Iwana Tenkara - A guest post by Isaac Tait

6/28/2015

Tenkara in Japan

Bio
Isaac Tait splits his time between managing gear reviews at Seattle Backpackers Magazine and blogging for his site Fallfish Tenkara. When he is not writing he can be found guiding Tenkara trips and exploring the mountains of Japan. He also enjoys skiing, hiking, mountain biking, and rock climbing.

We are excited to share this guest post by our friend Isaac from Fallfish Tenkara. One of Badger Tenkara's favorite things about fishing is the unique places that it takes you, and this trip report highlights that sense of adventure! It features some interesting tactics, great pictures, and an immersive video. Enjoy!

This past week my friend Tetsuya and I met up with our guide and friend, Kado-san (Kado-san is the owner of Kadoya Outdoor Shop in Yokosuka; he is also a Tenkara sensei) for a few days of camping, Tenkara, and onsens in the mountains of Niigata Prefecture.

Niigata Prefecture is a place of immense beauty surrounded by rivers and nestled beneath mountains blanketed in cedar and snow. It is hard to believe that it is a mere four hours north west of Tokyo. After a caffeine-fueled late night road trip, we arrived at the camp-ground where the deer were whistling to each other and the crickets and frogs were chirping and croaking away. There wasn't a cloud in the sky and the Milky Way shimmered majestically through the trees. We stayed up awhile talking and sipping on whiskey, and about 2am we turned in for the night.

The sun rose bright and early and by 5:30am it was too bright to sleep anymore, so I reluctantly got up and made breakfast (and lots of coffee).

Kado-san and Tetsuya were already up and after a lazy morning we departed just a little before 8am. As we hiked up the road to our fishing destination, Kado-san pointed out the plethora of mountain vegetables or Sansai 山菜 growing next to the road. After about 4-5km of walking we came to a bend in the road and on the opposite side of the valley we had been hiking up was a majestic waterfall.

Photo Credit Tetsuya Ishida

After about 4-5km of walking we came to a bend in the road and on the opposite side of the valley we had been hiking up was a majestic waterfall.

Photo Credit Tetsuya Ishida

Once at the valley bottom we put on our helmets and began the scramble up the side of the waterfall. We left our helmets on for the rest of the day as there was much scrambling, hair-raising traverses high above the creek, and even a few sections of climbing up and over huge snow blocks!

Photo Credit Tetsuya Ishida

Kado-san was a patient teacher and not only taught me much about Sansai but showed me a cool Tenkara technique I had never seen before.

Photo Credit Tetsuya Ishida

Kado-san was fishing with a very long zoom rod. Fully extended, it was 530cm, then 490cm, and 470cm. At first I thought it was a keiryu rod because of how long it was, but he assured me it was a Tenkara rod. Where it got really unique though was how he rigged his rod. He attached about 1.5 meters of 2x tippet directly to the lilian, with one of his beautiful hand tied flies on the end! His flies were tied with chicken feathers and pheasant feathers and a few had the eye snipped off and replaced with a bright yellow cord loop.

There were only dry flies in his fly box. The rod’s long length allowed him to stay far back from a promising looking pool and lightly plop the fly into the water. Within a few seconds, a fish would slam it and if it stayed hooked he would collapse the rod to bring it to hand. I found this technique to be wildly effective, especially because there was so much low overhead foliage. A traditional Tenkara cast would have limited us to fishing about 20% of the pools. Using this technique there wasn’t a pool we could not fish. I switched to my Badger Tenkara Classic Rod to this setup to mimic Kado’s and I ended up catching the first fish of the day, which just happened to be my very first Iwana!

Photo Credit Tetsuya Ishida

We spent the day leap-frogging our way up the creek. When one of us would catch a fish, the other would take point and work his way up the creek until he caught one. We continued in this manner for about one kilometer, catching or seeing fish in nearly every pool.

Photo Credit Tetsuya Ishida

I had started out with a nymph and it was working pretty well but Kado’s catches were much more exciting as the Iwana would heartily rise for his dry flies. So, I switched over to my largest kebari. It was a good choice - the fish went nuts At one section of the river we came across the remnants of an avalanche that had spilled into the valley bottom over the winter. The creek had cut a tunnel through the glacier and inside the glacier was a nice looking pool.

Photo Credit Tetsuya Ishida

I figured it was worth a shot, and with water dripping off the glacier all around me, I began to fish this subterranean pool.

Photo Credit Tetsuya Ishida

Within a few seconds I had a nice sized Iwana on the line. I brought her to hand - she was the most beautiful fish I had ever seen. Between her radiating spots, orange tail, and the location where she lived, she is a fish I will remember for a long time!

Photo Credit Tetsuya Ishida

After about three hours of fishing it was time to turn around. It had been a very successful and unforgettable day. When we arrived back at camp, in what I believe is Japanese tradition, the whiskey, vodka, beer, and wine flowed ceaselessly. We prepared the day’s catch and sansai foraging next to the roaring campfire, traded flies and fish stories, and reminisced on an exceptional day. The Tenkara portion of the trip was over but we still had waterfalls to see, pools to cliff dive into, and onsens to soak in. It is a trip I will soon not forget.

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Oni Tenkara School, Part 1: The Master, his Tools, and his Style

6/23/2015

6 Comments

Lessons from a Japanese tenkara master

These are exciting times for Tenkara anglers in America. All across the country, festivals, workshops, summits, and gatherings are showcasing a growing variety of equipment and fishing styles. One of the most exciting opportunities to develop so far has been the Oni Tenkara School USA, held June 13-15 in Utah, and hosted (with excellent hospitality) by Tenkara Guides LLC. This was an opportunity to learn from Masami Sakakibara, “Tenkara-no-Oni” - one of the most respected and experienced Tenkara anglers in the world!

