Tenkara USA items

Boulder in Colorado is our home, and we fish all the waters around here frequently. Thus this is a good place to start our, “Which tenkara rod to buy for my region?” series. In this case, “Which tenkara rod to buy for Colorado” focusing on the Boulder and Front Range areas.

Boulder sits right on the foothills of the Rocky Mountains. To the West we have the mountains, to the East we have plains. Going North we can reach the larger rivers of Wyoming, and going into the mountains we can choose to fish small streams or large rivers. The diversity of waters around Boulder is one of the reasons we chose to move Tenkara USA here many years ago.

The variety of waters can also mean a variety of tenkara rods can be used successfully around here. But hopefully this will help you narrow down the ideal choice of tenkara rod to use here.
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We don’t release new products very often, but when we do it is because we think they need to be out there. I hope you will enjoy the offerings below.

T-shirt, $24

A fish rises to a kebari, you think about that day and night.
Designed by Jeremy Shellhorn, 100% cotton, made in the USA.
Rising Fish T-Shirt.

T-shirt, $24

Celebrating 10 years since the introduction of tenkara to the US.
Designed by Jeremy Shellhorn, 100% cotton, made in the USA.
Tenkara Line Drawing T-Shirt.

It has been a while since I released a new tenkara rod here at Tenkara USA. The last time was the release of the Sato and Rhodo some 4 years ago.

I am a strong believer that companies shouldn’t release new products simply with the goal of loading people with something new. Too often a need for growth rather than customer interest is what drives product releases. But we were missing a product that I feel completes our lineup.

I wanted to create an adventure rod. It would be strong to handle just about whatever was thrown at it in terms of fish; and it would be super portable but not compromise durability or feel. At last that rod is here.

The Hane (pronounced “huh-neh”, and Japanese for feather) is that rod. It’s a new take on a rod I made many years ago for Backpacking Light, a rod that had a good following and needed to exist.

If you are interested in a rod that will fit in your small carry-on when you travel, your daypack when you go for hikes, or your bike’s saddlebag, check out the Hane ($150). It is a great rod to tag along in all your adventures.

Got some news about the book: the files have been sent to the printer!!! YEAY! We are told about 2 to 3 weeks for delivery. The book will be printed in Denver, so I’ll be going to the press checks and keeping an eye on it as it comes out. I’ll be sending out a survey to ask for addresses from those who have pre-purchased it.

Meanwhile, as Jeremy worked on wrapping the files up yesterday I recorded a new podcast episode, in which I talk about my favorite rod, the Ito.

The Ito is The Ito is my favorite as well as that of many of the most experienced tenkara anglers. Yet, people are intimidated by its length. Listen to this episode to learn about what makes the Ito a favorite of so many anglers and why you should give it a try!

Referenced in this episode:

The Ito

Videos:

Landing a large brown on tenkara with the Ito

Facebook live video catching carp and bass with the Tenkara USA Ito

Unfortunately the Rip’Em & Lip’Em videos I mentioned are no longer available on Youtube, I’m trying to get the video files to share soon.

Images:

Mr. Sebata with the Ito

Shaun Lezotte with a large 29″ pike caught on tenkara

Me with a large size brown trout caught on the Ito (right after the header image for this podcast was taken)

This is an update on tenkara – the book, which will soon be arriving.

The book is now in its final stage before we print it and mail it. Thank you for your patience! After seeing the near-final product I can promise it will be worth the wait!

Over the last two weeks I holed myself up and focused exclusively on finishing final text revisions for tenkara – the book. The current version is looking so much cleaner than how it started. I don’t say this easily very often about my own work, but I am very proud of how this book has shaped up.

On Wednesday the book designer and illustrator, Jeremy Shellhorn, flew over to Boulder and we got to work together non-stop on the book. It was 3 long days of doing the final layout, placing the final images and touching up every single detail on every single page we touched. It was quite a amazing experience to see Jeremy do the work in front of me and bring words and photos to life in a way that just feel so…tenkara. We did a Facebook live video when we started working on it yesterday morning where we show a bit of what we have done.

