Just wanted to let everyone know that Tenkara Guides, LLC will be launching our new (and much improved) website this Saturday, March 31.

We crammed a lot of new info into this website, but did our best to keep it simple and easy to navigate. In addition to our Trips and Tricks posts, the new website includes pages on Tenkara History, the One Fly Philosophy, traditional tenkara and other techniques, etc. If you're not so much of a reader, there's plenty of pictures!

The new website also includes a fully integrated Summit 2012 page, with links to lodging, camping, obtaining a Utah license, and Tenkara USA's RSVP page (RSVP is highly recommended).

Hope you guys like it,

Rob

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Rob Worthing
rob@tenkaraguides.com

We made it. Officially beat the midnight time stamp.

The site is up.

We've got a ton of new stuff for you. In addition to the standard guide business stuff, we have a complete page on the 2012 Tenkara summit - a complete page with all the links and information you could possibly need.

We also have our Ten Colors section where we talk in depth about Traditional Tenkara, Hybrid Euro nymphing, and Hybrid Western techniques.

Also, check out our Trips & Tricks page (aka our Blog). Like it, tweet it, post comments, or just read it. Don't forget to add it to your Google Reader, or just update your link.

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Tenkara Guides

Looks nice. Thanks for the heads up on the site change.

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Thomis
lifefliesandtrout.com

Looks pretty good guys.

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2012 Days Fishing - 18/366
Iwana : Series I : 11 ft ◊ Iwana : Series II : 12 ft

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Hey thanks, JD.

We worked really hard trying to put together the info we wanted to share in a logical sequence and format. Keep checking back, cause there will be a lot of illustrative graphics and videos added to the text in the near future.

We decided not to do a forum right now. But we can start a lot of discussion, answer questions, etc. through replies. Spam has already been a problem, so we will have to verify that you are a real person before your first post will be published. After that, you should be good to go.

To answer your other question, the three of us are pretty different people with different interests and motivations. I think that's why we work so well together. We all use a variety of techniques to different degrees. I'll give you my personal answer, and let the other guys chime in if they want:

I fish because I love the outdoors. I prefer fishing One Fly, because I feel closer to the outdoors unencumbered by gear. Same reason why I'm an ultralight backpacker. My kebari box has one pattern in two colors and three sizes. I fish One Fly more than anything else.

I am a firm believer in the process of the One Fly Philosophy.

But I also try not to take the philosophy too seriously. I like switching it up, fishing a lot of different waters for different species with different techniques. This keeps fly fishing fun and lighthearted for me. I've lived, worked in the wilderness, and fished in a lot of places around the world. I like applying the knowledge gained through that experience in new ways. That is what our Ten Colors concept is all about.

I also think a little variety helps me become a better traditional Tenkara angler. I expand on this a bit more on the Euro Nymph intro page. Comparing different techniques, distilling them down to their basic fish-tricking elements, has given me a better understanding of what catching fish is all about. The idea is similar to the Greek concept of Dialectics - you don't really know what you know and don't know until you openly discuss it.

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Rob Worthing
rob@tenkaraguides.com

Traditional Tenkara is a wonderful technique and highly effective for the waters it was designed for - fast flowing mountain streams. When I fish those waters I adhere to strictly to traditional Tenkara techniques.

However, I often fish other waters besides fast flowing mountain streams. I utilize Tenkara techniques, but blend them with Western or Euro techniques. The blend of the the techniques is the key. Without understanding traditional Tenkara I would not be as an effective angler as I believe I am.

Tenkara rods are not tools, but a philosophy that I believe is not specifically limited to one pattern or method. We've all seen the video of Dr. Ishigaki using an indicator, right? However, he still utilized Tenkara techniques.

Our focus on discussing the other techniques was to bring attention to hybrid fishing techniques where the Tenkara philosophy is applied. I strongly believe that Tenkara is the same wether you're using a single dry pattern or a single kebari pattern. Remember, there is much variation within kebari - some dry, some wet, some forward hackle, some reverse hackle, etc... As such, I believe there is much variation in applying Tenkara techniques.

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Tenkara Guides

Hey there JD,

John here from Tenkara Guides.

Rob really put it best, Tenkara Guides crew are three very different people with an incredibly diverse list of backgrounds and achievements in life as well as fishing. What is amazing is that we would have never found each other and have become the best of friends and business partners without the connecting thread of Tenkara.

We each subscribe to our own individual tenkara philosophy and we also have a common tenkara business philosophy. The two are very different things.

My personal tenkara philosophy is to totally embrace, learn, and master the traditional tenkara methods as taught to me personally by Dr. Ishigaki and Daniel Galhardo. I am a lifelong practioner of traditional Japanese Swordsmanship (Iaido) and because of that, I have a very strong personal/spiritual connection to the most sacred of Japanese martial traditions and carry the awesome responsibility to preserve and pass on those traditions to future generations.

I have taken the same approach to traditional tenkara. it is my personal obligation to help develop, preserve, and teach an ancient tradition in it's entirety to future generations. With that said, I prefer to fish traditional tenkara when I fish for myself.

Now guiding as a profession and a business is something entirely different.

We tailor a guided trip to the individual person. If you want to learn traditional tenkara, we teach traditional tenkara, if you want to lean something new we have that also.

We have had to develop the hybrid techniques in order to ensure that paying customers can achieve the highest success rate possible while on a guided trip. It really started out that simple but it has evolved into something else.

We call it Ten Colors.

Erik and Rob show true genius when it comes to the development of what is becoming the "American Tenkara Method" for lack of a better term. They have worked hard to combine traditional tenkara, euro nymphing, and western fly fishing techniques into this new hybrid method of fishing that truly extraordinary in it's own right. Ten Colors is new, it is original, it is awesome in it's versatility and ability to catch fish. Stay tuned to our website as we roll this out and book a trip with us to see it in action and learn it directly from those that have developed it.

So there you have it, a total hodgepodge of personalities, philosophies, and life experiences that have combined to not only totally embrace traditional tenkara but also to develop a complete fishing method that is unique, new, and as diverse as the three guys who are creating it. A Physician, an Engineer, a Helicopter Pilot, all connected to each other by a tenkara rod. Ten Colors not only describes our hybrid fishing method, it describes us as a collection of people.

John

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Tenkara Guides LLC

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"The reverse side also has a reverse side"