This article discusses the growing popularity of tenkara fishing in the United States. Tenkara is a simple fixed-line fly fishing style from Japan that uses telescopic rods with no reel. While initially dismissed, tenkara has established itself with gear now sold by major companies like Orvis. It appeals both to experienced anglers who enjoy its effectiveness and simplicity, as well as newcomers intimidated by traditional fly fishing gear. The article describes basic tenkara tackle, techniques like high-sticking, and its advantages like casting without line drag. It notes tenkara can be used to catch trout within 25 feet and has grown a dedicated following in the US.

1. SPRING 2015
Display until May 5, 2015
WWW.AMATOBOOKS.COM
Tenkara Fishing 22
Changing Ocean
Conditions and
Steelhead Declines 34
Dangle Nymphing
Stillwaters 46
What
Dubbing? 52
Fair Trade Flies 18
Simplicities of
Trout Fishing 40
K48802
&TYINGJOURNAL&&&&TTTTTTYINGYINGYINGYINGYINGTYINGTTYINGTTYINGTYINGYINGJOURNALJOURNALJOURNALJOURNALJOURNALJOURNALJOURNALJOURNALJOURNALJOURNALYINGJOURNALYINGJOURNALJOURNALJOURNAL
SPRING 2015SPRING 2015
&&&&&&&TTTTTTTTTTTTYINGYINGYINGYINGYINGYINGYINGYINGYINGYINGYINGYINGTYINGTTYINGTTYINGTTYINGTTYINGTTYINGTYINGYINGYINGYINGYING&& JOURNALJOURNALJOURNALJOURNALJOURNALJOURNALJOURNALJOURNALJOURNALJOURNALJOURNALJOURNALYINGJOURNALYINGYINGJOURNALYINGJOURNALJOURNALJOURNALJOURNALJOURNALJOURNALJOURNALJOURNALJOURNALJOURNALJOURNAL&& JOURNALJOURNALJOURNALJOURNALJOURNAL
FlyfishingSPECIAL OFFER:
Free Fly Box
and Flies
page 33
NW Fly Tyer &
Fly Fishing Expo
page 2
FlyfishingFlyfishingFlyfishingFlyfishing
FTJ Spring 2015.indd 1 12/30/14 4:02:40 PM

2. C O N T E N T S
www.amatobooks.com
FEATURES
DEPARTMENTS
LIKE COFFEE FOR FLIES 18
—Jeff Coffey
TENKARA FISHING 22
—Morgan Lyle
SALMONFLY 26
—Bryan Gregson
LOST AT SEA 34
—Don Roberts
6 SIMPLICITIES OF
TROUT FISHING 40
—Dave Hughes
DANGLE NYMPHING
STILLWATERS 46
—Michael Gorman
WHAT DUBBING? 52
—Al Ritt
FROM THE EDITOR 6—Rob Crandall
GUIDE PROFILE 8—Dave Kilhefner
KEEPING IT REEL 10—Readers
RIDDLES OF THE HATCH 12—Dave Hughes
FISHING TRAVEL 14—Eric Schoenborn
NEW PRODUCTS 16—Preston Singletary
GEAR-UP 32—Staff
PATENT PATTERNS 58—Readers
TAILOUT 62—Tom Alkire
AbouttheCOVER:
T S S. B G 
8 18
22 34
40
5852
62
46
DAVE HALL ARTWORK
TO FIND RETAIL COPIES OF FTJ IN YOUR AREA GO TO www.wheresmymagazine.com
FTJ Spring 2015.indd 5 12/30/14 3:50:08 PM

3. Morgan Lyle
When Daniel Galhardo
gave a talk last fall at
a meeting of the High Plains
Drifters, the Denver chapter
of the Federation of Fly
Fishers, he asked how many
of the 100 or so in attendance
had heard of tenkara. Almost
every hand went up. About
one in three had actually
used the telescoping, fixed-
line fly rods.
