For example, I wore the “waraji” (a type of straw sandal), where the toes are exposed. When in the water, I hit my toes on the rock.  There weren’t waders, but they wore very thin pants.  It was very cold, the feet hurt, but under their circumstances they had to do it for a living.  I did this 4 or 5 times, once for personal reasons, then the TV program asked me to do it again.

I also learned the line and tippet was very weak. Back in the day, the line and tippet were very weak. The line was made with horse-hair and tippet were made with silk-worm gut, which is hard to stretch. So, people had to fish with the line in the water as much as possible to keep its strength. If you kept the fly in the surface it would break the line, but if you kept the fly under water, then the line will not break. When the fly is in the surface the fish will come up and fall down, that’s a lot of pressure and the line will break, but if the fish grabs the fly under water, then the line won’t break.

Ishigaki sensei reenacts a professional tenkara angler

Daniel:  Many people in the US talking about tenkara, and because it is a type of fishing from Japan, they immediately think of it as a type of “zen” experience.  What does he think of that? Are anglers in Japan conscious and aware of the philosophies that tenkara ecompasses, e.g. its simplicity, enjoying nature more and depending less on gear, etc?

Ishigaki sensei: [lots of laughter] Americans think of Japan, they immediately think of “samurai”, “geisha”, etc, but most people in Japan are not really religious, there are very few Buddhists in Japan.  Tenkara is simply a method of fishing.

Daniel: Tenkara was never practiced by samurai, yet some people stick with the idea that tenkara is “samurai fishing”. It’s hard to dispel some perpetuated myths and stereotypes.

Daniel: With tenkara being introduced to the US and several other countries, some anglers will inevitable adapt tenkara to their idea of fishing, not really accepting it as is. Many anglers think they have to change flies or use weight, floatant, and indicators. How do you feel about people adapting tenkara and making tenkara more complex and complicated than it really is?

Ishigaki sensei: The really good thing about tenkara is that you don’t really have to change flies and you don’t need to use weight for sinking the fly or floatant. Using weight, or changing flies means that people will be missing out on some of the most important aspects of tenkara.  In Japan, using weight to sink the fly is considered not to be real tenkara. Some tenkara anglers in Japan use bead-head flies, but real tenkara anglers do not consider that to be tenkara. But, people are free to enjoy things they enjoy. Using weight and changing flies, may be a type of enjoyment for some people. All I want is for people to know they don not need to change flies or use weight, indicators, etc.  As long as people know and understand these are not necessary to catch fish, they can do what pleases them most. I believe it may be difficult to have Americans understand pure tenkara.  It will be important to make videos showing tenkara to continue showing people that it is simple and that you don’t need to use weight, floatant, etc.

Daniel: Do you think it is in human nature to make things more complicated than they really are?

Ishigaki sensei: Yes.  People tend to believe that the gear will help them catch fish more easily, instead of focusing on learning technique. That’s [western] fly-fishing; even though originally [western] fly-fishing was much like tenkara, people started thinking of things to make it easier for them to catch fish, like using weight and indicators or many flies.  Amateurs  (i.e. recreational fisherman) will use money and think of easier ways to catch fish. But, commercial fisherman in Japan tried not to spend any money for fishing, such as not using weight or indicators or many flies, they used only the basic tackle rod, line and hook, and they tried to think of ways to catch fish with only the basic tackle.  I believe Japanese tenkara fishing is the most effective type of fishing for stream fishing, because you learn the technique and don’t need unnecessary things.

Daniel: For some people, simplicity equals minimalism (carrying as few things as possible). The first thing many people want to get rid of is their fishing vest or a wader. Does wearing a fishing vest compromise simplicity in fishing?

Ishigaki sensei: No, not at all. Simplicity in fishing is using the basic tackle, only rod, line and fly. Fishing simplicity. That is the real simple thing. Wearing a vest, waders, wading boots, etc, these things are necessary for comfort and should not be compromised. For one, wader, wading belt and good shoes are needed for safety. The vest is good for keeping things organized inside of it. To me, having a vest is necessary to carry things. What one needs to simplify is fishing, with only rod, line and fly, but the other things shouldn’t be compromised in my opinion.  Not wearing a vest or waders is considered “cheap” in Japan; there is a joke that fly fisherman are rich, and tenkara anglers are poor [laughing].

Daniel: For some people, catching the big (or biggest) fish is all that matters. Is it all about the biggest fish?

Ishigaki sensei: Tenkara is not really a method for big fish. The most fun part of tenkara is to be in a stream, and catch many fish. If all you want is to catch the very big fish, then tenkara may not be appropriate.

Daniel: How would you describe your perfect stream?

Ishigaki sensei: Very clean water, beautiful scenery, where it feels relaxing and peaceful, a running stream with faster water [honryu], not very flat or slow.

