Tenkara Fishing in Dorset: Tenkara, #1

By John Allen

Tenkara fishing can be seen as a streamlined counterpart to western fly-fishing. The equipment is designed to direct focus to the actual fishing and catching of the fish, not to cause a major preoccupation with the equipment. Only a rod, tenkara line and fly are necessary for tenkara fishing (no reel is used).
The appeal of tenkara is its elegant simplicity. There are also other advantages of using the long tenkara rods when fishing in mountain streams, primarily the lightness of the line and delicate presentation. A long rod allows for precise placement of the fly on small pools and allows for holding the fly in place on the other side of a current. The other main advantage of using the long tenkara rod is precise control for manipulation of the fly.

This is one mans story, from learning the art of Tenkara in Japan to using it in the UK.  

A complete book covering the history, the technique and a "How to" section on making Tenkara flies, and making your own furled lines.

• Language: English
• Publisher: John Allen
• Release date: Jan 10, 2016
• ISBN: 9781497449602

Book preview

Tenkara: A brief history.

Long pole fishing started in Egypt around two thousand years ago.  Over the centuries almost every culture had some version of it, all using some form of natural bait and a hook to catch fish.  By the thirteenth century the first crude reels were starting to appear, but long pole and fixed line (no reel) fishing remained.  Maybe because all you needed was to cut a suitable piece of bamboo, or limb from a tree, to have a rod.  Some cultures, however, adopted using just a long line and hand drawing it on the retrieve, so there was no need then to make or carry a rod. Other cultures developed nets to harvest the fish, others spears.

Tenkara fishing originated in Japan some two hundred years ago as an evolution of long pole fishing, with fishermen fishing the mountain streams and lakes using artificial bait, a mock fly or an insect disguising the hook.  It was soon found to be a very effective method of catching the local fish such as salmon, trout and char and the development of this unique fly began. 

The first reference to Tenkara fly-fishing in western literature was in 1878 in a book called Diary of climbing Mt. Tateyama by British diplomat, then resident in Japan, Ernest Mason Satow.  Satow was also a keen angler, fishing both fly and Tenkara styles on his travels.  By comparison, little was known about western fly-fishing until The Treatyse on Fysshynge wyth an Angle was published (1496) within The Boke of Saint Albans attributed to Dame Juliana Berners.  The book contains instructions on rod, line and hook making, plus dressings for different flies to use at different times of the year.  Later and probably better known references can be found in Izaak Walton's book, "The Compleat Angler" (1653).

The appeal of Tenkara is its elegant simplicity. There are also other advantages of using the long Tenkara rods when fishing in mountain streams and lakes.  Primarily the lightness of the line, delicate presentation and the long rod allow for both the precise placement of the fly on small pools and for holding the fly in place on the other side of a current.  The other main advantage of using the long Tenkara rod is precise control for manipulation of the fly.

The Rod.

A very long, flexible rod, normally ranging from 3.3m to 4.5m (11ft to 15ft) in length. These rods were originally made of bamboo or split cane.

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A traditional Tenkara bamboo rod, 4.5m (15ft) long.

They also may have a handle similar to that of a fly-fishing rod, sometimes made of wood as on the more prized rods or cork/foam for the cheaper or more modern rods.

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Examples of a hand carved wooden handle and a cheaper cork handle.

Most modern Tenkara rods are made from carbon and/or glass fibre, and are telescopic for ease of transportation.

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A typical eight section telescopic Tenkara rod.

Tenkara rods are not grouped by line weight like fly rods but instead they are grouped by a bend rating such as 5:5, 6:4, 7:3 and 8:2.  Tenkara rods all have soft tip sections and much stiffer butt sections.  The ratings give an idea of where the softer sections transition into the stiffer sections. It is not as simple as six sections are stiff and four are soft, because not all Tenkara rods have ten sections.  It is more like a percentage split over the length, like 60/40 (sixty percent of the rod length is stiffer and forty percent is softer).

If you have ever taken a rod and just wiggled it, you will have seen the butt section move to the left while the tip moves to the right, then the butt moves to the right and the tip moves to the left. There is a point on the rod that is stationary: the point where the tip section goes one way and the butt section goes the other.  On an 8:2 rod, that point is closer to the rod tip than on a 6:4 rod, and it is closer to the tip on a 6:4 rod than on a 5:5 rod.

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Unfortunately, the rating system is of little use to rod buyers as not all Tenkara rod manufacturers use it, and among those that do there is no real consistency.  A 7:3 rod from one manufacturer can be very different from a 7:3 produced by another manufacturer.  So only take the rating as a rough indication and not fact.  Some manufacturers resort to naming the rod to indicate its type.

Tenkara Line.

As in fly-fishing, it is the Tenkara line that propels the weightless fly forward. In Tenkara, the traditional and most commonly used line is a tapered furled line of hand twisted hair, braid or monofilament, of the same length as the rod.  The main advantage of furled lines is the delicate presentation and ease of casting.  Alternatively, a Tenkara level line can be used. Level lines are specially formulated fluorocarbon adjusted to the desired length.  Level lines are easier to cast against the wind.

The traditional Tenkara line is a hand furled (twisted) line.  Normally the line reduces thickness down its length, going from say six strands to four strands, to two strands at its thinnest end.  Both a level line and the tapered line have a large loop of cord at its thicker end and a smaller loop at the thinner end.  Using a cow hitch knot, the line is tied directly to the tip of the rod.  The line at the rod’s tip, (the Lillian string), needs to have a stopper knot or small bead, which will hold the cow hitch in place.  It is a very secure method to attach the line to the rod.  The tippet is connected to the thinnest end of the main line using loop-to-loop.

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Tenkara furled line. This line goes from six strands to two over its 3.3m (11ft) length.

Note: On the thickest