Fishing

Tenkara Fishing out West: Fish Creek and Crystal Creek

September 22, 2011 By Tom Sadler

“The road goes on forever and the party never ends” or so I texted friends back home as we continued our tenkara tour of the Jackson Wyo. area.

After a sensational day on Flat Creek (click here for that story) we were pretty stoked to fish more smaller streams in the area.

A quick check in with our friends in a couple of local fly shops gave us da beta we needed.

Our first stop was Fish Creek, and a chance to put a big bend in the tenkara rod.

Fish Creek cutthroat — Fish Creek Cutthroat

During our last visit to the Jackson area we had fished the Gros Ventre and wanted to give it a try again. We headed up that way and decided that Crystal Creek, water we hadn’t fished before was worth a look. Crystal Creek was prime tenkara water and we roamed about trying a variety of spots.

After spending two weeks with a tenkara rod in my hand fishing a variety of water and catching some pretty decent sized fish I am more convinced than ever of both the effectiveness and versatility of tenkara fishing.

If you want to learn more I encourage you to check out the Tenkara Guide section of Dispatches, just click here.

Tenkara Fishing out West: $3 bridge, Yellowstone NP and Flat Creek

September 13, 2011 By Tom Sadler

After the tenkara summit in West Yellowstone, MRS and I took off for Wyoming and some tenkara fishing in the Jackson Hole area.

Before we left West we made a trip to the Madison River and some fishing at $3 Bridge.

tenkara at $3 — tenkara in the shadow of $3 bridge

Five years ago Beth and I go married at this spot and we were excited to be back.

5 years later — we stood right here 5 years ago

We worked our way down through Yellowstone National Park, fishing as we went. Ok I fished, Beth took pictures…

We wound up in Hoback, WY. for a couple of nights with the Rivers of Recovery crew. BTW: If you don’t know about RoR then click here and check it out.

Be sure to watch the two videos, start with the one on the right. If you are unmoved by them, check your pulse.

We made a foray to the headwaters of Flat Creek. It was a spectacular 4×4 drive into the backcountry.

The chance to visit the headwaters of Flat Creek and to do it in the company of good friends made the trip special.

That they have served our country with honor and distinction makes me proud to be in their company.

As they say the road goes on forever and the party never ends.

Stay tuned for more pictures in episode two. Coming soon.

Why we fish: Tom McGuane

September 10, 2011 By Tom Sadler

“We have reached the time in the life of the planet and humanities demands upon it when every fisherman will have to be a river keeper, a steward of marine shallows and a watchman on the high seas. We are beyond having to put back what we have taken out. We must put back more than we take out. We must make holy war on the enemies of aquatic life as we have gillnetters, polluters and drainers of wetlands. Otherwise, as you have already learned, these creatures will continue to disappear at an alarming rate. We will lose as much as we have already lost already and there will be next to nothing, remnant populations, put-and-take, dim bulbs following the tank truck.” –Tom McGuane writing in the Some Remarks section of his outstanding book The Longest Silence.

Tenkara Summit

September 9, 2011 By Tom Sadler

Last month I traveled to West Yellowstone, MT for the first Tenkara Summit. More than 100 hundred people showed up to hear presentations, talk tenkara and see an on-stream demonstration.

Here is part of the write up by Daniel Galhardo on the Tenkara USA blog:

Originally we had expected, optimistically, that about 70 people would show up. The conference room was setup to accomodate 100 people, but that was not enough. Over 100 people showed up yesterday. People came from 23 different states, and from 3 different countries specially for the Summit (well, they did come to fish in Montana…). I’d really like to thank all those who came and helped make this an extraordinary event; it was the best crowd ever. Thank you!

The Tenkara Summit had the presence of special guests Dr. Hisao Ishigaki, the leading authority on tenkara in Japan; Chris Stewart of tenkarabum.com; Craig Mathews of Blue Ribbon Flies who gave a very passionate presentation about tenkara in Montana and showed some great clips of large fishing being caught; Ryan Jordan of backpackinglight.com as well as ryanjordan.com; and Tom Sadler who spoke about the advantages of using tenkara as a guide and as a way to introduce new people to fly-fishing so they can continue conserving the environment in the future.

Dr. Ishigaki is known as the “Tenkara King” in Japan. His presentation was a wonderful insight into the world of tenkara. He is a warm and charming story teller lacing his presentation with witty anecdotes of his tenkara exploits.

Chris Stewart, Daniel Galhardo and Dr. Ishigaki, share a panel discussion.

It was a special honor to part of the summit and to learn from fellow tenkara enthusiasts!

One personal highlight was to have lunch with Craig Mathews and Yvon Chouinard. Those two were the reason I got started with tenkara so it was a special treat to spend time with them both at the summit.

Dr. Ishigaki showed his tenkara chops during an on-stream demonstration.

Watching Japan’s Tenkara King put a tenkara rod through it’s paces was fascinating. It was also reassuring to see that my on tenkara technique was not so bad.

Why we fish: Sparse Grey Hackle

August 23, 2011 By Tom Sadler

The true worth of fishing, as the experienced, sophisticated angler comes to realize, lies in the memorable contacts with people and other living creatures, scenes and places, and the living waters great and small which it provides. -Sparse Grey Hackle

Bad Boyz of the Madison

Hat tip to Mike’s Gone Fishin’…Again

First Follower Theory

July 3, 2011 By Tom Sadler

I am a student of leadership so when this showed up in my @tenkaraguide twitters this morning:

I hit the youtube link and watched. You can too. It is 3 minutes, worth watching, very entertaining and visually delivers an important leadership lesson.

There is no movement without the first follower

A leader needs the guts to stand alone and look ridiculous. But what he’s doing is so simple, it’s almost instructional. This is key. You must be easy to follow!

Now comes the first follower with a crucial role: he publicly shows everyone how to follow. Notice the leader embraces him as an equal, so it’s not about the leader anymore – it’s about them, plural. Notice he’s calling to his friends to join in. It takes guts to be a first follower! You stand out and brave ridicule, yourself. Being a first follower is an under-appreciated form of leadership. The first follower transforms a lone nut into a leader. If the leader is the flint, the first follower is the spark that makes the fire.

A little more research took me to Derek Sivers. He put up the video and narrates it. It is on his blog along with the transcript: Leadership Lessons from Dancing Guy.

The take aways for me:

1) Someone has to be the dancing guy, that is leadership but it is overrated. we can’t all be leaders.

2) The first follower is courageous and is the real ignition for the movement.

3) It takes time to build a movement and followers may come and go (read the comments).

Sivers summation works for me:

The best way to make a movement, if you really care, is to courageously follow and show others how to follow.

When you find a lone nut doing something great, have the guts to be the first person to stand up and join in.

Tenkara? Sure.

The whole tenkara thing fits the first follower model hence @tenkarausa’s tweet to a couple of us early adopters.

Important keys to success in creating a movement are the leader embracing the followers as equals and the first followers showing others how to follow.

While calling the adoption of tenkara in this country a movement may be a stretch at this point, it clearly is gaining followers. The lessons of the Dancing Guy are pretty evident. Most importantly those early followers are showing others how to follow. Tenkara will continue to grow because of this willingness to share the knowledge and encouraging others to try tenkara.

There is a lesson here as well for those of us in the fly-fishing business:

Are you making it easy to follow you?
Are you welcoming them into the movement?
Are you sharing the knowledge?

From what I have seen the successful fly-fishing businesses can answer yes to these questions. Those who don’t look at new ideas and ways of doing business are not helping to build the fly-fishing movement.

Tenkara may be a good case study on how to help fly-fishing grow. It starts with the first follower theory.

What do you think?