The tenkara community in Colorado is very passionate, and for that reason I had been meaning to come back for quite sometime – plus, Colorado does have a lot of tenkara-perfect waters!
Jason Klass of of tenkaratalk.com (Jason already has a couple of posts of this trip), and Karel Lansky of tenkaraonthefly.net have been spreading the word fast and wide in the state. As they continue to spread tenkara, I wanted to see if I could show them anything new. I booked a ticket to Denver, posted the announcement on his blog, and I did a post on our forum. On Saturday, we had the 15 anglers meet at Rocky Mountain National Park.
Most of the participants already practiced tenkara, and due to the very evident passion of the other 12, 3 anglers have certainly decided to switch – despite the lack of fish, and the wind!
Oh, the wind…It was a very windy day in the park. But it worked out okay as I was able to show clearly that with good technique tenkara does work in the wind too. Jason just posted a short video preview on his site. After the initial workshop, which we held at the Roaring River, a few people split off, and five of us headed to the Big Thompson. I was very proud of the group, their casting improved dramatically and I think we covered a lot of good information.In all we had a great time talking, sharing experiences and just enjoying the amazing background:
THANK YOU TO ALL THOSE WHO CAME!
Scheduled to post on Wednesday morning: select pictures of my trip to Colorado. Got some good shots I believe, including: Greenback Cutthroats (swimming and feeding 3 feet away from me), good pictures of South Platte River, and just general landscap shots. Please check the blog again on Wednesday.
Daniel, thanks for giving the demo. I learned a lot about “real” tenkara and from the emails I’m getting, so did a lot of the attendees. Maybe next time, we’ll have even more tenkara enthusiasts in CO.
Daniel,
It was great meeting you and attending your demo at RMNP! Tenkara fly fishing is ideally suited to the Colorado backcountry. Jason’s right…I think this will really catch on with backpacking anglers.
Paul, it was great meeting you too! I had a great time in our day out. And indeed tenkara and Colorado’s backcountry are perfectly fit for each other.