EclecticGuy

The new Tenkara Fly Fishing DVD by Tenkara USA is very well done! I just received my copy and watched it last night. I actually attended the presentation by Dr. Ishigaki at the Catskill Fly Fishing Center in May last year. That is where I got my introduction to tenkara and got hooked on it. Since then, most of my local river (small stream) fishing has been tenkara.

The section “Tenkara in the Land of Little Rivers” was shot in the Catskills. One of the attendees, … Continue Reading

Over the last few years I have produced a number of fly fishing related items out of personal interest. Surprisingly, I get a fair number of inquiries to purchase these items – including tenkara flies, several other fly patterns, ice fishing tip-ups, hand-made brass fishing reels, horsehair fishing lines, Walton’s Engines (aka twisting or furling engines), and custom rods – all by … Continue Reading

On Saturday morning, Nick and I met up with our friends Aaron and Ethan to head north to White Mountains of New Hampshire. On the way up, it was obvious that the rivers were swollen from all of the rain we had through July. I have never seen them this high, this late in the summer. We stopped at our favorite pancake house for breakfast before hitting the trail.

It was a short drive to the Lincoln Woods parking area and trailhead from there. We had a lot … Continue Reading

Last month I posted a recipe on tying the simple tenkara fly that I saw Dr. Ishigaki use at his presentation in the Catskills.

This morning I got an email from CM_Stewart (the fellow who introduced me to tenkara and told me about Dr. Ishigaki’s presentation). Here is what CM_Stewart had to say:

I thought about sending this when I first saw your description of Dr. Ishigaki’s flies, but decided it wasn’t important.

I still think it’s not important, but decided you might want to know. Your instructions for tying one of … Continue Reading

I just returned from a great afternoon of fishing tenkara style on Jordon Lake in north central North Carolina. That makes 4 states that I’ve had the pleasure to fish in this style. Jordon is a large lake with many species including large mouth bass, striped bass, big cat fish, sunfish, and perch. I caught a nice little bluegill on my first cast while my 2 sons and nephew watched in amazement. They were all anxious to give it a try!

My youngest son and nephew are both 12 so I let them take my Yamame rod. My oldest son has … Continue Reading

Several weeks ago I made a quick post about the tenkara flies Dr. Ishigaki gave me at the Catskill Fly Fishing Center and Museum. I’ve had a couple of requests to follow up with the recipe, so here goes.

Materials

Hook: Tiemco 100 – sizes 16, 14, 12, 10

Thread: any large nylon or polyester thread will do. Dr. Ishigaki uses cheap nylon thread from a discount store. I have been using Danville 3/0 fly tying thread.

Hackle: India Hen, Partridge, or Pheasant soft hackle

Tying

Notice that I did not specify colors for the thread and hackle. That’s because … Continue Reading

Daniel – owner of TenkaraUSA – emailed me some photos he took of me, my son Nick, and Dr. Ishigaki at the Catskill Fly Fishing Center and Museum. I asked for permission to re-post some of them here. These are my favorites:

The rod Dr. Ishigaki is holding is one of mine with a birch bark grip and olive wood accents and reel seat. The group shot is Nick, Dr. Ishigaki and me!

I drove to western Ct yesterday to see my daughter off on her trip to South Korea and Japan. In the morning, I got to spend 1 1/2 hrs on Macedonia Brook in Macedonia Brook State Park. This is a great little mountain stream – no wider than 15′ in most places and very tight with trees and shrubs on both banks, lots of boulders, and cascades. I decided that this would be the perfect place to try out my new TenkaraUSA Yamame rod and the flies I tied on Friday night. The flies … Continue Reading

In my previous post, I told about my trip last weekend to the Catskill Fly Fishing Center and Museum to see Dr. Ishigaki present and demonstrate tenkara. It was a great experience. After the demo, I presented Dr. Ishigaki with a replica of an 18th century fly I tied – complete with a horsehair snell. He was delighted and in return, gave me 2 of his tenkara flies – right out of his personal fly box! It turns out that he only fishes one pattern, in multiple colors, usually size 12. Tenkara is more “presentation” than … Continue Reading

テンカラ – Tenkara

Yesterday, my son Nick and I drove 4 hours (each way) to the Catskill Fly Fishing Center and Museum in Livingston Manor, NY to see Dr. Hisao Ishigaki give a presentation and demonstration on tenkara fishing (Japanese fly fishing). How I learned about this event and tenkara fishing is an interesting story in itself!

Followers of my blog might have seen a comment made last Thursday (May 21) by CM_Stewart on my Horse-hair Fly Line post. “Chris”, as it turns out, is an early practitioner of tenkara here in the US. He is interested in horse hair … Continue Reading