Tenkara

The last time I fly-fished was probably in 2009— it’s been too long.  I do bass fishing every year, but fly fishing has been quite elusive for me.  One thing I’m excited about this summer is that I’ll be free from the pressure that hindered me from fly fishing in recent years and that I deserve to spend some time in small streams in southern Vermont!

During the Marlboro summer festival season, I used to fly-fish, mostly by myself, just to get out of the pseudo-reality that Marlboro really is, and to enjoy the beautiful nature that helps me find what’s truly important in life. This summer, after a few year hiatus, I’m going back to the stream where I caught my very first brook trout.  I haven’t gone back to the area after hurricane Irene of 2011, but the Vermont creeks did look quite different last summer— I just hope that I can still find those beautiful trouts.

I’m trying something new this summer.  I’ll be using a tenkara rod for the first time.  Tenkara is traditional Japanese fly fishing practice/method, and the biggest difference between tenkara and the fly fishing as we know it is that no reel is used in tenkara.  The line is attached to the tip of the telescopic rod which is usually much longer than typical fly rod you’d use in mountain streams.  I won’t get into tenkara details now, but I’m very excited about this!  I actually had no knowledge of tenkara until earlier this year when a fly fisher friend of mine in Japan asked me how popular tenkara is nowadays in the States.  I said it isn’t popular at all, but at that point I didn’t really know what he was talking about.  I started to watch some YouTube videos on tenkara and I got hooked!  It looked like the ideal fly fishing method for small Vermont mountain streams that I enjoy fishing so much during the Marlboro season!

This one particular Japanese tenkara angler who appears often in the tenkara YouTube videos, giving lectures and demos, mentions the name ‘Daniel’ from time to time – and that he thinks this guy Daniel is the only non-Japanese angler who fishes like a real tenkara fisherman (at the time the video was shot)… and surely it took me no time to find out that this ‘Daniel’ was the founder of Tenkara
USA, a company in the US that distributes the tenkara tackle and  informs the public about this new form of fly fishing.  I suppose that friend of mine in Japan was right; tenkara is indeed gaining some popularity here in the US.

I shall definitely write about doing tenkara for the first time up in southern Vermont this summer.  I can’t wait to start casting with the tenkara rod and to see those tiny yet absolutely gorgeous trouts in those beautiful creeks!