9-foot 5-weight and the Spey rod. A few have sworn off rod-and-reel
fishing for good and devoted themselves to the fixed line.
Now, largely with Galhardo’s encouragement, there’s a growing
number of tenkara anglers with no fly-fishing experience at all.
He sees potential tenkara anglers in backpackers, mountain bikers
and other outdoorsy types whose first priority isn’t fishing, but
who often find themselves near trout streams.
“People who would not have done any fly-fishing at all have
fallen in love with fly-fishing because of tenkara,” Galhardo said.
For example, “here in Boulder, there’s a new group called the
Tenkara Fly Girls, 15-20 women mostly in their mid 20s to late 30s.
They’ve never held a fly rod before, and now they’re absolutely in
love with fly-fishing.”
Chris Stewart, aka the TenkaraBum, agrees.The New York-
based owner of TenkaraBum.com, which offers a wide range of
imported tenkara rods, flies and gear, said he hears from custom-
ers with zero fly-fishing experience.
“I don’t know what the percentage is, because most of them
don’t say, but I do get enough people who do say, ‘I’ve never fly-
fished before and this just looks like a neat thing to do,’” Stewart
Tenkara Fishing
That’s a big change from a few years ago, when the founder of
Tenkara USA first started making appearances at fishing clubs
to explain a style of fishing that was foreign to most American
anglers. Back then, a show of one or two hands was more typical.
Despite being dismissed as a fad by one of the country’s
best-known fly-fishers and branded a cult by a popular blogger,
tenkara has established itself. Orvis,Temple Fork Outfitters and
Patagonia now carry at least some tenkara tackle. Dozens of
web-based businesses now sell tenkara rods, lines, flies and ac-
cessories. Luminaries including John Gierach, Dave Hughes and
Kirk Deeter elevated tenkara’s profile with thoughtful writing.
Reel-less anglers can now be found snapping casts into pocket
water from coast to coast, catching lots of trout.
Reel makers probably have no cause to worry. Still, tenkara
appears to be here to stay—a legit specialty in a sport that in-
creasingly embraces specialization.
Most of the first American tenkara anglers were veteran fly-
fishers who liked tenkara’s effectiveness as much as its stripped-
down simplicity, and probably its novelty and cool factor, too.
Many consider it another weapon in the quiver, alongside the
Masaki Nakano fishes the Gallatin River in Montana.
Long, limber tenkara rods will protect light tippets from
fighting trout. Chris Stewart, TenkaraBum.com
22 I F LY F I S H I N G & T Y I N G J O U R N A L
FTJ Spring 2015.indd 22 12/29/14 7:05:44 AM

4. said. “I don’t know how large it is, but that’s definitely a market
segment.”
Newbies like tenkara because it’s simple and intuitive. Long-
time fly-fishers like it because it’s a great way to catch trout.
Tenkara Tackle
The basic set-up is familiar to most of us by now: a telescoping rod,
less than two feet long when collapsed, 12 feet or even longer when
fully extended.To the tip of the rod is attached a line most western
anglers would think of as a leader—either a braided, tapered line
that casts like a miniature western-style fly line, or a level simply
high-vis fluorocarbon from around 12-pound test (for larger or
stiffer rods) to 2X (for the lighter or softer rods) or even smaller.
A few people have sneered about tenkara rods resembling crap-
pie rods or cane poles (not that there’s anything wrong with either),
but the difference is tenkara rods have tapers designed to cast such
a light line in nice tight loops, with accuracy, delicacy and stealth.
As with western fly rods, the sweetest tapers are found on the high-
end models; you can spend $500 on a good Japanese tenkara rod.
They are indeed sweet to cast, but the difference between them and
less expensive rods is subtle. Most tenkara rods cost $250 or less,
some of them much less, and they cast just fine.
By the way, tenkara rods are collapsible because they have to be.
If you have a line attached to the tip of a rod whose sections are held
together by ferrules, and you hook a good fish, your tip section may
well pop right off.The tenkara fishermen of old in Japan, who fished
for food and for money, used rods made of whole stalks of bamboo.
