Tenkara

It's not the simplicity of the gear that makes tenkara interesting, it's the complexity of what you can do with it.

Tenkara is the modern Japanese version of the earliest fly fishing. People have been fly fishing for thousands of years. And for thousands of years, a rod, a line and a fly were all they had - and all they needed.

The fly reel is a relatively modern invention, and it offers a significant advantage - holding extra line so a fisherman can make long casts and a hooked fish can make long runs. With every advance, though, something gets left behind.

In fly fishing, what got left behind was the ability to get drag-free drifts in tricky currents by keeping a light line off the water's surface. Well beyond just getting drag-free drifts, though, is the ability to control the path and action of the fly as it drifts, which you really can't do nearly as well if you have yards of fly line floating on the river's surface.

Also, the direct connection between the angler and the fish was lost when fish started pulling against the drag instead of the rod.

In Japan, tenkara has been used for hundreds of years to fish in small, high gradient mountain streams. For small mountain streams, it really is an ideal way to fish. You don't make long casts and the fish don't make long runs, so you don't need a reel. There are cross currents everywhere and the long rod and light line make it much easier to get the precise drift you want or to keep a fly in an eddy. Because the line is off the water's surface, there is no need to mend. There is no excess fly line to get caught underfoot or get tangled in sticks and snags.

That lack of excess line to manage makes this the easiest way for a beginner to learn fly fishing. It is really pretty intuitive and a complete beginner can pick it up pretty quickly (without having to take expensive casting lessons).

In tenkara fishing, the whole emphasis is on the fishing rather than the fly choice; on presentation rather than imitation. Matching the hatch is not emphasized. Interestingly, in Europe, which has an even longer tradition of fishing with a long rod and line tied to the rod tip, flies have been tied to match specific insects for almost 2000 years.

I suspect the different approach to fly design is based largely on the waters that were fished. The high gradient mountain streams of Japan are not very fertile so the food supply is limited. The fish could not afford to be picky eaters. In more fertile streams, trout can at times be very selective.

The rods are long - most are roughly 10.5 to 14.5 feet. Despite their length, they are very light, ranging from under 2 ounces up to perhaps 4 ounces for the heaviest rods. They are also telescopic, and most collapse to between 15" and 24", depending on the model. That makes them very easy to transport - whether walking down the trail to the next pool or taking on the plane in your carry-on luggage. They are so supple that they can subdue larger fish than you would expect and still protect very light tippets.

The lines are usually from about the length of the rod up to perhaps 1.5 times the length of the rod (to which anglers add perhaps 3 to 5 feet of tippet). However, the lines are are very light - lighter than the lightest fly line. The long rod and light line allow you to keep almost all your line off the water, greatly reducing drag. Reduced drag yields better presentation, better presentations yield more fish.

And as good as the drifts are with the traditional wet flies, using a tenkara rod with a dry fly, which is done but not common in Japan, and relatively short line will give you better drifts than you have ever achieved (and more fish as well).

Tenkara in Japan,  Tenkara in the US

On the whole, Japanese anglers use tenkara rods only for trout and only in mountain streams. Here in the US, just a few weeks after tenkara rods were first available, someone posted photos of some really impressive bluegills and largemouth bass that he'd caught with his new tenkara rod. From that day forward, people in the US have used tenkara rods to catch just about every fish that would take a fly and in just about any type of water - mountain streams, alpine lakes, warm water streams, farm ponds, the lake in the town park, wherever. One of the US tenkara companies even promotes salt water fishing (for bonefish, no less) with their tenkara rods. People have pushed the envelope in ways that would have been unimaginable in Japan.

To be sure, tenkara rods are not always the best tool. For carp fishing, there are carp rods. They look a lot like really long, really beefy tenkara rods, but they have the strength to battle carp. The situation is pretty much the same with salmon - there are fixed line rods designed specifically for salmon, and for big, hard-fighting fish they are truly a better choice.

For that matter, there are rods that are better than tenkara rods for fishing weighted nymphs, which is something nearly all American tenkara anglers do. Keiryu rods are used in Japan for bait fishing in mountain streams. Unlike tenkara rods, which are designed to fish unweighted flies, keiryu rods are designed to be fished with split shot. Whether the weight is a split shot or a bead head nymph, the physics are the same. Keiryu rods, in general, have firmer midsections, which makes it easier to get good hook sets when fishing with weighted flies.

Since the Japanese do not fish artificial flies with keiryu rods, they wouldn't call it keiryu fishing. However, since they don't fish weighted flies with tenkara rods, they wouldn't call it tenkara either. Similarly, since they don't use tenkara rods to fish for bluegills, or any other warm water species, they certainly wouldn't call that tenkara.

There are, of course, individuals who do not fit the mold. I have seen one (just one) photo of a Japanese angler holding a bluegill he had caught with a tenkara rod. Similarly, I have seen YouTube videos of a guy fishing with a tenkara rod for chubs, not in a mountain stream, and of a guy fishing with a tenkara rod in a salt water bay. I guess they didn't get the memo.

