DAIWA Seiryu X45

DAIWA EXPERT TENKARA LT H44 rod

The Tenkara Times do not plan to produce 4.5 m length branded tenkara rod in the nearest future, focusing on 3-4 meter length rage. That is why we’ve placed DAIWA EXPERT TENKARA LT H44 rod to the e-shop page in order to cover the niche of “very big fish large river rod. This “trophy” rod is of the perfect quality, outstanding strehgth and nice soft decoration. We fully agree with Chris Stewart’s opinion: “For years, I have felt that the Daiwa Enshou LT44SF was the world's best "big fish" tenkara rod. Well, the world's best "big fish" tenkara rod just got better. The Daiwa Expert LT H44 is a more capable rod than the Enshou was.”

1stStep 360 Rod Edition Y2017.

I want the angler’s first step into tenkara fishing to hook him, so I consider 1stStep 360 to be the most important rod in The Tenkara Times product line. This rod provides an easy entry point due the price, but it has the casting feel and accuracy of some more expensive rods. The redesigned Y2017 1stStep 360 features an updated new look with a gloss finish and 3D-look carbon cosmetics near the grip.

Tenkara Casting Technique Observations.

1) Shorter lines are easier to cast than longer lines.

2) Heavier lines are easier to cast than lighter lines.

3) Tapered lines are easier to cast than level lines. Either furled or mono tapered lines.

4) Stop the back cast with the rod at a vertical position, at 12:00 if you think of the casting arc as the numbers on a clock.

5) Stop the forward cast at about 60˚, or 2:00. Or just a little farther at 2:30 or 75˚.

6) Don’t start the back cast or the forward cast to abruptly. That is - start the rod motion gradually then increase the acceleration rate of the rod motion at an increasing linear rate until you reach the stop point.

7) Don’t stop the forward or the back cast abruptly, like the rod was hitting a mechanical stop. But make a definite stop of the rod motion. More like a rapid deceleration to a stop in as short of an arc as possible.

8) Pause for a moment at the end of the back cast to allow time for the line to extend reward and upward. Think about trying to throw the line up and back at about 45˚, not straight back. Pause for a moment before starting the forward cast so you start the forward cast while the rod tip is flexed to the rear.

9) The line is cast by the momentum energy in the line imparted to the line by the motion of the rod. Momentum is the product of the line mass x line speed. That is why until you develop the skill to impart a higher line speed with your cast it is easier to cast a heavier line than a lighter line.

10) Proper casting is more about the correct timing than the speed of the casting motion. You want to allow the rebound of the flex of the rod to add to the energy imparted to the line by the casting stroke to help throw the line. Too much speed or power during the casting motion, especially early in the casting motion, causes your cast to be poor.

11) Casting a longer line tends to decrease your line speed. When you want to try casting a longer line first try it with the same weight of line you have been able to successfully cast at a shorter length. If you cannot get the hang of it after a few cast try switching to a heavier line. For example switch from a #3 line to a #4 line. Which is a 33% heavier line.

12) Don’t try to hard. Casting with a Tenkara rod is a relaxed motion. When you try to hard, your cast is poor.

Basic Fundamentals of Tenkara line casting.

Look at the bottom diagram on the below webpage titled  テンカララインの軌道,    Tenkara Line Trajectory. (Sorry but I am not aware of any similar diagram with English text) There are 8 steps in the basic overhead cast.

New TRY テンカラ300 rod.

The TRY300 rod is an update to the TRY330 and it retains the best qualities of its predecessor. Much thought and design consideration went into the original TRY330 and that continues with the TRY300.
The TRY300 is very light, weighing only 56 grams and with a center of gravity of 55cm and rotational moment of 3.08 it feels extremely light in the hand. 

The rod blank is painted matte grey without accents. Since small stream tenkara fishing typically happens at very short distances this muted color is stealthy and spooks fish much less than a bright and glossy rod can. The rod’s light weight allows you to comfortably grip the rod by the butt and is the reason we use a short handle with only the single profile bump. The true rod length is 3.06 meters so the new model name of TRY300 now more accurately indicates the rod’s actual length.

The best way to appreciate TRY300 is to cast it and fish it. We hope you’ll like the new rod.

NEW SuperFine Floating Tenkara Line.

I like to fish with dry flies. Even being an avid tenkara angler that focuses on fishing subsurface kebari flies in pocket water, I still enjoy seeing a trout take a dry fly off of the mirror smooth surface of a pool.
My lovely home waters in Northern Bohemia combine high gradient sections of strong current among rocks with lower gradient sections of runs and shallows.  The traditional level line tenkara technique matches the high gradient parts perfectly.  But I also fish with fluorocarbon level lines and wet kebari at the upper part of the shallows where the water surface is riffled and I can approach the fish closely within reach of the casting length. Several upstream casts with drifts about 2 meters allow me to comb these spots and catch all the fish there. In the lower parts of the shallows where the water surface is like a mirror the spooky trout do not give me the opportunity me to reach it with 3-4 meter line. That is why the longer line needed. I use a 5-6 meter line, cast across the river to the opposite bank and make longer drifts. Also I often switch to dry flies for another reason: it is fun!  

I’ve fished a lot with this line combined with dry flies with great pleasure and now I am issuing prepared lines for sale. The line is completed on the rod side with a girth hitch loop (for lilian attachment) and a mono line section with tippet ring at the other end for tippet. 

Just in time: the autumn grayling season starts! It is so fun to fish grayling with dry flies.

Fish with a System and Increase Your Catch Rate.

