Announcing our first issue of mounTEN! The official “e-zine” of Tenkara USA. Look for it on the TENth of every month, each issue is a collection of essays, interviews, how-to’s, and philosophical thoughts on the tenkara lifestyle in TEN spreads. At the end of the zine will be an installment of Up TENkara Creek, a new comic about the history and story of tenkara. We have designed the comic to be printable as a coloring page. Download it here and break out the colored pencils and crayons

Besides the blog posts below, here you’ll find the newest content from Tenkara USA:

Tenkara Cast – our podcast

The Tenkara Cast features conversations about technique, gear and philosophy, and now also features conversations with Trout Unlimited chapters across the US.

• Tenkara in the Wind + Idaho TU

  Tenkara in the Wind + Idaho TU

  Fishing in windy days can be tricky, but it can be done. Today we share some tips on fishing in windy days: how to cast against the wind, how to not fight it, and how to...

• Bikefishing + Central Jersey Trout Unlimited

  Bikefishing + Central Jersey Trout Unlimited

  Biking and tenkara are a perfect combination. In this episod, Daniel talks to Russ Roca of the blog PathLessPedaled.com about #bikefishing and how to combine tenkara and...

• 5 Tips for Avoiding Frustrations with Tenkara...

  5 Tips for Avoiding Frustrations with Tenkara...

  Learn some tips to help you avoid frustrations on your next tenkara outing and also listen to a conversation with Colorado Trout Unlimited to learn about their...

Run, Fish, Beer! That’s the tagline for the Flyathlon, an event that brings together people to run a race, catch a fish, and at the end of the day enjoy a cold beer…all the while raising money to protect native trout. On August 11, 2018, 60 participants ran the race in a remote location and caught brook trout as well as the native cutthroat of the area. Several of them used tenkara in their race. And, overall, that event raised over $22,000 for native trout conservation efforts too! Talk about a triathlon!

Tenkara rods are very easy to use and are pretty strong. Some common problems with tenkara rods are very easy to avoid or deal with. In this video, John Geer from Tenkara USA’s customer service team, will walk you through some of the common problems seen on a tenkara rod, how to avoid problems while using your tenkara rod, and how to troubleshoot and fix any problems you may encounter with your tenkara rod.
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And of course, if your tenkara rod has the Tenkara USA name on its label, you can always count on our customer support to take care of you, that’s our Tenkara Care™ guarantee.
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To learn more about tenkara rods, or for help from our customer service team, visit www.tenkarausa.com or call 888.i.tenkara (888.483.6527)

If you’re into running, be prepared for some awesome tenkara + running videos we will be publishing in the next few days. If you’re not into running….you may just get inspired to combine tenkara + running after you watch these videos.

Here’s the first one. This film was created by Erica Mellon with tenkara guide Brittany Aäe, who wrote and narrated the story. Brittany combines tenkara fly-fishing and running to access further places and deeper senses and in this film she also shares a beautiful story.

Make sure to have the sound on!

We Thought We Were People – A Film by Erica Mellon

Tenkara USA’s designer, Jeremy Shellhorn, sits streamside and lets nature inspire his work as he takes viewers along his drawing process.
Jeremy’s work beautifully captures the essence of tenkara. One guiding principle in much of his art is “mujo”, the Japanese concept of leaving things incomplete and giving as much importance to what is left out as to what is drawn.

In Search of Tenkara is a series of videos where people capture what makes tenkara unique and what its essence may be.

Our newest video, in which tenkara guide Allie Marriott will guide on through the process of choosing a tenkara rod, is now up. I hope this helps make the process a bit easier:

Kauai Trout with the Hane

by Adam Trahan

I enjoy tenkara in far away places, and Kauai has been on my list to for quite some time. Tenkara USA recently released the Hane, a compact and robust tenkara rod; my trip to Kauai would be a great inaugural adventure for mine. As with any far away trip, I planned this one out months in advance, but I knew I would be using this rod as soon as I saw it the first time.

Trout are not native to Hawaii. They have been introduced. There are trout on at least four of the islands, O’ahu, Maui, Kauai and the big island. The original stocking of the streams in Kauai are well documented and were studied over a hundred years ago. At this time, there are at least three streams on Kauai that contain trout. The trout in these streams are “wild” trout naturally reproducing from the original stocking in 1920. At that time, 50,000 rainbow trout eggs that originated from Montana and Utah arrived in Honolulu harbor on a ship that carried them from California. The eggs were then transported to Kauai were they were taken to a hatchery to hatch the trout fry for introduction into the headwater streams of Waimea Canyon.

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Our 2-week long trip to Japan is now over. At the end of the trip we experienced the beginning of the rains that have been ravaging Western Japan. In fact, the night before we left we were at a guest house having dinner as heavy rain fell outside. Our hostess came to inform us that there was a chance the river nearby, the Maze, could flood and she explained the contingency plan. It was not likely she said, but just in case there was an alarm they would guide us to the school on the hill nearby.

The Maze, a river we had fished just the day before, didn’t flood, but much of the areas around where we were experienced landslides and devastating floods. The disaster has been hardest felt farther west from where we were. Our hearts are with the people as they deal with the difficulties of yet another disaster. We were lucky to escape unharmed. It has been bittersweet to get to the comfort of my dry home knowing people are suffering. But, as I review footage and images from another good trip to Japan I keep the Japanese people in my heart.

Today I worked on a short film where I was able to capture an epic fight Dr. Ishigaki had with a large rainbow trout in Hokkaido. I wish my microphone was closer to hear his tenkara rod singing, as I am sure it did. I hope you’ll enjoy the short film above.

If you’re interested in helping, here’s some information on relief efforts taking place.

If you have been following us on social media, you may know that I am currently on a 2-week long trip to a few areas of Japan. As usual, I have come here on my annual pilgrimage “in search of tenkara”.

The trip so far has been a lot of fun. My fishing has been concentrated in the northern island of Hokkaido, where we are finding some large fish and few anglers.

Throughout the trip, I’m planning to create podcast episodes and videos as time allows. So far I have uploaded two episodes of my podcast, the Tenkara Cast. I’m naming this series of episodes the “Japan Cast 2018″, where I share my experiences with anyone interested in learning more about tenkara or Japan. It is my hope to bring you through the journey of learning tenkara from the source, and really explore several concepts around the method.

You can follow the podcast here: Tenkara Cast, Japan Cast episodes

Also, be sure to follow us on Instagram, as that’s a very quick way to see the photos I take as I go.