From the fwiw department - some of my discoveries from searching around for what tamo means.
The Japanese term I generally find when looking for the tamo as applied to the fishing net for tenkara fishing is this term - タモ , Tamo. Sometimes this gets translated as 'Tamo and sometimes google translates it as ' Ash' as in ash wood.
Another term for tamo I have found is this one - たも , Ta mo. It almost always translates as ' dip net'. But google searches are weird. Search this term once and I get lots of fishing nets. Search it again and I get almost anything but fishing nets. Google's history of previous searches often hinders more than helps.

Yet time and again google will translate the term as ' dip net'.
So maybe there is a bit of a play on words here. A dip net made from ash wood frame.
If I search only on the term tamo, タモ, I get lots of pictures of wood or wood furniture. If I want to find the tamo for fishing nets I have to add other terms to tamo to get the fishing nets.
タモ枠 , Tamo-waku , gets translated as ' ash frame' or ' tamo frame'. A google search gives me lots of pictures of many types of fishing nets.
テンカラのタモ枠 , Tenkara no Tamo-waku . Tenkara tamo frame. Search results are mostly of what we are talking about here. A wooden framed fishing net as used by tenkara fishermen.
Same with this term. 渓流タモ, Keiryū Tamo. Translates as ' mountain stream tamo' or sometimes as ' ash stream'. The google search results are pretty good for the type of Tamo we are looking for here.
However, 渓流たも, Keiryū Ta mo, translates weird but the google search results are pretty good at finding tenkara type fishing nets. If I search for テンカラたも , tenkara Ta mo. Google asks if I mean テンカラタモ, Tenkaratamo. Which gives poor search results. But change it to テンカラのタモ , Tenkara no Tamo , and the search results are pretty good.
タモ枠接合 , Tamo-waku setsugō. Tamo frame junction. ie where the ends are spliced together. Or perhaps also where deer antler ( 鹿角, Kadzuno ) is attached to the end of the handle.
And of course テンカラのタモ枠作り, Tenkara no Tamo-waku-tsukuri, = Making tenkara tamo frame.
And 渓流 タモ枠作り, Keiryū Tamo-waku-tsukuri. = making mountain stream tamo frame. Fun search results.
One can find fun interesting things. Like these 1/5 scale tamo frames.
http://translate.google.com/translate?h ... %2F01%2F09http://blogs.yahoo.co.jp/sinasoba314/archive/2012/01/11タモ網 , Tamo-mō . Tamo network or Tamo net.
Probably a better term is タモ網枠 , Tamo-mō-waku . Tamo net frame work ie ' tamo frame net'.
Better still 渓流タモ網枠 , Keiryū Tamo-mō-waku. "mountain stream tamo frame net".
Anyway, the point I'm trying to make is that the term Tamo, タモ, seems to be more related to wood than it is to the Tenkara fishing Tamo specifically. In playing around with the Japanese language I have found that what a term means or how it is defined changes a lot depending upon other terms found somewhere in the sentence in which it is used.
There is also this term- タモ枠 (鮎用) , Tamo-waku (ayu-yō). Tamo frame ( for Ayu) . Similar net frames, but larger diameter.

Another fun term is タモ網 柄 , Tamo-mō-gara , literally Tamo net handle.
Another very similar term to Tamo, タモ is ダモ, Damo. Looks almost the same but the first term is written a little different. Not sure what the difference is but if I search the term I find fishing nets or rather replacement nets. I often see the term ダモ in the description of tamo nets.

An example is seen in the description of the replacement nets on this web page:
http://orange.zero.jp/zaw13753.wing/ego ... a/3-2.htmlhttp://translate.google.com/translate?s ... 2F3-2.htmlSearching for the term 渓流ダモ or written the other way round ダモ渓流 , both translate the same as , Keiryū damo = mountain stream damo. I find I get mostly pictures of the round net mesh as is attached to tenkara tamo net frames. Or also Ayu tamo net frames. They seem to be the same design just the Tenkara tamo are smaller in diameter.
A google search on the term 渓流ダモ , Keiryū Damo
http://www.google.com/search?q=%E6%B8%9 ... 49&bih=434 
A mystery to me thus far. Maybe damo is just tamo with an accent

the same way Yankees mispronounce many words with ' i ' in them . Like Hi or five or nine.
