When Tenkara USA founder, Daniel Galhardo was in town we had a chance to hang out, fish and talk tenkara.
Daniel was at Mossy Creek Fly Fishing on Saturday October 20th giving a presentation and casting demonstration.
That afternoon we took a group of avid tenkara anglers to Mossy Creek for a hands-on clinic.
Folks had a chance to get some fishing time with Daniel as well
Mossy Creek Fly Fishing co-owner Brian Trow, shot some great video of the tenkara action.
In the video, Daniel and Brian see a fish rise and start stalking it. Just as Daniel is set to cast, another fish rises and he turns his attention to that fish. He uses the “pause and drift” method to catch the fish. You will also see how he handles landing a large fish. Daniel fished a T-USA Ito, about 15ft of 3.5 level line, 4ft of 5x tippet and a Ishigaki Kebari.
Brian and I wanted to learn more about the “one fly” practice that Daniel and the tenkara anglers in Japan embrace so after our guests left, Daniel, Brian and I did some fishing on our own. Brian and I had committed to Daniel that we would only fish this way when we fished together. We took the opportunity of Daniel’s coaching to become more skilled in the tenkara style of fly-fishing.
At one point, while doing a downstream “pause and drift”, a fish bit the lilian on my tenkara rod. I was so shocked I jumped back screaming and fell down laughing like a fool. After breaking off a 20″ rainbow because I was to slow to move despite Brian and Daniel telling me to…
I at least found redemption with a nice brown a few casts later.
After a day on the Valley spring creeks we headed up to the George Washington National Forest to fish for brook. We fished only tenkara flies on level lines using tenkara techniques.
I will confess to being somewhat skeptical of the “one-fly” method but after three days with increasing success I can say with confidence that it works. As a guide who specializes in the tenkara method it was especially rewarding to get first-hand coaching on tenkara fishing.
