Looks like those of you who want to learn more about tenkara fishing are going to get a treat. My good friend Craig Mathews of Blue Ribbon Flies has been hinting in his newsletter about a tenkara adventure:
I will fish today. After a week of brutal cold windy conditions it looks like the weather might be favorable to spend a few hours on the river this afternoon. Tomorrow Phil and I will be fishing and filming using Tenkara rods. My good friend, Yvon Choiunard, called last week and asked for some Tenkara footage for the Patagonia website but due to the nasty weather we’ve not been able to get out. The forecast looks favorable so make sure you check out our blog for the fishing reports we will file on our next two afternoons of midge fishing on the river.
I have been waiting to see if Craig and Phil get their tenkara on. It looks like they did and we are in for a treat!
This is from the Blue RIbbon Flies Blog:
Two days ago, this past Friday, Phil and I headed to the river to film a segment of fishing with a Tenkara Rod. My good friend, Yvon Chouinard, had called and asked for the filming and footage which you can view soon on both Patagonia and Blue Ribbon Flies websites.I’d just received a new Tenkara rod, the Iwana,from Daniel Galhardo of Tenkara USA and wanted to fish it on the river during the winter season. Many anglers feel that a Tenkara cannot be fished on the rivers like the Madison due to it using a short-fixed lenght line and no reel. Yvon and I have fished Tenkara the past few seasons and it can be fished on rivers like the Madison, Gallatin, Warm, Lamar and Yellowstone as well as smaller waters like our Nez Perce, Grayling, Tower and Soda Butte just to name a few. The simple way of Tenkara fly fishing is awesome and we have had great fun and enjoyment fishing this method. I have many photos of Yvon and I hooking up doubles using a pair of soft hackles or an X Caddis-Soft Hackle tandem rig on the Firehole in June.
And this from today’s newsletter:
Last Friday, as promised, Phil and I filmed fishing Tenkara’s Iwana Rod on the Madison near here. The footage is soon to be released by Patagonia and we should have some clips too. We succeeded in landing 4 nice trout, one an 18″ rainbow, using the rod with no reel and 18 feet of fixed length line. This is fly fishing at its simplest, a most rewarding and pleasant way to fish. We are pleased to offer the Iwana on our website and catalogue store. Since we’ve introduced the Tenkara method at BRF we have received many wonderful reports from experts to beginners on how much fun fishing the Tenkara way is. More on this in future reports. One last thing here is in all the times I have used Tenkara’s Iwana on the Madison, Gallatin, Gardner and other rivers I have never busted off my fly. Granted, the largest trout I have taken was the 18 incher I took last Friday, but I have hooked and landed dozens of trout and have yet to bust one off fishing without a reel and with only 18-24 feet of line.. ..kind of Zen-like fishing!
If you are interested in tenkara, curious about fishing tenkara on big rivers out west or just want to see some cool fishing vid then this should be excellent.
Stay tuned!
Disclosure: I get a pro-deal from Tenkara USA and happily endorse their products. They neither asked me to post this nor offered any compensation.