The Middle River Group, LLC

fly fishing, conservation and politics.

Tenkara

Tenkara in Garden & Gun

By

One of the really cool things about getting involved in something new is seeing the recognition grow.  When I picked up a tenkara rod for the first time I had no idea it would become such a part of my life.

On the cover: Flyfishing Without A Reel

Since then I have had the opportunity to introduce tenkara to people who then do a story about tenkara. Of course I appreciate the coverage of tenkara and naturally since I am a bit of a ham, enjoy seeing my name and face in print.

The article and photo’s in Garden & Gun August/September issue may very well be my favorite. It gave me a chance me to introduce two new friends to tenkara, fish in my favorite places and because of their excellent craftsmanship, share tenkara with Garden & Gun’s readers.

First stop was Ramsey’s Draft with the article’s author Donovan Webster.  Don was an accomplished fly fisherman and he was a quick study with the tenkara rod. As you will see, Don did an outstanding job of capturing the essence of tenkara in his article Whisper Fishing.

Michael J.N. Bowles is an extremely talented photojournalist and no slouch with a fly rod as well. He was a bit reluctant to pick up the tenkara rod since he was supposed to be shooting images not fishing. When he finally did and caught a fish, his excitement was infectious. You can see his marvelous photos from our trip to the Rapidan River in Fly Fishing Without A Reel.

Garden & Gun is a favorite in our house and has been long before I was fortunate enough to grace its pages. If you want great writing and beautiful photography steeped in southern charm, then do yourself a favor and subscribe.

Like this post? Why not leave a comment or subscribe by RSS

First Follower Theory

By

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?

 

Best tenkara quote of the day

By

Ok so the review, Stuff We Like: Simms Harbor GORE-TEX Shoes, was about fancy new kicks but it was Kirk’s observation on why shops should sell them that caught my attention:

Reason 1:  Small stream fishing is the new vogue.  Meet the new boss, same as the old boss.  I can tell you, from a media/writer’s perspective, small streams–places where you can wet-wade, use Tenkara and fiberglass rods, and catch wild fish (on dry flies)–will be the subject matter of many stories in the next 12-18 months.

Looks like that tenkara thing might just be catching on…

Like this post? Why not leave a comment or subscribe by RSS

 

Thinking About – Fish Hatcheries

By

Been thinking about hatcheries lately.

The next year’s budget for federal fish hatcheries got hit with the budget axe and there are some folks who are pretty sore about it. The “whys” and “wherefores” are complicated. You are gonna have to take my word on that part. That is not something frankly I feel much like writing about.

Uncomfortable questions got me thinking

Read more after the jump > [Read more…] about Thinking About – Fish Hatcheries