Tenkara Fishing

[Kerne]

Just want to say that this is fascinating! What I love about this forum is that every so often, something I have never heard of is discussed and I get totally absorbed.

Since there are some people (so I've heared ) who occasionally might fish without the water rights owner's permission, might this be a possible useful method?

 

[myotis]

Clint,

myotis, I'm sorry if I came across as a party pooper earlier. I was feeling grumpy at the time and my feelings towards marketing strategies and wikipedia don't have anything to do with fishing.

Not a problem, I like a nice bit of kit as much as anyone else, but as I get older I am more and more seeking the simplicity of childhood, when I didn't know I didn't have the "right kit" and just went out and fished.

Its all too easy to blame a lack of skill on a lack of kit, thinking the easy solution is just to go out and buy that new ...insert any item of kit you wish to name...

My Grandpa and your Great grandpa didn't have that option, because they didn't have the money, they had to develop the skills using what they had.

Although, you can obviously spend money on Tenkara the underlying philosophy seems to be one of simplicity, which I have warmed to.

Graham

 

[myotis]

Since there are some people (so I've heared ) who occasionally might fish without the water rights owner's permission, might this be a possible useful method?

I cannot possibly support fishing without the owners permission, but the Tenakara rods quickly collapse in to a few tens of centimetres long, 1 to 2cm in diameter and the only other kit is 10.5ft of line, 3 ft of tippet and a fly.

The rod will instantly collapse for moving through undergrowth/ low vegetation and you can keep the line and fly attached when collapsed, making it instantly ready to fish again, when you come out of the dense riparian vegetation. Avery safe way of moving along the river bank and avoiding breaking a rod tip, or snagging a line.

Graham

 

[bothyman]

Is Tenkara just the Brand name or the right word for this type of fishing.

If you put Tenkara in a search engine you seem to only come up with a Company that's selling the Fishing Equipment, everything seems to point to one Company?? or maybe it's just good marketing..
And it seems rather expensive.
Does anyone have any contacts in Japan???

MickT

 

[myotis]

Mick,

Is Tenkara just the Brand name or the right word for this type of fishing.

Tenkara is a style of fly fishing. Longer and thicker rods are used (and cast like fly rods) for bait fishing but that has a different name which I can't remember.

Just found it, its called AYU http://homepage3.nifty.com/manasan/english/keiryuu/tenkara.htm

I didn't think the rods were that expensive. the TenkaraUSA rods are $135 to $190. Which seems to put them in the same sort of price bracket as low priced Daiwa/Greys fly rods and a lot less than a Sage/Orvis/Hardy rod.

However, if you look at my post earlier

http://www.bushcraftuk.com/forum/showpost.php?p=687748&postcount=11

Allfishingbuy.com have cheaper rods and the tenkara-fisher forum has gathered together information about all the rods available from Japan.

You could of course try a fishing pole (like the cheap one I linked to) and see if you can do better than me at getting it to cast a fly. As I said it does seem to work not too badly, but it isn't going to give the delicacy of casting which is one of the characteristics of Tenkara fishing.

Graham

 

[CLEM]

Very interesting stuff.