Pete Tyjas dusted down his tenkara rod and headed up into Dartmoor to give this style of fishing another try after a long lay off.
“Hey Mike, you’ve forgotten your rod.” I was teaching fly casting and good pal Mike Graham wandered by down towards to his favourite stretch of water to try his luck.
It turned out he hadn’t. Out of his vest pocket he pulled out what looked like a small section of fly rod. It wasn’t, it was the first glimpse I’d seen of a tenkara rod. I’d heard a little about them but had never seen one. After the lesson, Paul (who I had been teaching) and I hot footed it down to the river to see tenkara fishing in action. It looked like fun and I knew a rod purchase was imminent.
Fast forward four years or so and the Iwana rod I bought from Daniel at Tenkara USA, after seeing Mike in action, sits quietly in the pile of rods I own, largely unused bar a couple of days' fishing. Being so small it gets lost in the pile and so sits waiting, hoping it’ll get an airing.
I’m not sure what prompted it but I was speaking to my pal Jimmy the other day about a stream we both like to fish but have never fished together. There is some neat pocket water that I said would suit tenkara fishing perfectly. “wanna give it a try” I asked. I knew he’d say yes and he did.
Over the last few years tenkara has grown from something people early on dismissed as a fad, or worse still, just like fishing with a whip commonly used in coarse fishing.
Thanks to UK pioneers like John Pearson and Paul Gaskell from Discover Tenkara and places like the UK Tenkara Forum where like-minded individuals can swap stories and learn from each other, so that something that might be considered niche is now a part of many progressive anglers' armoury of techniques when tackling trout.
John and Paul have really embraced the traditional aspects of tenkara fishing and a glance back through previous issues of Eat, Sleep, Fish will highlight the passion they share for this method of fishing from the flies to the nets along with the tea ceremonies too.
Many though, fish in what is termed the Western style which means we tie on our normal patterns and fish them in the way we normally would but the longer rods allow us the perfect drag free drift.
Early on though, I was a little concerned when I heard stories of large, wild brown trout being caught this way. This form of fishing was designed for fishing for small fish in mountain streams and not 4lb fish from lowland rivers. Thankfully rods have now been built that have enough backbone to tame big trout.
My 11ft Iwana is one of the earlier models and although we don’t have mountain streams in Devon we have Dartmoor and the myriad of rivers that run off of it that, in my mind is the next best thing.
We fished a long way up the river, the trout are small, fast and can be wildly different in tone, ranging from almost coal like to butter yellow.
Jim wanted to show me a shortcut to the stream that already involves a long hike in. This one would cut a bit of the time but involved a steep climb.
We did it, me not as quickly as Jim. I used the heavy camera gear as an excuse but he was also blowing hard when we got to the top.
He had already embraced the minimalist approach of tenkara and had not bothered with waders, opting instead for flats trousers, trainers and a Detroit Tigers t shirt. He proudly showed off his new Simms sling pack that I pretended to only be mildly interested in although it looked as though there was enough room in it to carry me and my camera gear back if the going got too tough.
We set up, tied on one of my parachute coachmen and Jim started off. It took a few casts for him to get the proper feel but once he had started making the shorter casting stroke required by tenkara fishers he was soon rising fish.
We were fishing proper pocket water and Jim leaped from one rock to another like a fly fishing Legolas.
I thought the unfamiliar way of playing and landing a fish would throw Jim but I had mentioned to be careful of how fragile the tip is and he quickly worked out how to bring a fish to hand by keeping the rod high and then grabbing the leader.
It really is a way to travel light and with just a few flies and some tippet. The water we fished complimented it with small, free rising brown trout.
It is easy to fall into clichés about the zen like quality of this style of fishing but it really was the case; Jim was in the zone and I left him alone to catch some fish while I sat on a rock watching for a bit.
I’m not going to become a dyed in the wool tenkara bum anytime soon but it was fun and it’ll be something I’ll do a little more regularly than I have done.
I watched Jim release a fish and he looked over. It was getting late and we had the walk back to contend with.
Pete Tyjas is a fly fishing guide based in Devon
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