Paul Gaskell and John Pearson are without a doubt the leading pioneers of tenkara fishing in the UK. They have fully immersed themselves in the culture and tradition of tenkara and Paul shares a trip they made to Japan to spend time on the water with their fishing heroes. All photos by John Pearson.
Paul Gaskell Inbox: New Mail
“Mr.Paul
Hello!
It is the season when the Japanese mountain stream is the most beautiful in one year now. This is one of the mountain streams where you make fishing. It is scenery of May 17. I will wait for you at an airport on May 23.
Go on a good trip.
Dr. Hisao Ishigaki”
That was it then; we were going to Japan. Fellow addict John Pearson and I would now experience the streams, landscape and angling community that had gripped our interest ever since we learned of their existence only five years ago. For both of us, tenkara (a traditional Japanese form of fly fishing) was a passion that blossomed from a small itch of mild curiosity roused by Charles Rangeley Wilson’s documentary “Fish: A Japanese Obsession”. That initial spark had seen us go from eager experimenters with fixed-line/reel-less fly fishing, through to internet-research fanatics and even, somehow, hosting famous tenkara ambassador Dr. Hisao Ishigaki on his first trip to England in 2013.
The following spring, we had touched down for the return trip – and to have Ishigaki-sensei collect us from the airport was a bit like being a footballer on a pilgrimage to Brazil finding Pele heading the welcoming party. Naturally, it was a weirdly wonderful experience and our host’s beaming smile and ready chuckle were, as ever, irresistibly charming. For a man approaching 70, he all but left us in his dust after grabbing our heaviest suitcase and rattling off across the concourse to lead us to his car parked in the bowels of Nagoya’s busy, artificial-island airport.
Dr. Hisao Ishigaki fishing with us in Itoshiro
That “controlled bustle” pace was a reliable theme for all the commitments Ishigaki-sensei scheduled for us. Fresh off the plane, we were whisked north from Nagoya along the freeway to Itoshiro-gawa in Gifu Prefecture. The industrial conurbation giving way first to paddy fields and ultimately to steep mountain switchbacks affording stunning views of pine and bamboo-clad mountainsides.
Rice paddies and mountains with crystal clear rivers: Japan
By the time it came to our evening meal we had already met Hirata-san (Itoshiro tackle shop owner, venomous snake catcher and vice-less/fingertip fly tier), Ikuta-san (84-year old fish farmer) and received the deep honour of the gift from Itoshiro-san (president of local angling association) of free permits to fish the Itoshiro river system as privileged guests. Oh and we’d squeezed in a visit to the local riverside shrine to make an offering in hope of good fishing before wetting a line.
Hirata-san - complete with "mamushi" or Japanese Pit Viper skin which he uses for the bodies of his flies
We were even lucky enough to be blessed with captures of two out of the three species of beautiful native salmonid fish on our wish list before our evening meal. The first of which was the emerald-green backed/pearl and orange spotted “Iwana” (white spotted char) and the second; the red and black-flecked/molten chrome and pink-flanked “amago” (a non-migratory member of the “cherry salmon” group). Both species are unutterably beautiful in the flesh – and they live in the pure, cold, boulder-strewn and aquamarine-hued streams of the Japanese mountains.
Iwana (white spotted char)
Amago (rain-child trout)
Catch and Release is a fledgling movement in Japan and Itoshiro river system is one of the first fisheries to have established a few strictly “no kill” beats. This policy – and the resultant fishing for larger fish - became the subject of a TV documentary into which Dr. Ishigaki had managed to shoe-horn us as “featured stooges” during our first days in Japan.
A very new and very rare concept in Japan
Dr. Ishigaki is a regular on Japanese TV
I expect that the “blue-eyed novelty foreigners practicing arcane Japanese fishing methods” card had been played pretty hard; and it seemed that this ploy had also secured the senior editor of Japan’s “Tsuribito” (“Angler”) magazine Kensuke Yagi – who came to interview us and take photographs of our fishing.
No pressure then…
As part of this documentary caper – we also got to meet and be tutored by Masami Sakakibara who, it is fair to say, qualifies as one of our idols. Sakakibara-san is known by the nickname “Tenkara-no-Oni” (Tenkara-demon) and is one of the most technically accomplished river fly anglers we’ve ever encountered.
Masami Sakakibara - an astonishingly talented angler
His effortless, deadly-accurate casting loops – using un-tapered fluorocarbon lines anywhere between 4 and 12-m long – were astonishing. These casts dropped his simple, slender wet fly (usually tied with a fine, black dubbed body and a large, mobile hen-pheasant hackle or yellow thread body and bristly ginger cock hackle) into each likely lie. Then, deft manoeuvres with Oni’s rod tip played the line against the water and wind currents to coax convincing impressions of a struggling insect from his feather and thread offerings. We watched him hop nimbly between stances amid crests of white water, water-smoothed boulders and azure-coloured eddying pockets to ply beautiful casts under a cobalt sky in the crisp mountain air for hours. It was a glass-case display of fly fishing perfection! There seemed to be an unavoidable certainty every time a bright wild fish pounced eagerly on his simple, seductive flies. They had no choice but to take the fly – and he had no choice but to only make the perfect cast from the one perfect position.
Masami and me (sometimes you should meet your heroes)
The fish that we caught were so plainly “of their place” in the cool, achingly-transparent mountain stream water; each one an inseparable constituent of the snow-melt, mountain, stream, fish continuum. Under the guidance of the anglers we met, we steadily expanded our existing repertoire of fly and line control and this helped us to improve the odds of encountering these beautiful fish. We delighted in deploying the trick of using eddying currents to anchor the fly and hold station for a few additional seconds – or to control the drift just sub-surface so the fly travelled just fractionally slower than the true dead drift in order to draw strikes from these – often shy – trout and char. When you got all the elements right, a shadow would materialise from the cobbled stream bed, engulf the fly and turn back down to the depths – leaving you to lift into the fish and set the rod bucking as it lunged deep and then leapt from the clear waters in a shower of spray. Or else fish might mosey up and bump the fly casually with their nose before a lazy flick of the tail angled them back down on station to wait for something more tempting!