The most interesting thing was our process in this last leg of the journey. We sat next to each other at the office, I would send him sections of text that were finalized and he would lay them out with the suggested photograph. But, because Jeremy knows our photography portfolio and tenkara so well, he would remember images that could be even better in a certain section. I’d find the image and send it to him and we would see how it worked. Other times we explored the text and found better, usually simpler, ways of saying things. This is a big contrast with traditional publishing, where the publisher requests that the text and images be completely done and sent over, then there are some several rounds of back and forth between author, designer, editor. In our case, the instant collaboration on every single page of the book has undoubtedly created a better produce. We can not begin to imagine doing this phase in any other way.

I expect about 5 more days to send the file to the printer, then about 3 weeks for it to be ready to ship. So, we are looking at approximately March 15th at the moment.

I feel embarrassed that I originally promised the book would be in your hands in January and I didn’t get it ready on time. I am not sure I underestimated the scope of this project or whether I just kept finding ways to make it a better book. This has been the toughest thing I have ever done, but I am incredibly excited about how it is turning out. I do apologize for the delay, if any would prefer a refund for me not meeting the timeline, I’d completely understand.

Now the finish line is very clear and we are just about to cross it. tenkara – the book will be something you’ll be very happy with. Next time you hear from me will be to get your address.

My best regards,

Daniel Galhardo
soon-to-be author

A little while ago we updated our tenkara rod cases. If you are interested in getting one of the new Tenkara USA rod cases to upgrade your existing one, these are now available here. They will be sold at a discounted price of $15 for the next two weeks to give you a chance to get them for an upgrade. These cases all share the same cap thread, but the rod name is printed on the cap. The rod cases also come with a stretchy woven rod sock.

Wohoo! The Keeper is finally here!

The Keeper™ is a tenkaraline holder solution designed to hold two tenkara lines, or tenkara line and tippet. It also features a small integrated fly box. That way a minimalist tenkara angler can grab his favorite tenkara rod, and a loaded Keeper and go fishing.
Tenkara Line Keeper.
Thank you all very much for your patience as we faced a delay overcame some challenges in the initial run.

It’s been overdue for sometime, we know. But, I’m happy to announce we finally built up the functionality on our website for you to download the digital version of the Tenkara Magazine. 

You can order the 2014 and the 2015 versions online. The 2015 is available in two electronic formats, one is the original layout of the magazine, the other is a narrow layout optimized for reading on a phone or tablet. Either costs $4.00 (print version is $9.00). The 2014 magazine is only available in one electronic format, the original layout, and costs $2.50.

The Keeper

Since the beginning of tenkara, anglers have pondered how to best manage and store their line. There have been multiple solutions devised since then, and we thought we’d bring our insights into creating something we think will be useful to those taking up tenkara and even for the western fly anglers looking for a good way to store a couple of leaders and some flies.

The Tenkara USA Line Keeper is line holder solution that also incorporates an integrated fly box. The Keeper is designed to hold two tenkara lines, or tenkara line and tippet. That way a minimalist tenkara angler can have the tenkara line, tippet and flies in a compact solution.

This tenkara line keeper features two patent-pending solutions. The first one is a completely unique line-catching mechanism. As you wind the line it gets automatically caught between two walls so that the line never “explodes” out of the spool, and you can stop winding it at any point rather than looking for a notch to stop.
Another one is a small compartment to hold between 6 and a dozen flies. It’s not designed as a fly box replacement, but for a quick outing, or just in case you lose flies, these will always be there with you.

And, perhaps the best part, The Keeper is always smiling

The much anticipated 2015 Tenkara Magazine has arrived!

The second annual issue of the Tenkara Magazine has an incredible lineup of stories, how-to articles, and tenkara photography. This high-quality print publication is intended to continue sharing the tenkara story and features pieces submitted by the tenkara community and curated by the Tenkara Publishing team. And, yes, this issue also has larger font size!

Tenkara Magazine

A digital version will be made available in February/March of 2015.

