One fly

Following up on Dr. Hisao Ishigaki’s visit to the Catskills in May, we just posted a movie preview of our upcoming movie on Dr. Ishigaki’s visit marking the introduction of tenkara to the US.

http://vimeo.com/moogaloop.swf?clip_id=6188594&server=vimeo.com&show_title=1&show_byline=1&show_portrait=0&color=00ADEF&fullscreen=1

During his visit, Dr. Ishigaki did a fly-tying demonstration of the one and ONLY pattern he’s used for almost 10 years, a “sakasa” fly pattern (reversed hackle). He first learned about this fly in a shop in Japan, and after some years of fishing several different patterns was quickly attracted to its simplicity,sparseness, and soon its effectiveness. It’s a very simple and quick fly to tie.

This one-fly approach puzzled many of the present guests, particularly since he expressed his philosophy and theories in an area known for its fly-tiers and the invention of a multitude of fly-patterns. A doctor in the field of vision studies, Dr. Ishigaki bases his theory on the fact that a fish’s vision is very poor, and it will go for anything moving nearby, and also on the fact that despite of only using one fly-pattern he’s continued to catch as many fish as he ever did when using several different patterns. The instincts of a trout won’t allow it to waste an opportunity to grab food.

As Dr. Ishigaki says, in tenkara “it’s all about technique; whether one catches fish or not is entirely up to him, not the gear, not even the fly.” The main appeal of tenkara to Dr. Ishigaki and many other tenkara anglers is its simplicity. He fully embraces the simplicity in fishing with only a rod, line and a fly. But, he takes it further than many dare.

The idea of limiting yourself to only the most basic elements of fly-fishing and fully dedicating yourself to technique and presentation is appealing! This experience really got me thinking, what if I could only carry one fly? Would I still be able to catch fish? It is hard, VERY HARD in fact, to stick with only one fly. I have been trying it, but it takes a level of confidence, or discipline, I don’t yet have.

John Steinback once wrote, “It has always been my private conviction that any man who pits his intelligence against a fish and loses has it coming”. Maybe intelligence also involves selecting the right fly, but, maybe switching flies is just…the easy way out.

Fishy Kid

A very cool project has just gotten underway with our support: Fishy Kid

As the simplest, and arguably most enjoyable and effective method of fly-fishing, we strongly believe tenkara is an incredible way to introduce youth to the sport of fly-fishing and are proud supporters of this project.

The site is the work of Cameron (Fiberglass Manifesto) and Kevin (Red Dirt Studio) and is currently being supported by a very large number of artists and companies, including Tenkara USA, with the intent to get kids involved in one way or another in the wonderful sport, and as the site shows, art of fly-fishing.  The site will be running various contests for kids, currently there is a coloring book contest and participants will be winning some very cool gear from sponsors, including traditional tenkara fly sets from us.

From their site: “Fishy Kid was inspired by two fathers who enjoy the sport of fly fishing and want to do our part in passing along the virtues of the outdoors to our children as well as to families within the online angling community.”

American Angler: "Who are the new faces in fly-fishing?"

I feel a little out-of-character asking for such a thing, but after reading the call for submissions from American Angler magazine I felt I needed to spread the word and make a quick request from those who get the idea behind tenkara.

American Angler asks, “Who are the faces [under 40] of fly fishing’s future? (http://americanangler.com/index.php?option=com_forme&fid=31)

If you think of tenkara as an “innovation” or something that will have a lasting impact in America’s small stream fly-fishing, as founder of Tenkara USA, I would like to ask for your vote under the “product developer” category.

Daniel W. Galhardo, founder of Tenkara USA

Tenkara is not a current innovation in the grand-scheme of things, it has been around for at least a couple of hundred years. But, I believe its introduction to the US marks one of the few “new” things that have come to market in recent times and that may have an impact in the way fly-fishing is done. It also reminds us that not all innovations are new “gadgets”, some of them are just adopted or repurposed from other industries (think fly-tying materials) or from other countries (think spey, tenkara, and, oh!, fly-fishing).

Thank you.

Daniel W. Galhardo