I just landed back in San Francisco a few hours ago. I find myself a bit dizzy from all the travelling and the jet-lag. And, to be honest, my entire experience in these last 2 weeks has just been so beyond my expectations that it is a bit overwhelming trying to digest it all. But, I figure I have to start somewhere. I plan to slowly publish my experiences, techniques I learned, new insights, interviews, videos, and anything I can share with you.

Daniel with an Amago

Maybe it was growing up watching Karate Kid and other martial arts movies where the pupil goes off to live in a remote mountain village in Asia to train with a well-known master, but for many days I felt like I was living a dream that had been engrained in my mind from my early years, the stuff of a movie. Now that I think of it, it is natural it would be fishing, not martial arts, that I’d be pursuing knowledge of. A couple of days ago my mind brought back the memory of fishing with my dad, watching someone catching a lot of fish, and my dad telling me that if I wanted to learn how to fish I should ask a Japanese person how he does it – the region I grew up in has a very large Japanese immigrant population, and there has always been a stereotype held by my dad, possibly a fact, that the Japanese were incredible anglers. Many years later I am blessed to have the opportunity to go to Japan specifically to learn tenkara directly from the master, Ishigaki-sensei, as well as many other very gifted anglers such as Yoshikazu Fujioka and Sakakibara Masami (aka Tenkarano-oni). I may be the first westerner to have ever received such in-depth focused training in the art and techniques of tenkara. For most of the last 2 weeks I was taken under the wings of the most renowned authority on tenkara in Japan, Dr. Hisao Ishigaki (hereby referred to as Ishigaki-sensei, as he has become my de facto teacher). I learned more about pure tenkara than I could ever have imagined I would.

Ishigaki sensei focusing on the water

Iwana

Daniel, Ishigaki-sensei, Fujioka-sensei, Chikara

Sakakibara Masami (aka Tenkara no Oni)

I spent many days fishing with Ishigaki-sensei: observing, learning, being observed and unequivocally taught. I also met some of the most well-known people in the world of tenkara at in Japan and was extremelly welcomed by the anglers and communites of the Itoshiro and Mase (Masegawa) rivers: being interviewed a couple of times and appearing at a local newspaper. I was also received as a guest of honor at the “Itoshiro Fisher’s Holiday”, an annual gathering cellebrating the beautiful Itoshiro river, one of the first “Catch-and-Release” rivers in Japan, and even gave a brief speech at one of the biggest tenkara events in the country.

Saitou Shouichi, one of the event's founders and organizer

Angler's barbecue - very well organized

During the event I sought feedback from many people present, and Tenkara USA’s rods, lines and flies were carefully reviewed by some of the most demanding tenkara anglers in the world, dully critiqued (which will only make our rods even better in the future), but an attestment to our products, they received a big nod of approval by people who take tenkara very seriously! Receiving this type of feedback is extremelly valuable, and I’m grateful to have made those connections.
A few of the things I plan to write about in coming days are:

- Interview with Ishigaki-sensei: We spent many hours driving around and having very in-depth conversations about tenkara in the car. These conversations allowed me to ask some questions that bring out a lot of insight and philosophy from the master, as well as the modern history of tenkara in Japan and other things. He also discusses his scientific experiments on fish and anglers.

- Tenkara nets: Japanese design has yet to disappoint me, specially when it comes to its “practical simple elegance”. I have not been so enamoured with something since my “discovery” of tenkara rods. Being in the center of tenkara in Japan, I was able to learn quite a bit about tenkara nets, and their extremelly simple nature, and very organic design has left me in awe, which I hope to share with you.

- Tenkara flies: The simplicity of tenkara is summed by the fact that all you need is a rod, line and A fly. More commonly than I had thought almost all tenkara anglers use one pattern only (whatever their chosen one is). It is very common practice among all tenkara anglers to rely purely on their techniques to find and entice fish, not on changing flies. At this point I have become a firm believe in this approach on faster flowing streams. While anglers will debate which fly works best – some may prefer a fly tied using the skin of a poisonous snake (more on this later), others may use the natural dubbing from the flowering fern (zenmai), and others may just use cheap thread and a simple hackle – it’s widely accepted that one fly is all you need.

