Written by Daniel Tenkara USA was just awarded a "Best of Show" award at the International Fly Tackle Dealer show (IFTD)!!! Wohooo! We received the prize for "Best Gift" for the 12ft Iwana tenkara rod, a tenkara line and tenkara flies.
Many people realized that a tenkara rod, tenkara line and tenkara flies make up for the best gift. Either they will be something the experienced fly angler will not already have, or it will be the ideal gift to get someone started into fly fishing.
Here is the Tenkara USA team with the award: (left) Thomas Ferreira (TJ), Daniel, and Masaki Nakano
We also submitted one of our rods as a "Best Freshwater Fly Rod" category. That was a tough one to compete in given that we were going head to head with all the conventional 9ft fly rods in the market. I knew the chances of that prize were extremely slim, but as they did not have a category for "Best Mountain Stream Fly Rod" that was our only chance.
When I asked my friend Tom Sadler what he thought the odds were of the tenkara rod winning the category prize, his response was "exactly the same as the percentage of people doing tenkara within the of fly-fishing".