The weekend was an exceptional learning experience on many levels. Rather than try to cram everything into one post, we're going to break it down into a few posts so we can focus on different topics in a bit more detail. This post will convey observations about Tenkara-no-Oni himself, the equipment he favors, and his angling style.

Soft spoken and quick to smile, Masami Sakakibara is humble and well mannered. His English is very limited, but not once did I see him become frustrated with the gestures and hand signals that passed as communications when the translator was not around. He did a remarkable job of transmitting information despite this disadvantage. Corrections to body stance or an adjustment to a cast's timing were all made with a subtle nudge and gentle re-positioning of arm or wrist.

"Tenkara-no-Oni" demonstrates casting from a kneeling postion directly towards the class.

Getting feedback while doing my best to cast a 6 meter level line on an Oni type II rod.

It should come as no surprise that Tenkara-no-Oni fishes, wait for it - Oni rods. These rods were developed to his specifications and reflect his personal preferences. Their soft actions are exceptionally well balanced and fine tuned for casting light weight level lines. While my personal preferences run towards stiffer, tip flex actions, there is no denying that the Oni rods are high quality precision instruments. My favorite among them was the Type 3, a 3.4 meter rod with an EVA foam handle. Without a doubt, It is one of the best balanced rods I've ever cast.

On the water, he fished more practical lengths of line (4-5 meters) with a tippet section of about 3 feet, but on several occasions Oni demonstrated long line casting with line lengths exceeding 10 meters. It was explained that while this would be largely impractical on the water, it serves as excellent training for casting and manipulating "normal" length level lines. The idea being that if you can control a 10 meter line, you'll be able to exert even more control over a 3-5 meter line. There is certainly a logic to that!

As far as all of those amazing, graceful casts that you see Oni make on YouTube videos - 100% real. He makes crisp but never overpowered casts that rely more on timing than force. One major thing to note is that he does not give his cast time to straighten out behind him. Often times, the line was still travelling backwards, the line tip overhead, when the rod tip was snapping forward again. The cast's backstroke was the familiar abrupt stop at 12 o'clock, but it was a much faster backstroke than I expected.

Oni works a pool while the class observes.

One big take away from watching Oni fish was that his entire body is involved in supporting the cast. He places the foot on his casting side forward and firmly plants it before making the throw. He often drops into a slight crouch to lower his center of gravity and settle into a stable position. Conversely, when he gets a good sized fish on the hook, he does not remain rooted in place. He springs quickly into action and moves as needed to play the fish. This seamless shift between stability and mobility gives him whichever advantage he needs at a given moment to best target or land a fish.

Oni keeps a light and flexible grip on the rod. During the cast, the butt travels 2-3 inches out from his wrist before returning. I saw him make several corrections on casts where the angler was creating too much separation, so this is likely a core aspect of his casting style. A frequent move I observed was Oni re-positioning his hand on the upper, middle, or lower grip by doing a small, quick toss of the rod into the air and then grabbing it where he wanted it next. I suspect that this was largely to make minor adjustments in range, used in conjunction with body position when setting up for a cast.

Tactically, he made very thorough and varied explorations of key water. He would target specific zones and terrain features, in sequences set to minimize disturbance to areas he had not yet hit. When fishing a pool, he would fish the near edge, then the bottom, then the far edge, then get out and move around the far side of the pool, and fish the entire pool again from an upstream position with different drifts and tactics.

On some casts, the line would be kept off the water entirely, and others, half the line was in the water as he played the fly downstream. Some drifts were very short, 2-3 seconds long, and others were very long, as he drifted an entire broad section of current from top to bottom. There did not seem to be any hard and fast and rules, and his tactics were extremely dynamic.

Of course, it goes without saying that his casts were precise and consistently impressive. You could tell that he was not just casting into that shadowy area by the bank, he was casting to that clump of grass sticking out by that particular rock in the shadowy area by the bank - because that is exactly where the cast would land.

I had the pleasure of watching him catch a good sized cutthroat that gave him some nice runs and those of us watching a good look at him playing the fish. The fish put a serious bend into the rod and Oni brought up his off hand to support the rod. If you have not seen this technique, it is a good one to learn. He applies his off hand with an open palm to the section up above the grip. It is important to note that he does not grasp the section - that would stop the section from being able to flex. He simply puts his open hand there to act as a resistance for the fish to pull the rod against, and at the same time, drops the rod sideways so that it is mostly parallel to the water. This lets the rod flex and distribute the force of the fight across the entire rod.

After a smart fight, Oni catches a nice cutthroat.

It was an honor and pleasure to meet Tenkara-no-Oni and an invaluable learning experience to watch him fish. There was a lot to learn and I am still processing much of it myself. Hopefully, I've passed on something from the experience in this post that you'll find useful or thought provoking for your own Tenkara fishing. In the next post, I'll cover aspects of the trip concerning the great group of people gathered there at Oni School, and the phenomenal waters we fished. Stay tuned!

Thank you Masami Sakakibara for sharing your time and knowledge with us!

- Matt

6 Comments

Iwana Tenkara - A guest post by Isaac Tait

Tenkara in Japan

Oni Tenkara School, Part 1: The Master, his Tools, and his Style

Lessons from a Japanese tenkara master

Tenkara Rods

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Iwana Tenkara﻿ - A guest post by Isaac Tait

Tenkara in Japan

Oni Tenkara School, Part 1: The Master, his Tools, and his Style

Lessons from a Japanese tenkara master

Tenkara Rods

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Iwana Tenkara - A guest post by Isaac Tait