Rather than lug around a 12-foot rod, they used sections of the
tapered stalk, with a small one slipped in through the butt end of the
next biggest section and poking out of the narrower top, its own wider
butt section anchored inside the section below.A typical modern
graphite tenkara rod has nine sections, including the handle.
Tenkara USA founder Daniel Galhardo,
right, with Japanese tenkara expert
Hisao Ishigaki and a couple of Madison
River trout. Courtesy Tenkara USA
S P R I N G 2 0 1 5 I 23
FTJ Spring 2015.indd 23 12/29/14 7:04:58 AM

5. It’s nice that you can easily pull all the sections out to dry or
clean them. It’s also nice that you can replace them if they break
(which most often happens to the spaghetti-fine tip sections through
clumsy collapsing or trying to yank a stuck fly free.)
Fishing Techniques
A tippet, typically three or four feet of 5X or 6X, is tied to the end
of the line.And to that is tied the fly—pretty much any fly you
like, though true tenkara uses unweighted wet flies, much like soft
hackles in U.K. and here in the States.Tenkara rods fish dry flies,
emergers and moderately weighted nymphs just as well as wets.
You can fish heavier nymphs with them, too. If you do a lot of deep
nymphing, a stiffer rod will make
hook-sets easier.
I don’t much like using stream-
ers on tenkara rods. Being able to
strip a fly line allows you to cover a
lot more water, and you don’t have
to move the rod to make the fly
move. But it’s fun to tie on a small
Woolly Bugger and twitch it around
with the rod tip, if you think there
might be a fish nearby.
Most tenkara fishing is simply
old-fashioned high-sticking.This is
where the light line is a huge advan-
tage over a droopy PVC line. If you
can get within 25 feet of your fish,
you can drift a dry fly or emerger
over it with practically no line lying
on the water at all—and therefore
no drag.
That’s why so many European-
style competition fly-fishers use
long rods with soft tips and very
long leaders. Much of the time their
fly lines stay coiled on their reels;
only the leader goes through the
guides.The anglers keep their rod
tips high and flick their flies into
every possible spot that could hold
a trout. I’ve observed a couple of
these competitions, and I was struck
by how much the technique had in common with tenkara fishing.
I’ve done a lot of this kind of fishing, and it’s extremely effec-
tive.You can reach right over intervening currents.You can drop a
fly in the eddy behind a rock and keep it there as long as you want.
Even a modestly weighted nymph will drop quickly to fishing depth
when the leader is more vertical than horizontal.You never need to
mend line or use a strike indicator.
What’s the maximum cast? A typical tenkara rod is 12 feet long.
Some tenkara anglers specialize in the use of long lines, but most
of us stick to a line that’s not much longer than the rod, to make it
easier to land fish. So figure 14 feet of line, plus maybe four feet of
tippet.That would add up to 30 feet if the whole rig was in a straight
line—and you can certainly fish it that way if the situation calls for
it. But since most of the time the rod slopes up and the line slopes
down, the cast will be somewhere around 25 feet.
When I started using tenkara rods, I was delighted to discover
how many trout were within 25 feet.
Tenkara Casting
For a veteran fly-fisher, the first casts with a tenkara rod can be a
little puzzling. Getting the maximum distance, such as it is, requires
a little practice.The key is to make a high stop on the forward cast.
Then follow the line down quickly enough that it doesn’t have time to
droop. It’s easier to do than to explain, and once you get the feel, it’s
second nature.
The back and forward casts are short and quick.You don’t need
to move the rod tip far to toss such a short line, so forget “10 and
2”—it’s more like 11:30 to 12:45.
Sidearm casting is just as easy as
overhead. Often all you need is a wa-
ter haul; let the fly drift all the way
downstream, give a good tug against
the surface tension and fling it right
back upstream.Tenkara rods are
great for the Joe Humphreys-style
bow-and-arrow cast, too.