Raw branch:

MORE PICTURES

After spending a few weeks looking for the ideal branches, I was able to find a couple of branches, one from a manzanita bush, the other from the Jeffrey pine. After near a month in the making, I’m getting close to finishing them. The entire process was documented on the forum.  Here are the semi-final results.

I loved working on something so simple and aesthetically pleasing. It’s not easy, but doable, and beautiful. The details were difficult, especially joining the two arms of the frame.

Though all nets are unique and one-of-a-kind, the manzanita will be more so because the manzanita does not have the symmetrical branches with the right diameters and angles for a net. The Jeffrey pine, on the other hand, has the ideal shapes and the wood is easier to work with.

I’ll venture to say this is the first manzanita net frame in the world built in this manner, and after studying the manzanita I think it may continue with that title since it was almost impossible to find the right branch for it. It’s my most rewarding project, the wood is absolutely gorgeous, and the outer layer of the stripped bark is red, giving it a beautiful natural color and providing for very interesting patterns on the places I needed to strip and sand. I needed to cut the end of the handle as it was curved in the wrong direction, and I figured I could follow the tenkara tradition of using deer antlers for protecting who uses it in the water. A tenkara enthusiast, who also gave me some great advice, offered to send me some deer antler, and one of them was a great match, having almost the same colors as the wood itself.

Stay tuned for the final pictures in a couple of weeks.

WHEN:   Saturday, September 11, 2010

1:00 PM – 4:00 PM

WHERE: Golden Gate Angling and Casting Club, San Francisco, CA

Dr. Ishigaki is known and deeply respected throughout Japan as the leading authority on tenkara fly-fishing. A professor in the field of vision studies at the Aichi Institute of Technology, in Japan, Dr. Ishigaki became first known among tenkara anglers for his research on the vision of fish and of anglers. He has dedicated a big part of his life to introducing this simpler method of fly-fishing to people throughout Japan via many books, articles and DVDs on tenkara. After his first presentation in the Catskills, NY, Dr. Ishigaki is now coming on his second visit to the US to speak about tenkara.

A very friendly and warm angler and engaging lecturer, Dr. Ishigaki says he’s looking forward to making many new friends in the US, and is looking forward to his visit.

During the event Dr. Ishigaki will do a tenkara fly-tying demonstration, a presentation about tenkara, and a demonstration on tenkara casting.

Space is very limited.

Those interested should RSVP at the GGACC website: http://ggacc.org/p/ViewEvent.aspx?eid=322

Tenkara removes the complexities that were added to fly-fishing over the years and makes it a fun, and above all, simple and intuitive method of angling with a fly. Not having to pass line through the rod guides, strip line to cast, and going through a complicated series of knots, mean that tenkara allows for greater independence in his fishing. Imagine you only have one able arm and want to setup your rod and fish, yourself, for a bit. A rod with a reel by default ask for two hands, frustrating, I’d imagine. As I witnessed, a telescopic tenkara rod is a rod, made for one-handed fishing. It can be held under one’s arm as the plug is removed and the tip is exposed with the able hand; the hand, which in turn quickly makes a girth hitch on hisline and tightens it against the rod tip. And, finally telescopes each segment of the rod out and proceeds to cast, an intuitive cast with no 2-handed stripping needed. These are the few steps needed to setup and fish with a tenkara rod when the fly is already tied on. I was extremely proud to see a tenkara rod, one which I adopted from a foreign country and introduced to the US, serve as much more than a simple fishing tool.

Walking around the banks of this lake, with his western fly-rod already rigged but mostly inside the reel, the war veteran – not only a war veteran but a western fly-fishing “veteran” of 3+ years, who, through a special reel, a special stripping device and some ingenuity – spotted a very good fish. With no time to spare and go through the process of getting his line out of the reel to cast, I gave him my tenkara rod, which I kept rigged for the occasional cast. Not yet fully used to casting with a tenkara rod, his first cast piles up a bit, but it’s no problem, the line is so light the fish was not disturbed. On the second cast the fly didn’t turnover completely, but went far enough, maybe 15ft out, to attract the attention of the feeding fish. In a few seconds it was fish on. A healthy and very feisty 14″ rainbow. Not his biggest, nor his first, but his first on a tenkara rod, maybe the first that provided such a fight he thought he may not actually land it, the first that perhaps felt like an equal adversary. But, also the first fish he had full control over, who didn’t take line, because he couldn’t, and after a very strong fight just surrendered because he realized he couldn’t really run anywhere. He was hooked. The simplicity of it, the fact that he could simply cast when he wanted to, and the won battle – All worth it.

A HUGE THANK YOU TO ALL VETERANS AND THOSE WHO SACRIFICE SO MUCH FOR THEIR COUNTRY!