- Fishing techniques: The techniques used in tenkara are generally simple, but they are the main pillar of tenkara fly-fishing. Technique, not gear, should be the focus of any activity, although modern society has tended to put a premium on the latter. Relying on gear, even on changing fly patterns, not only detracts from the experience, but also from one’s growth as an angler. I plan to share the techniques I learned in Japan, they work on any faster flowing stream. And, anyone can do well with them and one fly.

- Tenkara bamboo rods: You used to think split-cane rods are nice, well, I’ll tell you, tenkara bamboo rods crafted by a good craftsmen, are just masterpieces. I have next to me what are probably 2 of less than a handful of tenkara rods outside of Japan, and they are just sweet, simple crafts. Made by Dr. Ichi Hashi, a Pediatrician in nearby Gujo, they are wonderful works. Why split something that works so well as given by nature?

- Landing fish technique: While very intuitive, the big lessons here were slow it down! Bring the fish to a shallower part of the water. Let it calm down by holding the line (trust the tippet) and net it. No more lost fish at the last second.

Iwana

- Travelling and fishing in Japan: Japan is likely the best country in the world for small stream fishing. Many people I talk to say their first love is small stream fishing, but if they ever travel is to pursue big fish in tropical countries. Japan is a wonderful country to experience, and the small stream fishing there is top-notch. I’ll try sharing some advice.

As some of you may have noticed, Tenkara USA rolled out its new dealer program a couple of weeks ago. The demand from stores to carry our products has been incredible from the beginning. As many of them have said over and over again, there hasn’t been anything really new in the industry in many years, and tenkara is just that. In light of that, we decided to slowly start offering our products to stores with a physical retail location, so that you may go visit them and feel the rods for yourself.

Many dealers share our perception that tenkara may be something that was missing in the sport, a simpler fly-fishing alternative. The number of new participants in the sport has been minimal, which translates into a very slow and mature industry, and in turn brings few new things to the market, and also makes it hard to continually attract customers back into the fly shop. Based on our customer demographics, largely comprise of anglers with MANY years of experience, or outdoor enthusiasts completely new to fly-fishing, we believe tenkara is something that will excite loyal long-time fly shop customers and will open the doors to many new enthusiasts.

Creative Sports, Lois (manager) and Jamie (owner)

Tenkara USA will be working with the best independent fly shops in select regions. The first stores to start carrying our products are: The Bear’s Den (Taunton, MA), Creative Sports Fly Shop(Pleasant Hill, CA), Wildfly/Campsaver (Logan, UT), Mossy Creek Fly Fishing (Harrisonburg, VA)  . These shops are great at what they do, have a good reputation in their markets, and above all, are as enthusiastic about tenkara as we are. We will not push our products to any store, so if you see our products in a store, it’s because its owners got the concept and have become fans of tenkara too. These dealers understand the importance of something new in the industry, but most importantly they find the simplicity of tenkara refreshing and see the great effectiveness of using a long rod with no reel. We’re proud to work with them, and hope they don’t blame us when their western rods, and reels start accumulating dust.

Tenkara USA is now available internationally.

Customers in Canada, the UK, and Western Europe will now be able to take advantage of our new distribution centers in Vancouver and the UK for cheaper shipping rates, faster delivery and no customs/ duty hassles. We’re very proud that word on tenkara has been quickly reaching many parts of the globe. The great international demand we have experienced has prompted us to make it easier for our international customers to order from us. At this point we’re making products available in limited quantities, and customers may order tenkara rods, tenkara lines, and tenkara flies as well as replacement tips for their rods. DVDs, t-shirts, and wallets are not currently available.

We’re currently working on making our site available in multiple languages as well, so stay tuned. If you’re interested in helping translate Tenkara USA into your language, we’d love to hear from you by email.

This weekend, the world’s foremost authority on tenkara fishing, Dr. Hisao Ishigaki, came to the Catskills and gave a fascinating presentation at the Catskills Fly-Fishing Center and Museum (CFFCM). Dr. Ishigaki gave a thorough lecture on tenkara’s history and technique and a fly-tying demonstration that taught something unique to even the most experienced fly-tiers. He also gave an on-stream demonstration that awed close to 50 participants, including one of the most recognized names of fly-casting, Joan Wulff.