I like casting a western fly line as
much as the next guy, but when I’m
tenkara fishing, I don’t miss it. I’m
completely focused on the water and
my fly. I think not having to mend
and manage a fly line allows me to
devote more attention to the actual
fishing. Of course, it cuts both ways.
There are times when I can’t reach
water I want to fish. Still, most of
the time on high-gradient, small or
moderate streams, I can find plenty
of targets.
Playing and
Landing Fish
The long, limber design of a ten-
kara rod will absorb a trout’s lunges
and protect the tippet until the fish
calms down enough for you to pull
it in. In my experience, this hap-
pens more quickly with a tenkara
rod than it does when a trout is allowed to pull line from a reel.
I’m not sure why.
Landing the fish is simple. If your line and tippet are about the
same length as your rod, all you need to do to land a fish is reach
back with the rod when the time is right.The trout will slide right
over to your net.
If you’re using a line longer than the rod, you’ll probably have to
hand-line it. I was worried about doing that, but it proved not to be
a problem. If the fish freaks out while you’re pulling the leader in
by hand, you can simply let go and let the trout fight the rod a little
more. Eventually it will settle down.
Early on, I broke off a husky bass that had grabbed my nymph.
The line was tight as a banjo string, and I didn’t have the nerve to
wait. I took the leader by the hand too soon. Had I been more patient
and waited until the fish was ready, I probably would have landed it.
Ben Furimsky took this trout with a tenkara rod on the
Gunnison River in Colorado. Courtesy of Tenkara USA
24 I F LY F I S H I N G & T Y I N G J O U R N A L
FTJ Spring 2015.indd 24 12/29/14 7:03:57 AM

6. happens in tenkara fishing.While you’re free to fish any fly you like,
true tenkara fishing uses a virtually weightless wet fly, and would
be recognized immediately as fly-fishing by any trout fisher prior to
the 1700s, when reels came into common use.Tenkara is what
fly-fishing looked like for centuries before that.
QUESTION:
So how do you
reel-in a fish
when you have
no reel?
Learn at www.tenkarausa.com/reel-in
or call us at 888–483–6527
When fighting a large fish, it’s important to keep your rod up.
I learned this the hard way on a small, wild-trout tailwater in the
lower HudsonValley in NewYork. My caddis pupa pattern drifted
into a sweet pocket and I felt the unmistakable pull of a good-sized
fish. Had I reared back and put a big bend in the rod, I would have
stood a good chance. Instead, still in the habit of expecting the fish
to pull line from a reel, I held the rod in a shallower arc.With no
springy bend, the tippet snapped. Since then, my strategy has been
to show the fish the butt of the rod. It hasn’t let me down.
Maybe we should talk about what constitutes a good fish.Ten-
kara rods are designed to catch average trout.Twelve- to 15-inchers
are easy, and tenkara anglers land 20-inchers on a regular basis.
Some rod models are geared toward smaller streams and fish, others
for bigger ones. But this is not the kind of tackle to use for hucking
big streamers to five-pound browns. It has its limits.
There’s a video onYouTube of a Japanese guy catching steelhead
on a tributary of the Skeena River with a collapsible, fixed-line
rod—but the rod is 24 feet long. It’s what’s known as a keiryu rod,
designed for drifting bait to large fish. Fixed-line “pole fishing” for
everything from herring to tuna is big in Asia, and tenkara is just
one variety of it. It is by definition stream trout fishing.
But Is Tenkara Fly-Fishing?
You bet it is.
There is one characteristic that distinguishes fly-fishing from
every other kind of fishing with a rod: in fly-fishing, you cast the
line, and the lure simply goes along for the ride.That’s exactly what
U.K. angler Paul Gaskell with a nice tenkara-caught brown.
Courtesy of Tenkara USA
S P R I N G 2 0 1 5 I 25
FTJ Spring 2015.indd 25 12/29/14 1:32:57 PM