We believe in simplicity

Tenkara USA, August 2013: “Our business is to inspire you to get out and hopefully show you that many things in life are actually simple.”

This page is a collage that encompasses our philosophy on how simple fly fishing really can be.

Tenkara USA, February 2014:

The Tenkara Manifesto

Tenkara is tenkara. It is the embrace of simplicity. It’s the light casts, the precise placements and the enticing manipulation of the fly. Tenkara is casting across currents without the need to fix anything. It’s loving the liberation that comes from leaving behind the unnecessary.

Tenkara is who we are.

Daniel Galhardo, on simplicity:
“Simplifying is a choice.
It is possible to make many things in life complex. We can choose to carry multiple fly patterns with us. When we don’t know any better, it may seem like the burden of carrying additional things in our fishing packs (in addition to the burden of then having to think about those additional things) will be adding value to our fishing. Often it does not.
The tenkara story tells us we can leave many things behind 
and still have effective fishing days.
After we know that we can leave stuff behind, 
what we then do is simply a matter of choice.”

Ed Engle writes in 2011: “I can see a day when I hike into my favorite small stream with just my tenkara rod and a few flies. It’s a fishing style designed to have as little between the angler, nature and the trout as possible. And that’s what I’m after”

Ryan Jordan of Backpackinglight.com (and his personal blog: http://ryanjordan.com/blog/). In 2011 he gave a presentation on simple fly fishing techniques at our first Tenkara Summit in West Yellowstone. The quote he used by Hans Hofman spoke to us: “The ability to simplify means to eliminate the unnecessary so that the necessary may speak.”