My wife and I arrived in Colorado a few days ago and have had a blast so far. I’ll be doing a trip report on it soon, the last 3 days have been packed with fishing and not much time to write. But wanted to share a few of my favorite pictures so far. We joined Ben Furimsky (of the Fly Fishing Show) and his fiance in the Crested Butte area for the first couple of days. .

Our first day of fishing started with some gnarly off-roading, cutting downed trees and climbing some steep boulders.
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For the last 2 years Tenkara USA has been going global and expanding its brand internationally. In 2010 we opened a distribution center in the UK and established Tenkara Europe™ (aka. Tenkara EU). 2012 has been our year of expanding efforts at fly fishing shows around the world and we were supported by Chris Hendriks in Norway to bring the representation to Europe. Please read below his report of the 2012 Fly Fair in the Netherlands.

Chris Hendriks’ Fishing – Experiences introduced Tenkara in Europe at the Fly Fair 2012!

Report by Chris Hendriks

The Fly Fair is an event which attracts the hard-core fly fishermen and women from the Netherlands as well as Germany and England. This time they had several areas for presentations, demonstrations, fishing-clubs; a huge tent which held all the retailers under one roof and one tent for the fly tiers.

The dreamteam of Chris Hendriks Fishing – Experiences and their website

www.tenkara-norway.com

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“Believe it or not, what started as a novelty for me has actually increased my catch rate by three or four times.” – Yvon Chouinard, Fly Fisherman magazine (June/July 2012)

In what can be seen as a huge milestone for tenkara in the US, tenkara has finally been featured in Fly Fisherman magazine (June/July 2012), in an article written by no less than the legendary outdoorsman Yvon Chouinard, founder and owner of Patagonia. It took quite a while for the largest magazine in the sport to cover tenkara maybe they feared their advertisers weren’t going to be too happy with the idea of a reeless method of fly-fishing being featured . We couldn’t be happier to see the article written by Chouinard himself, a person with great knowledge of the method and dedicated to it.

What most people don’t know about Yvon is that he is a huge fan of tenkara, and one of the only people in the country that practiced tenkara before we came about. He has been by far our biggest ambassador; during the fishing season last year  there was probably not a week that went by when we didn’t get a call or  email from someone saying, “Yvon suggested I talk to you guys…”.  And, he even attended the 2011 Tenkara Summit, where I had the pleasure of fishing with him.

In the article, Yvon describes his favorite technique, twitching the fly. He says, “just like your house cat or any predator, [fish] want action…The best way to imitate that action and to trigger a response is by using a slow-action rod with a delicate tip and a short, line line. The best rod for that is the Tenkara.”

When I was in Oregon last week it was evident most subscribers were already receiving the magazine. When I finished my presentation several people came to ask me about his technique, which Yvon says is deadly. One of the last times I saw him he told me about the article he was writing and a new technique he had been using. He sounded excited about the success he’d been having with it, outfishing his friends 4 or 5 times he told me. It sounded very similar to one of my favorite ways of fishing, so I was looking forward to reading how he described this.  We will let you get a copy of the magazine to read more about how he does this, and the rig that he prefers to use.

Yvon makes special mention of two books as “Suggested Reading”: Tenkara: Radically Simple, Ultralight fly Fishing by Kevin C. Kelleher and Misako Ishimura, and Wet Flies by Dave Hughes.

If you’re not a subscriber to Fly Fisherman magazine, or gave up your subscription because they never talked about tenkara, definitely look for this issue. (And, no, the big striper on the cover is not a fish caught on tenkara – big fish are what sell magazines… or so they say).

Oregon has some truly overlooked, yet world-class tenkara waters! As I mentioned on my last post, I had been invited to come speak in Bend, Oregon and decided to stay for a week and enjoy my time here.

The day after my presentation I was joined by eight folks from the Central Oregon Fly Fishers club for a day on the Crooked River. Only one person already had experience with tenkara, and the group’s interest for the method was contagious. It made for a very enjoyable day on the water.

One of the best things about these gathering is how much I get to digest what I have learned of tenkara by explaining and perhaps defending it. A simple question, like “how would you approach this section?”, or “what technique would you use here?” turns into an opportunity to learn more about why I do what I do in some situations.

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As I settle in my hotel room for the night, I turn the TV on to relax after a long day of what others would perceive as work: introducing about 100 new people to tenkara. After a minute of surfing channels, I come across the movie “The River Why”. While I was familiar with the title and I have meant to read the book, I have never read it, and must confess I don’t know the story line is (the movie is playing as I write this post, and if the post has grammatical errors, well, forgive my distraction).

According to the program description the movie had been on for approximately an hour. And, I just so happen to turn it on right as this is happening: Gus, the main character of the movie, is showing someone a new trick. It turns out, the person he was showing the trick to caught a fish, and he was also a very famous writer. And, thus, the writer decides he wants to interview Gus, and he writes a book stating Gus is a young guy who may be the best angler he’s met in decades. As the book comes out, Gus’ business of selling tackle and flies that he ties, booms.

Why do I tell you this story? Because the coincidence, if I can call it that, was too much to ignore. For the last two days I have been fishing with the world-renowned writer, Dave Hughes! And, yes, I was teaching a few new tricks to the famous writer and angler. But, no: none of us caught a large Chinook, was forced to jump in the water, and fight a super large fish into the night as a result. So, I’m sure this post will be infinitely less entertaining than the movie.

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This is one of the most difficult concepts to embrace in tenkara, but in my view the most liberating. What I am talking about is the idea of using [any] one fly pattern in pursuit of trout in mountain streams. I have talked at length about the idea of not getting caught up on the western fly-fishing mentality of changing flies in order to catch trout, but rather to learn techniques to use your one fly in many conditions. Instead of relying on gear (i.e. changing of fly patterns), one can rely on his skills to make the fly work in any situation. This is not something I tell people they have to do with tenkara, it’s simply something I say is possible, and very effective.

If you are short on time, the main content I want to share is the section titled “Techniques” below, which talks about the 6 main techniques used in tenkara.

Getting comfortable with the idea that one fly pattern is sufficient takes time and some degree of dedication, but most importantly it takes knowing that this is something you want and something that suits you. It is not something most people can or should be convinced of, they have to know they want this degree of liberation in order to seek it. Much like tenkara, those who get it, get it and will eventually try it on their own pace, and it is not for everyone.

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A huge thank you to all of you who contributed with product reviews!

You contributed a total of  218 reviews during the contest period! This is really helping give our products your voice, and hopefully will help those taking up their method make their decision more easily. And, the reviews feature has already been serving as a great way to capture your feedback on our products. Some of the feedback is already making its way into our products, and at least one review prompted me to create some additional instructions/tips for the tenkara line holder.

Of course, we would still very much like to continue receiving your reviews of our products to make them better and help others. Please give us your honest review on our products by signing on and visiting the desired product to comment on it.

Without further ado, here is the table of winners. I’ll be emailing the winners of the complete sets and t-shirts to get more info, but will be mailing the other items shortly. Congratulations and thank you!