If you’re like most fly anglers, you like flies. Small and large, dull and shiny, reversed or “normal”. As we have introduced tenkara outside of Japan, we have focused on telling the story of tenkara, on sharing the fascinating layers of a method that has been practiced in Japan for centuries. I have gone to Japan numerous times and have spent a lot of time with multiple tenkara masters to learn the method as a whole. I did that to learn things that I couldn’t have learned otherwise, and to share the story with anyone who is interested.

Through tenkara, we have learned that we can make nets out of one branch of a tree. We have learned about flies made from snake skin, and flies made with dubbing from a plant. And, we have learned that most Japanese tenkara anglers of nowadays, perhaps largely influenced by their commercial angler predecessors, use only one fly pattern and focus on learning and refining technique rather than second-guessing fly choice. We also learned that a tenkara rod is just a tool, and in the end ANY fly will work. These are things I have shared on this blog for no purpose other than tell the true story of a method of fishing that I find fascinating, and perhaps to inspire folks to realize how simple fly-fishing can be. It’s never to tell people to simplify their fishing, simply to say it is possible to simplify it.

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There is no way around it, it is very difficult to post about things as they happen when things are happening fast and the days are packed. It’s about 11:30PM right now and I finally was able to sit down. Among emails to respond to, the wish to review all the pictures and videos I have been capturing and the utmost desire to crash for the night, I’m left with three choices: writing quickly about several things that are happening (and hope to elaborate on them a bit more in a few days); try to write a more developed post about one topic (difficult to do when I’m tired); or not write at all. So, here goes a quick recap of the last couple of days.

Yesterday we got to spend a fair amount of time witnessing two unusual methods of catching the local Ayu. One is called takuri, which is diving for ayu and capturing them with grapple hooks. The other was done at night time, where the locals showed us an old method of catching large quantities of ayu in which they place large torches in different points of a large river pool; a net is stretched out in the middle of the river, and then the local fishermen will wave the torches, throw rocks in the water, etc, to scare the ayu toward the net. The method is no longer common practice, but done as a special event to maintain the tradition. Yesterday tour agents from throughout Japan showed up at the fishing center to observe it and hopefully add the attraction to their tours. They arrived in the middle of a huge downpour – though luckily the torches remained lit. Net fishing is certainly not a sport fishing activity, and not our cup of tea. Takuri fishing was VERY much a sport, and very unusual. Both were a fascinating demonstration of the inventiveness of humans when it comes to the activity of catching fish.

With the rains we have been experiencing here Margaret and I also spent sometime indoors yesterday. Luckily our “indoors” was the vast resource of the Mazegawa Fishing Center (Mizube no Yakata). As Margaret worked on emails, I browsed some books describing the variety of fishing methods in this country. Brain candy for sure! The illustration below is of a method called “tomozuri” for catching ayu, in which a live fish serves as a decoy to attract the wrath of another ayu, whose territoriality will prove to be its fate. The attacking fish is then hooked in the trailing hook and it will then become food.

Today we took a bit of a more adventurous path in our journey. I took Margaret on a “shower-climbing” and fishing trip. We rappelled down a 30ft waterfall to an otherwise inaccessible place. I had been to the top of these waterfalls numerous times when  I was here last year but never down to the good-looking and hope-inspiring spot below. Today I got to fish it, though lack of access did not mean superb fishing. We swam around the river as well to find fish below the surface, but the water was a bit murky from the rain in the last couple of days.

This is a beautiful, although small amago from Mazegawa.

After our shower-climbing expedition we hit one more spot in hopes of being rewarded with plenty of amago or iwana. None took our flies, not a bite! But, I did capture some good video of my friend Shintaro Kumazaki and really enjoyed the company and watching his technique. I’ll try to post the videos I took of him pretty soon.

After fishing I asked Shintaro if he’d be willing to tie one of his tenkara flies for the camera, and he agreed. Shintaro’s parents own a tackle shop in Hagiwara. He has been tying tenkara flies for sometime now and actually sells them for ¥350 (about $4.5 per fly). We headed over to their store and Shintaro showed us how he ties his main fly. Video to come soon.

Of course, the day would not be complete without …a visit to the onsen (hot springs). No photos of that, but man, was that ever good after such a packed day!

Yesterday we shared with you the news of a new release in the world of tenkara, “Tying Tenkara Flies” a DVD produced by LearnTenkara.com (available for sale at learntenkara.com and soon here at Tenkara USA). This is by far the best fly-tying DVD ever produced, and we’re lucky it is about tenkara flies. Brian Flemming, the producer and cinematographer, shared one of the entire videos with us for today’s Tenkara Flies on Wednesdays.

In today’s video I share a basic tenkara fly pattern, my variation of Mr. Amano’s tenkara fly. I use peacock herl as the collar and whatever feather and line they had on hand when I tied the video – I believe it was partridge for the feather and silk line. Coincidentally, as we’re just about to board a plane for the second Tenkara Summit, this video was shot on my last day in Montana after last year’s Tenkara Summit. I came over to Brian’s house to make this video just hours before departing Montana. It was probably midnight when we started shooting and even with the shot of whiskey and being super tired, I am glad to see my speech wasn’t too slurred.

Enjoy it.

Written by Jason

At some point in every fly angler’s life they consider tying their own flies. For some, this happens right at the beginning. For others, it might be after years of fly fishing. If you’ve ever browsed through all the fly tying tools and materials at your local fly shop, it might seem a little intimidating (and expensive). But luckily, tenkara flies are simple and require only minimal tools and materials, making them an excellent gateway into the wonderful pursuit of fly tying.