John with a nice Iwana
Our nods of approval, consequently, did not really come from our very generous and encouraging Japanese hosts. Instead, the odd capture of larger specimens of the most beautiful species that we encountered - the shy and sought-after “yamame” - let us know when we’d met the standard. Yamame are a red-spot-lacking variant of amago whose Japanese name translates as “woman of the mountain stream” and whose livery is rendered in the most subtle blends of pinks, blues, greys and silver. The impression they leave on the angler following a brief encounter is not an easy thing to convey in words.
This yamame, seemed almost unreal up-close
But it would be wrong to say that the fish and the rivers are the only things that define the joy of Japanese tenkara. Some of the most important aspects of the pursuit stem from the strength of camaraderie displayed by the community of anglers who often drive up to nine hours to fish regularly with each other over long weekends. For these meetings, the food, drink, affectionate ribbing and animated discussion of techniques and exploits form the real basis for the whole obsession. We were incredibly fortunate to be welcomed into the fold of some of these authentic “tenkara nuts” who also just happen to include a sprinkling of the most talented tenkara anglers in Japan.
In fact Go Ishii is one such person - a brilliant angler and a warm personality. He is bilingual (Japanese /English), generous to a fault and runs three successful businesses whilst still being one of the most regular attendees of tenkara gatherings. Go, like other members of the community, typically fishes more than 50 days out of the six month (or so) season; despite living in Tokyo – which is a six to nine hour drive away (depending on traffic and venue). Along with Saigo-san and Makino-san (who fished >80 days in the 2013 short season), Go was the person that we spent the most time with. This group totally overwhelmed us with hospitality, generosity and warmth. Everyone had an affectionate, devilish sense of humour and, even when limited Japanese met with limited English, the food, fishing and shared beer, sake and shōchū (strong spirits!) made for memorable exchanges.
In order to maximise opportunities for these fully-immersive meetings, the serious tenkara-addict typically has their van converted to incorporate a single bed, rod racks and magnificent arrays of barbecue and camping cookware. A cool-box for beverages and a natty selection of camping tables, chairs and portable light sources completes the essential kit.
The tenkara nuts (kei-kyo-jin) escape the cities to meet and recharge their souls in surroundings like this
Food, during every meal, was unfailingly fresh, delicious and distinctive. Fish and seafood, naturally, were regular staples – as well as glossy-grained, tender rice, crisp sheets of “nori” (seaweed), artistic piles of little pickled vegetables and a dazzling variety of barbecue and “nabe” (pot-cooking done in broth at the table over individual burners). Local specialities of Hida beef (beyond succulent!) and “shioyake” (marinated/salt-crusted and slow-cooked skewered trout or char) were unmissable treats. Perhaps the stand-out delicacy was the “sansai” tempura - wild mountain plants gathered locally by tenkara anglers and fried to perfection; absolutely delicious and unique.
Whilst spending time in the company of these tenkara devotees, we filmed some wonderful interviews and fly-tying sequences. Conversations often continued long after we had finished recording and took many subjects surrounding fish behaviour, river flow dynamics and stream craft. For instance, did you know that, for a stubborn fish, an induced take where the fly comes into sight from behind and alongside the torpid fish has much more chance of success than one where the fish can see the fly dead drifting towards it first?
Some of Masami's flies (these ones tied with quill bodies)
The fly tying discussions were wonderful gifts to come home with and contrast interestingly with our UK tying heritage. In tenkara flies, the materials are applied to the hook in order to perform a specific physical function. For instance, that function may be to catch and grip eddying currents, waft enticingly when “pulsed” by the angler’s rod or to be reasonably visible to the angler just sub-surface as an aid to take-detection. This is quite different from the ideas of using shape and colour to act, primarily, as imitative features of insects. Although the “angler-functional” elements of a fly must come together to resemble some kind of insect; the main aim is definitely to produce a rough, “buggy” impression that best facilitates the angler’s efforts to put it in front of a fish!
Mamushi skin fly tied without a vice by Hirata san (barb would not be allowed on C & R waters)
As well as the perfection of the outdoor settings, the range of traditional accommodation that we stayed in also left its mark on us. Eating, sleeping and socialising in the typically simple and beautifully elegant interiors generated an appealing – almost therapeutic – sensation. This was compounded significantly by bathing, according to strict Japanese protocol, in hot volcanic spring water “onsen” facilities; an addictive experience and something that is sorely missed having departed Japan!
The soothing surroundings of a traditional Japanese Inn or "ryokan"
Whoever coined the phrase about there being more to fishing than catching fish was definitely onto something. That is not to say that the fish, the rivers and the sheer joy of casting loops propelling wispy flies to temp pristine trout and char from their homes among the boulders were not centrally important. These things are important – crucial even. It is just that the sum of all the other contextual components made for an incomparably greater whole. Japan, we will return (in fact, we’ve been back in 2015 and are going again in 2016…)!
Paul and John have launched a series of free email lessons that teach top-level European river fishing techniques for rod & reel as a way of explaining effective tenkara tactics. You can register on the links below to get these delivered to your inbox free of charge (you are encouraged to offer constructive criticism – it is greatly appreciated). These will be reviewed in a future issue of ESF.
Anglers outside the USA please register using this link: UK/Europe FREE TUTORIALS
US anglers please register on this link: USA FREE TUTORIALS
Discover Tenkara website - click here