We always say that tenkara is much more about the experience rather than gear. I suppose we mean that literally in every way.
The other day I was talking to a friend who recently took up tenkara. Tenkara has been her first experience fly-fishing, Then she went out fishing with a group of anglers using reels.
The other anglers caught fish that day (1 or 2 each); she didn’t.
As she proceeded to tell me the story she said, “maybe the other kind of fishing would have been better there.”
The point of this post is that our natural tendency will always be to blame the equipment, yet with more actual experience one can distinguish what really is important. Read on for what led me to reflect on this.
I asked about the other anglers experience. They were not that much more experienced than her. I asked specifically where they had gone, I knew the water well: moving water, roughtly 20ft across, lots of bends in a meadow stream. It wasn’t the water, which in my opinion is absolutely tenkara-perfect. In fact I had fished that particular session multiple times in the last couple of months, with great success.
Not having being there, I couldn’t say anything about technique, neither whether they could have been following anglers who were fishing pools first, ahead of them. But, I realized that’s likely a natural tendency: blame the equipment.
When we are fishing with someone with similar equipment, and more experience than us, we’ll likely immediately blame ourselves and our technique. We will own the responsibility that we could do better. Yet, lacking a companion with the same experience but similar equipment, we’ll immediately blame the first thing we can think of…”maybe tenkara was not the best there.”
I know that’s not the case, the equipment is rarely to blame, I know it very well. But, how do you get someone to believe you when you’re not there to show the case?
Then, on Sunday, I took her tenkara fishing along with 2 other friends. We all used the same equipment. In fact, the first stream we fished was a very small and tight stream, and as they were all just beginning I suggested that we took turns with one rod. I then would identify good pockets, and try to explain exactly why they were the best pockets and the best position to approach them from. As they fished I provided some suggestions when warranted.
It was a lot o fun to take turns fishing pools with equally good odds, all together, same equipment (including the same fly), and as best I could I also passed on my experience. Every one of the variables had been equalized, except for actual experience.
I let them fish first, and I imagine that among their first 10 casts at least on 2 they must have thought to themselves that the fly was the wrong size, or the wrong shape, or the wrong colors. After several attempts, I’d finally ask them to give it a try. I caught a fish. The thoughts of “wrong equipment” probably diminished dramatically, and then disappeared with the second fish. Their technique was actually good, casting was precise, line tight, follow the current for very good drifts. The only thing I knew was preventing them from catching a fish was not related to equipment, but rather it was just the actual experience of seeing this happen dozens of times to notice the subtle differences between a take and a line caught in place for a second in a whirlpool. (“Actual experience” is probably a good post all of its own another day.)
We moved to a second stream, this one wider, about 30-40ft wide. It was also more open, so I suggested we all just fish there on our own. Two of our rods were setup with larger flies. The two with larger flies happened to catch fish in the 40minutes we fished there, before the dark sky threatened with lightening and forced us to try yet a third stream.
As we drove to the 3rd stream, not very far away, my friend who doubted her equipment earlier suggested it was likely the larger flies (again equipment). I agreed that was definitely a possibility, especially with the high water we are having. Yet, I had a fair amount of confidence it was not the fly (equipment) today. I thought it was just the fact that the two rods with larger fish ended up in the best spots in our short 40 minutes.d
We parked the car for our third destination, I told her to keep the same fly and give me one of her flies and that I’d catch a fish with it. Once again we fished for a short period of no more than 40 minutes. Only one fish was caught…and it was with my friend’s fly.
Blaming the equipment is a natural first instinct in many of us. Blaming the equipment only becomes less instinctual as we acquire more actual experience. As we said, tenkara is more about the experience rather than the equipment.
Fixing the problem uh, fixes the problem.
Fixing the blame does nothing.
Nice read.
Though you think experience is is important, i think luck is the number one thing in Tenkara.I have spent so much time but no fish.
Jesus, my grandfather used to say that luck is a combination of preparation and opportunity. I think I’d equate preparation to experience and opportunity to any opportunity to go fishing.
Great post. I don’t think I’ve ever blamed my equipment for not catching fish. I don’t even blame the fly. I pretty much blame myself. But I can see how some people would blame tenkara thinking that if they could shoot line or something, they’d catch fish. Or, maybe, more commonly, they blame the fly. I used to blame the fly all the time before I started tenkara fishing.
Isn’t it interesting that a whole industry of over-priced fly fishing equipment has emerged based on the false premise of “blaming the equipment.” We can’t cast as far or reel as fast, or control line as well, or wade as deep without space-age alloy infused into our basalt built fly rods, resin coated fly lines, meteor metal reinforced reels, and teflon breathable waders. Of course that is nonsense but doesn’t stop many from laying out tens of thousands on unnecessary equipment. I know, I went through that stage when I was younger.
Tenkara has brought me back to the innocence of my days astream as an eight year old hunter of brook trout with a bean pole. It was simple then and is so now, but decades of over thinking it oxidized that nascent understanding that it was us and not the equipment. My fishing buddy and, in full disclosure, I have spent thousands on gear. With a $200 Tenkara rod and $2 level line cut from a 3.5 spool, a little bit of tippet (5¢), and kebari (50¢) I can now do the same or better most every day. PRICELESS!!
That’s a good assessment. Fly fishing is killing itself while Tenkara addresses the problem.
Good reply.
I found I can blame my spouse. She took so long on Sunday showering in the AM I missed my opportunity to get my line wet. So I blamed her. hehehe