Dr. Ishigaki in the Catskills

Dr. Ishigaki is the most recognized name in tenkara fishing in Japan. He is the author of 5 books on tenkara and numerous articles for Japanese fishing magazines. He also advises a major internationally recognized Japanese tackle manufacturer on the design of its tenkara rods. Dr. Ishigaki is a professor at the Aichi Institute of Technology, in Japan, and tenkara fishing is a great passion of his, from which he makes no money.

East meets West in fly-fishing
Saturday’s event was a day when “East met West”, as participants witnessed the meeting of two giants in the world of fly-fishing, Dr. Ishigaki and Ms. Joan Wulff. Joan Wulff, one of the most recognized names in Western fly-fishing, tried her hand at casting with a tenkara rod, showing at once that tenkara fishing is no “cane-pole fishing”. She quickly adjusted to casting with a tenkara rod and formed a nice and tight loop, turning the line and fly over.

Joan Wulff getting a lesson in tenkara casting

One fly pattern
Before his presentation and on-stream demonstration, Dr. Ishigaki gave a fly-tying demonstration that mesmerized people for its simplicity and pragmatic approach. For many years, Dr. Ishigaki has only been using ONE fly pattern, a very simple traditional tenkara pattern with sparse hackle. Some of the participants could not grasp the concept of only using one pattern for all situations.

As Dr. Ishigaki tells the story, many years ago, he too was concerned with fly patterns and matching the hatch, until he walked into a store and saw an extremelly simple tenkara pattern. He tried it and caught as many fish by using only this one pattern as he ever has. He used it again, and continued catching as many fish. Then, he was given a white fly that he thought would never catch fish, and was hesitant to even tie it on, but on one occasion was forced to use it as he had no more flies left; again, he caught as many fish with it as he ever had.

He formed the hypothesis that it did not matter what shape, color or perhaps even what size the fly was. Then, he conducted scientific studies to prove that, and he concluded that fish’s vision is relatively poor and their instinct will make them go for anything moving underwater. It should be noted that Dr. Ishigaki is a leading specialist in the field of “Visual Training”, which is used regularly by different groups of individuals, including professional athletes, and he used that to study the vision of fish, particularly mountain trout. Ever since then, he’s been tying one fly pattern, which takes seconds to tie, and many times is tied using only black thread from a $1 store, and some rooster hackle.

Tying Sakasa tenkara fly

Traditional tenkara fly

Participants also drooled over Dr. Ishigaki's beautiful fly box and other accessories

Fishing with Tenkara USA
Daniel W. Galhardo, founder of Tenkara USA, got a chance to spend a considerable amount of time with Dr. Ishigaki over the weekend, soon taking the liberty of calling him “tenkara no oto-san” (tenkara father), and being called “tenkara no musuko” (tenkara son).

On Friday, the day before the event,  Daniel and Dr. Ishigaki discussed the design of tenkara rods and the beginnings of tenkara in the US. Dr. Ishigaki also carefully reviewed each of the rods we offer or plan to offer in the near future, giving them very high-praise for their action and high quality. This did not surprise us, but was indeed a real honor coming from someone of his caliber.

Dr. Ishigaki reviews and approves our rods

On Sunday we spent time fishing with, filming and interviewing Dr. Ishigaki, Ms. Misako Ishimura, the organizer of the event and the exhibit at the CFFCM on fly-fishing “Made in Japan”, and Mr. Chris Stewart, one of the earliest adopters of tenkara fishing in the USA, who is from New York and was also present for the weekend’s event. We also got a unique chance to see Dr. Ishigaki fishing very tight streams with his 15ft. rod, and saw him skillfully fighting and landing trout 16 – 18 inches, while using 30ft of level line.

After filming and lunch, Daniel and his wife Margaret went fishing with Dr. Ishigaki. They found a small stream with moss-covered boulders and small pools, which made Dr. Ishigaki feel right at home for its similarities to streams in Japan. There were mayflies and small yellow stoneflies hatching, but they sticked to the simple tenkara motto of simplicity and never tied anything on but a simple tenkara fly, the only fly pattern Dr. Ishigaki ever uses. They fished the stream until past sunset with the master of tenkara fishing, and are extremely honored to have had the opportunity.

More coming soon on the techniques we learned, including tying, using level lines, knots, and handling fish.

*Note: The presentation on tenkara fishing was sponsored and organized by the Catskills Fly Fishing Center and Museum, not by Tenkara USA. We’d like to thank Ms. Misako Ishimura  for organizing the event and serving as the translator.