I’m often asked what tools are necessary to get started in fly tying so I thought it would be helpful to put together a basic list. These are only my recommendations. Others might suggest different tools but the ones I’m about to list will allow you to start immediately tying your own tenkara flies.
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Yesterday I was able to spend time with the well known Mr. Katsutoshi Amano. One of the few people considered to be a living tenkara master in Japan, Amano-sensei is very well known in fishing circles in Japan. He may be the longest-living practitioner of tenkara in Japan. And, his fly-tying is very simple and interesting, for he uses no vise, and eyeless-hooks.

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Some people consider winter the fly-tying season, thus our recent posts on tenkara fly-tying. With the very large number of new tenkara adopters and readers of our blog since this the post below, I thought it would be appropriate to “recycle” a previous post on “Tenkara Flies analyzed”. This is not to form a habit, but there is some really good content in past posts…maybe a book in the making?

Originally posted on June 25th, 2009. Slightly edited here:

While the most characteristic tenkara flies are the so-called “sakasa kebari”, or reverse hackle flies, these are not the only type of fly used in tenkara. Over the years, Mr. Yoshikazu Fujioka, from the website “My Best Mountain Streams”, has researched and collected traditional tenkara flies from different regions of Japan. Now, Fujioka sensei gives us a very nice, yet, tenkara-like simple, analysis of tenkara flies. Like classifying western flies into “dry”, “wet”, “nymphs”, etc, his analysis focuses specifically on tenkara flies and what pattern styles are commonly found in the hands of tenkara anglers. These should serve as a good foundation to better understanding tenkara flies (if one chooses to, understanding this is not really necessary to be a successful angler). As shown in his graphic chart, even the sakasa kebari come in different forms and with different characteristics (soft hackle/stiff hackle, thick body/thin body and short/long hackle).

Typically, an experienced tenkara angler will use one pattern only. Over time, an angler will acquire preferences for a specific fly type, and will have his sole “go-to” fly, maybe a couple of different sizes and colors, but the same pattern. Not all tenkara anglers use the same fly, but each one tends to stick with only one style. Some may believe a fly with soft hackle will be more “fluid”, softer and thus may be more attractive; other people may believe a stiffer hackle facing forward is better. There is even an angler who uses snake skin to tie his flies, and he believes the reflection of the snake skin attracts fish (we just think it is a cool story!). This is largely personal preference, or maybe because of that “one great day with the one fly” they experienced.

The complete analysis of tenkara fly by Fujioka sensei can be found on the pdf document. It’s very informative and thorough, yet simple as it should be.

Today we have a great video showing the simplicity of tenkara fly-tying. It was shot with a 100mm macro lens in real time, not edited, with the fly being tied beginning to end. This is the only pattern that I use. Trout in faster flowing mountain streams, the only places I fish, can’t afford to be that selective, thus a generic fly pattern such as this will work very well. This was taught to me by Dr. Hisao Ishigaki, the leading tenkara master in Japan.

One of the reasons I created Tenkara USA is because I really like introducing friends to things that I love, tenkara fly-fishing, tenkara rods, tenkara nets, now tenkara tea!

Drinking high-quality green tea has long been an obsession of mine, and most recently Dr. Ishigaki turned me on to ground green tea. As luck would have it, shortly after I discovered ground green tea, a tenkara angler put me in touch with a distributor of this type of tea. I wasn’t looking for it, it just found me. So I thought, how cool would it be to make our own label and give people a chance to try it. One of the most soothing elements of Japanese culture, especially now in the fly-tying season. I hope you’ll enjoy it as much as I do. We’re offering this for a very limited time, unless there is strong demand, for only $15 for the tea, a Tenkara Tea can, and a neat bamboo whisk.  Tenkara Tea

Here is a video I made especially for the occasion.

Following up on Dr. Hisao Ishigaki’s visit to the Catskills in May, we just posted a movie preview of our upcoming movie on Dr. Ishigaki’s visit marking the introduction of tenkara to the US.

During his visit, Dr. Ishigaki did a fly-tying demonstration of the one and ONLY pattern he’s used for almost 10 years, a “sakasa” fly pattern (reversed hackle). He first learned about this fly in a shop in Japan, and after some years of fishing several different patterns was quickly attracted to its simplicity,sparseness, and soon its effectiveness. It’s a very simple and quick fly to tie.

This one-fly approach puzzled many of the present guests, particularly since he expressed his philosophy and theories in an area known for its fly-tiers and the invention of a multitude of fly-patterns. A doctor in the field of vision studies, Dr. Ishigaki bases his theory on the fact that a fish’s vision is very poor, and it will go for anything moving nearby, and also on the fact that despite of only using one fly-pattern he’s continued to catch as many fish as he ever did when using several different patterns. The instincts of a trout won’t allow it to waste an opportunity to grab food.

As Dr. Ishigaki says, in tenkara “it’s all about technique; whether one catches fish or not is entirely up to him, not the gear, not even the fly.” The main appeal of tenkara to Dr. Ishigaki and many other tenkara anglers is its simplicity. He fully embraces the simplicity in fishing with only a rod, line and a fly. But, he takes it further than many dare.

The idea of limiting yourself to only the most basic elements of fly-fishing and fully dedicating yourself to technique and presentation is appealing! This experience really got me thinking, what if I could only carry one fly? Would I still be able to catch fish? It is hard, VERY HARD in fact, to stick with only one fly. I have been trying it, but it takes a level of confidence, or discipline, I don’t yet have.

John Steinback once wrote, “It has always been my private conviction that any man who pits his intelligence against a fish and loses has it coming”. Maybe intelligence also involves selecting the right fly, but, maybe switching flies is just…the easy way out.