Tenkara in Focus

For six months now John Pearson and Paul Gaskell regularly offer us a program called "Tenkara in Focus" which is very interesting because its contents come from the best Japanese sources. There is no other way to learn anything serious about tenkara than to be interested in its authentic techniques.

If the Discover Tenkara channel offers a program that is in itself very interesting John and Paul also offer excellent quality download contents and genuine mines of information for those who want to learn even more.

The latest installment is fully dedicated to Masami Sakakibara.

I have had the pleasure and the privilege of being taught Oni tenkara by Masami san and if he is known in the west for his long line casting it it is necessary not to make the error of not understanding that it is only one of the many aspects of what constitutes his own technique called Oni tenkara.

As I wrote many times on this blog what makes an excellent fisherman a tenkara master is not only his casting technique, although in the case of Masami san he brought it to a level unknown until then, but also the fishing techniques that he has developed from a rational observation of fish and their environment. Masami san's teaching is based on mutual observation between the teacher and his pupil. Masami san does not speak any foreign language but he is a very pedagogue and his pedagogical technique is excellent and effective. I have often wondered how Masami San would transmit his tenkara to us westerners if he spoke one of our languages and I am convinced he would do it the same way because it is simply the best.

The 51 minute video is very rich in information and the combination of fishing scenes of Masami san and the comments of John and Paul is perfect. It deserves to be watched several times because it contains so much information that you are not going to assimilate everything from the first viewing and it puts into perspective all the aspects of the tenkara of Masami san.

In addition to the video John and Paul also edited a 18 page PDF which is very well done because it explains the content of the video and if both media are available individually I encourage you to have both as they are complementary.

This documentary and the PDF are in my opinion the best possible basis for learning one of the most advanced tenkara techniques that has proven its effectiveness everywhere Masami san has been fishing in his life. For a very good price you have the opportunity to have at your disposal the best information available at the moment about tenkara.

Since the tenkara season opening

It has been six weeks now that the trout season is open and I have not been fishing a lot because of the lack of time to dedicate and because the spring has not really settled in the area. If hawthorns and cherry trees whiten while anemones and daffodils flourish temperatures have remained really low.

 

Since the season opening the weather has been particularly dry and the small creeks have seen the water level significantly drop but low temperatures and strong winds do not encourage trout to activity. Fishing has been difficult but very interesting and very technical. 

A few weeks ago my friend and teacher Masami Sakakibara wrote this brief sentence which I think is a perfect summary of tenkara as a sport fishing: "The important thing is not the number of fish I take but how I catch them."

I have seen, as every year, gatherings of fishermen on the most easily accessible areas of certain rivers where the fishing associations put a large number of trout, salmo trutta stockus to be precise, and as every year they already evaporated leaving the field free for the better days to come.

If I have not been fishing a lot so far I have taken great pleasure and these few exits also offered me to harvest many feathers that will be very useful to me. But I will not deal with fly tying before the season ends.

I had been waiting for the long weekend of May 1st hoping for a truly springtime weather which I would enjoy on the banks of a stream but as a storm passed over the region it was not possible, I contented myself with an excellent reading on which I shall return in due time.

I wish each of you my fellow tenkara anglers to have a great trout fishing season!