So what does that all mean? I think what it means is that much of what we do here does not fit any of the Japanese definitions. I would suggest you not get too wrapped up in the definitions or the terminology used to describe a specific type of fishing that just isn't done in Japan. Not everyone in the US thinks that what we do here should be called tenkara. Not everyone in Japan thinks what we do here shouldn't be called tenkara.

After fishing with tenkara rods for over a decade now, fishing with Dr. Ishigaki on his 2009 trip to the Catskills, fishing in Japan, fishing with Tenkara no Oni at Oni Schools here in the US, taking a couple years concentrating on spinning and baitcasting to get the sister site Finesse-Fishing started, and then coming back to tenkara, I am coming more and more to the belief that tenkara is a fishing style, a method, not just a rod with the line tied to the rod tip.

To me, now, tenkara is fishing with a single unweighted (or perhaps very lightly weighted) fly. I have come to agree that Euronymphing with a tenkara rod is Euronymphing - not tenkara. Fishing panfish poppers is fishing poppers, not tenkara. For some insight on how my views have changed, read my 10-14-17 trip report.

I have not gotten to the point, and I doubt I ever will, where I think tenkara is only for trout and only in mountain streams. I am certain that a Japanese master, fishing the Wisconsin Driftless area, would consider what he was doing to be tenkara - even though the stream he was fishing ran through a cow pasture. Some of the stream features are the same, the techniques are the same. I am not at all sure that what is behind him, out of sight, matters.

Besides, in Japan, even western fly fishing (fly rod, fly reel, fly line) is done only for trout and only in mountain streams! Are we to redefine "fly fishing?" Is it really a question of the proper definitions or is it more a question of geography and cultural differences?

Even though tenkara is often called simple, and it does not take long to learn how to cast a tenkara rod and catch a fish, there is a surprising amount of nuance in fishing a mountain stream. The moving water, in which the current speed and direction changes from one foot to the next, and in some cases almost from one inch to the next, makes each cast different. Utilizing the currents to get your fly to where you want it, manipulating the casting stroke so that the tippet aligns with the current, and manipulating the fly by twitching the rod to entice a fish to strike offers as much complexity as any angler could want.

You don't have to spend a lifetime studying tenkara. If you wanted to, though, you could. You truly could.

There is much to learn from the Japanese. Some of the masters have been tenkara fishing for fifty years. There are techniques, honed over decades, that can be learned only from the masters.There are blind alleys than can be avoided by taking advantage of the hundreds of years of trial and error that came before you.

However, there is also much to learn on your own. If you want to fish weighted nymphs or hoppers or panfish poppers, you will not learn that from a tenkara master. The Japanese tenkara masters don't fish that way. Increasingly, people would say that's not really tenkara - but what does it matter if you enjoy it? No point getting into an argument over definitions. Fish any way you want (as long as it's legal).

TenkaraBum.com

TenkaraBum.com has and will maintain a very open view of fishing in general, including fishing for fish that most people don't fish for and flies that most people don't use. You will find keiryu fishing, which in Japan is fishing mountain streams with bait. As with tenkara rods, though, people in the US do not limit their use of keiryu rods to mountain streams, or for that matter, to bait. A San Juan worm or an artificial nymph works just about as well as a real worm or a real nymph taken from under a rock in the stream.

On these pages you will find micro fishing, fishing for minnows, which is a lot of fun if you can let down your hair enough to try it.

You will also find fishing with bait. Open and unapologetic. Unlike so many American fly fishers, I do not look down on worm fishing or worm fishers.

All the rods currently sold here at TenkaraBum were produced by Japanese companies, designed by engineers and anglers who have been fishing and making tenkara rods and keiryu rods for decades. All are made in Japan. No other tenkara rod company in the US can say that. Experience matters. The technique is Japanese. Shouldn't your rod be?

More than a few people have asked me why I haven't written a book. In a sense, I have and you are reading it now. I think you'll find that TenkaraBum.com has the most complete coverage of Japanese fixed line fishing styles of any English language site anywhere in the world.

You will also find that the marketing effort is understated. There aren't slick videos and there aren't many bloggers touting TenkaraBum rods. I don't have affiliates selling TenkaraBum gear for a commission. I don't have discounts for bloggers, authors, guides, military personnel, veterans, seniors or volume. I am sure these are all effective marketing strategies but in school I always hated marketing. From day one I have felt that the only way to be fair to everyone is to ask everyone to pay the same price.

I haven't done any glitzy Kickstarter campaigns to raise funds. I started small, tying a few flies and selling a few lines, and just grew as early customers became repeat customers, and as new customers found the site. Top quality products and top quality customer service pretty much speak for themselves.

I am winding down the shop, and there isn't much left here to buy, but I intend to keep the website up and running.

One more thing, please keep in mind that this site is Tenkara Bum, not Tenkara Master.

Chris Stewart, Tenkara Bum