CONTENTS

Catch And Release, By Jack E. Williams
Tenkara+ Bouldering, By Daniel Pierce
Mid-River Boulders, By John Geer
Encountering Yuzo Sebata, By Daniel Galhardo
Interview With Yuzo Sebata, By Adam Trahan
First Summer Of Tenkara, By Hannah Williams
Purple Fly, By Michael Agneta
Cooking Trout On A Campfire, By Daniel Galhardo
Grand Slam, By Jen Kugler Hansen
Tenkara+ Saltwater, By Chris Kuhlow
Tenkara And Dry Fly, By Mark Cole
Hemming The Seam, By Tj Ferreira
Tenkara Underwater, By Ralph Cutter
Thinking Outside The Fly Box, By Jason Klass
A Weekend Hike, By Jourdan Arenson
Tribes Of Itoshiro, By Paul Gaskell
Visiting Japan, By Rebecca Milner
The Tenkara Flower, By Daniel Galhardo
Discovering The Fish Of Japan, By John Pearson
Tenkara Journeys, By Dave Southall
Incidents With Tenkara, By Dave Hughes
Fly-Fishing The Enchantments, By Daniel Silverberg
Fish Tales From Wales, By Dyfan Morris
Plus: The Basics Of Tenkara And Tenkara Summit

Here’s the opportunity for the trip of a lifetime. Join me for a week of tenkara in Patagonia, Argentina in March.

Tenkara USA founder, Daniel Galhardo, will be hosting  a week-long Tenkara Week, in Argentina Patagonia. The Patagonia Tenkara trip will take place March 5-12, 2015.

If you’re interested in attending, please email us at info@tenkarausa.com, or go her to learn about booking.
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It’s been a long-time coming and with many requests from our customers. We have been working for a while on putting together a tenkara fly-tying kit that has everything you need to tie a variety of tenkara flies, and nothing you don’t need. The Tenkara Fly-Tying kit is our way of showing you that fly-tying is actually pretty simple.
Both kit options feature a booklet we created to teach you how to tie tenkara flies as well as a vise (two options available), a set of tools, soft-hackle, dry rooster hackle, peacock herl, two spools of thread and 50 hooks in two sizes. There are also a lot of resources we’re putting together to help you get into fly-tying, such as our weekly Tenkara Fly-Tying Video Series, with one video released every week. Both kits feature enough hooks to tie 50 flies, and materials for more, so it would pay for itself pretty quickly compared to buying flies.Kits will start shipping on December 16th but order now to make sure you get one.

The Basic Tenkara Fly-tying kit features a spring-action vise by Terra. This vise is great for beginners as it requires no adjustments, all you do is press the lever to open the jaws and put whatever size hook you are using. This is a clamp-style vise, which you will clamp onto a table/desk. All materials are the same as in the Upgraded kit. Ships December 16th.

$50, Basic kit

Tenkara Kit

Our new tenkara hat and shirt designs just arrived and we’re psyched to now have these on offer for you. This year we have been focused on trying to figure out our brand and we have been fortunate to have run into Jeremy Shellhorn, who’s helped us find a unique look to share.
The trucker hats are very comfortable and have fit on every head that has tried them so far. It features the Tenkara USA “Te” mark on the front and a dark underbill to keep reflection off your eyes. Get it here. 

“Tenkara fishing is very simple, which makes me feel I am a part of the mountains.” – Yuzo Sebata

The shirts are based on the 2014 Tenkara Summit shirt design by Jeremy Shellhorn. The artwork will be a classic; it embodies the tenkara ethos in its simple line drawing with you, as the angler, becoming one with the mountains. Get your shirt here. 

The Tenkara USA Rhodo, an adjustable tenkara rod we released earlier this year, just received the “Kudo Award” from renowned author and tenkara angler Dave Hughes and Fly Rod & Reel magazine (and yes, we do love the fact that a magazine with “Reel” in its name just gave us a Kudo Award”).
When I emailed Dave to thank him for the nomination, he responded of how he was showing the rod to someone, “I held my fingers on each side of the +/- 3″ section that has the extension ferrules, and said, ‘This three inches of rod deserves the Kudo.’ Then I caught a fish on it.”
Along with the 12ft Tenkara USA Iwana, which received an award in 2012 as a Best of Show at IFTD, the Rhodo is the second award given to a tenkara rod by the mainstream industry.
Dave has been doing tenkara for probably longer than anyone else in the USA, and his latest book “Trout from Small Streams” has a terrific chapter on tenkara.

Here’s a video introduction to our newest tenkara rod releases. In this video, I talk about the adjustable Sato and Rhodo tenkara rods. Video shot and edited by Tim Romano for Midcurrent.com

New Tenakra USA Rod Models from MidCurrent on Vimeo.