Author and Oregon fishing guide John Larison takes us to his special river sanctuary he has been enjoying since childhood. Unfortunately a profit driven logging company had other plans along the banks of one of Oregon's most diverse coastal rivers with little regard for just about anything.

The first of a series in conjunction with the documentary film "Wild Reverence" The plight of the wild steelhead.

River of Hope “The Wild Reverence Sessions” • Fly Fishing Reporter

Tenkara Rod Setup - What You'll Need

If you are not familiar with Tenkara, it's a simple form of fly fishing that uses only a rod, line and fly. No reel required. So setup of a Tenkara rod is pretty simple, yet it is definitely different than setting up a traditional western style fly rod.

Tenkara Rod First Impression

For this exercise I really thought I needed some help so I recruited my youngest son Jack to help out. Here's Jack puzzling over my new Tenkara ITO rod in the backyard. His first question, "Uhhhh, how do you fish with this, it's so short."

"Ahh Grasshopper", I said, "one must not be so quick to jump to conclusions. All is not as it seems." And with that I removed the little plug (it has a name, but don't remember what it's called) on the end of the telescoping rod and extended the rod to its' full length of 14-feet, seven-inches.

Now what do you think? "Wow!", said Jack, "how do you fish with this, it's so long! They must not have trees in Japan. And how is it so light?" All good questions Jack.

I too was wondering how one fishes with such a long rod. Fortunately, the ITO has this neat zooming feature that allows you to fish it at 13-feet or 14'7". Even at 13-feet it seems really long. But that's to be expected when you are are accustomed to fishing a rod 9 or 10-feet long. We'll worry about fishing this thing later, let's get back to the point of this post, how to setup a Tenkara rod.

How to Setup a Tenkara Rod

In additional to the rod you need to purchase a "line" to attach to the end of the rod. But this is not an ordinary fly line, rather something that looks more like what we call a "leader" in Western style fly fishing.

Tenkara fly lines come in tapered and level varieties. The tapered lines were originally constructed from horsehair but are now made of mono-filament and are akin to a furled leader in construction. The level lines are basically a straight section of uniform diameter fluorocarbon mono-filament material.

Rather than try to explain how to attach a Tenkara line to the rod, I'll let Tenkara USA founder Daniel Galhardo show you.

Click here to watch video.

Once you have the line attached to the rod, it's a simple matter of adding a section of tippet and your fly and you are good to go.

Up next in this mini-series on Tenkara fly fishing, we'll cover some options you have for attaching tippet to a Tenkara line, including how to add a sighter for improved strike detection.

Tight (Tenkara) lines!

[Video] How to Setup a Tenkara Rod • Fly Fishing Reporter

Mr. Katsutoshi Amano, one of the longest practitioners of tenkara in Japan, shows us how he ties his tenkara flies - Japanese style.

Japanese Tenkara Flies

Tenkara fly tying Japanese style? I know that's a bit of an oxymoron but after seeing Daniel Galhardo tying a tenkara fly freehand I wondered if that is how they do it in Japan, and yes it is. Or at least that's how folks started out anyway.

While the practice of tying tenkara flies freehand is a traditional practice in Japan, it is also practiced elsewhere in the world. From the UK to South America and even here in the US. Back before fly tying vises became commercially available that's just how you did it.

Tenkara to Unite the World

In a world that seems so divided today it's neat to think about something as simple a tying flies, and fly fishing in general, that is practiced world-wide.

Even though this video is in Japanese, and I don't speak Japanese, I understand (and you probably do too) every word, or at least every emotion, of that Mr. Amano expresses.

Just think, what if more politicians and world leaders took up tying flies and fly fishing? Maybe we'd all understand each other better and bring us closer together.

Who knows!

p.s. As an update to my last post, I successfully won a bid on eBay for my first Tenkara fly rod - a TenkaraUSA ITO! If it arrives in time and I'm able to walk (I sprained my ankle badly yesterday), I'll break it in this weekend and let you know what I think.

[Video] Tenkara Fly Tying Japanese Style • Fly Fishing Reporter

I've been watching with interest the growth of Tenkara here in the US which has been due in large part to the tireless efforts of Daniel Galhardo, founder of Tenkara USA.

Simple Tenkara Flies

Most Tenkara flies are a simple affair and tied with a reverse hackle as Daniel demonstrates in the video above. Here Daniel ties an Amano Kebari with just a hook, thread and a single pheasant feather. Oh, and he does it free-hand without a vise. It doesn't get much simpler than that.

Simple Fly Fishing

If you are not familiar with the Tenkara style of fishing it too is a simple affair. Just a rod, a fixed length leader, tippet and fly. No reel required.

Tenkara was developed hundreds of years ago in Japan as a simple yet effective technique to catch trout in mountain streams. Not much has changed since then and as Daniel demonstrates it's still a very effective technique.

Time For Tenkara

I'm at a point in my life where I could use a bit of simplification, so I think it's time I gave Tenkara a try. I've sold some of my Western style fly fishing gear and am shopping for a Tenkara rod as we speak. I'll let you know how it goes.

[Video] Tenkara: Simple Flies and Fly Fishing • Fly Fishing Reporter

PA Undercurrent Outfitters serves up this sweet fly fishing footage of early season baetis hatches on some of my favorite waters in Central Pennsylvania.

Baetis, Blue-Winged Olives or just BWO?

As the film producers note, "whatever you call them, its more than likely they're the first mayfly to hatch in your area. Less colorful and much smaller than the mayflies that come to the party later in the season, they still provide outstanding dry-fly opportunities to fish that haven't been pressured for months on end."

What's Up with the Trains?

If you've ever fished the waters of central Pennsylvania featured in this video you'll understand the train references. Several of these famed waters run along-side train tracks that still see plenty of use. This is due, in part, to the local geology.

The long, narrow, and steep sided ridges with narrow valleys that characterize parts of central PA necessitated that railroads follow the topography of the valleys (rather than cut across ridges), i.e. they were built along paths of least resistance. Rivers follow the same path, hence they are located along side each other.

Or could it be something else as the boys from PA Undercurrent Outfitters theorize,

"while fishing these Olives all over central Pennsylvania, we couldn't help but notice the rails-to-stream side correlation. It seemed everywhere there were good Baetis hatches, there was the presence of trains as well. Could it be that the men who laid the plans to these tracks just wanted to gain quick, and easy access, to the best early-season dry fly fishing?"

I wonder...

Baetis Train Rolling Through Central PA • Fly Fishing Reporter