One day my son and I went out on a fishing trip. He is new to the world of fly fishing but very interested in tenkara and learned a lot very quickly. But it happened twice that I was catching a lot more fish the he was. Although he put a lot of effort into his fishing and was doing everything right. We also read the water together and he can almost read the water completely by himself. So he knows what to do. So as a lot of people do, we had the same rod, line and fly rig and we were reading and discussing the water we would fish in together so we were able to eliminate as much as variables as possible. But still, I was catching a lot more then he was doing. And yes I know experience matters a lot but a difference of 15 fish to just 1 fish is too big and quite disappointing for a 14 year old.

So I told him to fish on and I would take a break on the bankside of the river. I watched him for a while and then I figured it out. He was lacking a system. A system that provides structure in the way he fishes and provides fish in the net. As soon as his catches will increase so does his confidence and he will start to use this system and hopefully his catch-rate will increase. This will eventually lead into a circle-motion of more structured fishing, a higher catch-rate, a better understanding how a fish thinks and behaves and most important of all; AN INCREASE OF FUN!

Second of all The Trysil River is used a lot for timberfloating and they have removed a lot of the bigger stones. So the trout has drawn itself back into the faster flowing parts of the river or the surrounding tributaries. But our grayling population is excellent on both the rivers and the tributaries. We have an average size of 35 cm when it comes to the grayling, and 40+ are no exceptions at all. But grayling lives in schools that you have to locate. So you need to move a lot.

Third of all, presentation, presentation, presentation and a variety of your presentation. Presentation is the key to success. It begins with aiming, landing the fly and, here is where the variety kicks in, movement of the fly.

So in short:

-          Two flies

-          Move a lot

-          Right presentation

-          Variety of your presentation

The trick is how to combine this into a structural system that you use the whole time so you can systematically fish a piece of the river.

So let us say there is a stretch of 10 meter long 5 meter wide. Downstream of the 10 meter stretch you can cross the stretch and fish your way upstream. I choose to fish on the side of the ten meter stretch downstream. I divide the stretch in pieces of 0,5 meter wide, which are each 3 to 4 meter long. This way I can systematically start fishing and knowing that if I do not catch any fish in the first 0,5 meter that I only need to take one small step forward or cast just a little bit longer to fish the next section of this big stretch.

So I basically fish from the edge inwards and so work my way downstream. When I cross the river, I will work my way upstream in exactly the same manner. This way I fish the whole stretch very systematic. And the chance that any spooked fish has returned is bigger and they are now targeted from a different angle which offers you a new chance to catch them

Now this is my system:

Each section gets a maximum of six casts / drifts.

The 1^st and 2^nd drift are free drifts,

The 3^rd and the 4^th  drift are a small part free drift, then a movement, so a small part free drift, so a movement and a small part free drift. This is imitating an egg-laying insect or an insect that is trying to fly from the water surface. This movement is also moving your nymph or wet fly, which imitates swimming movements or efforts to get in a higher water column before hatching. So the movement has two triggers, visual and vibration-wise. Both make the fish more aware of the offering present.

Now what is this movement? The dry fly needs to make some kind of a jump or twitch of a cm max two cm. This movement is very easy created by tipping with your index finger to the rod. Yes, that’s all you need, this means that you need to have all the line of the water off course.

During the 5^th and the 6^th drift I will use a lot of movement. Here is almost no free drift present or there are very small free drifts present and you present a lot of movement in the total drift.

If you catch no fish by this system in the Trysil Elva then you move to another section of the stretch that you are about to fish. If you have fished through a couple of sections and haven’t caught any fish, change your rig. Maybe your dropper needs to go deeper or maybe higher in the water-column. Maybe it is necessary to start nymphing. But at least you have a system to go by to figure this out in an efficient and quick manner.

As soon as my son started to use this system in his fishing and moved a lot more he was also catching more. Still not as many as I do but a lot more than just one fish in two to three hours. And most important of all, he was fishing with a lot more enthusiasm, he now knew what to do to catch more fish, he was catching more fish and had a lot more fun fishing!

This is off course not only important for kids. But fishing with a system and knowing that you have covered the water properly makes it easier to find out what works that day.

So to sum it up:

-          Read the water and plan out a route where and how to fish the stretch.

-          Take in consideration the factors mentioned above; two flies, presentation, a variety of presentations and move yourself through the water.

-          A variety of presentations; 2 total free drift, 2 drifts with a little movement, 2 drifts with a lot of movement.

-          No fish? Move on to the next section.

-          Still no fish after fishing through several sections? Change your rig.

I hope this was of some use for you and if you have some questions please do not hesitate to email me (hendrikschris@hotmail.com).

Tenkara: Searching the Internet with Japanese Terms. Part 1.

I have played around searching the Internet for Japanese language Tenkara websites or videos using Japanese phrases for several years. I do it because I find it fun and challenging. It is a language I do not speak or read. Or only read a little. Over time I have learned several words, learned a little about Japanese sentence structure that helps me translate, more or less correctly, what I find with the help of Google translate. Sure ever now and again I search for Tenkara website in English. But that is a little boring and not much of a challenge.

It has come to my attention that at least a few people would like to do this too. But aren’t quite sure how to go about it. I have learned a few tricks that help me do this that might help others. Like most people I started out by collecting a list of Japanese phrases that I could later copy and paste into the Google search window. I started out by only knowing one Japanese word. テンカラ. Using that as my search term I soon found other Japanese phrases to save and use again later. I rarely do this any more. It is much faster to just type the phonetic of the Japanese terms I want to use into the Google translate window to get the Japanese terms I want to search with and start the search for the topic that I am interested in.

Finding Japanese language Tenkara websites is the easy part. You can learn a lot just by looking at the pictures or diagrams. Translating the Japanese to English accurately is much more difficult. Google translates some words or phrases in a very weird ways. Some pages translate fairly well. Others are almost impossible to figure out. The only conclusion I have arrived at is that it has to do with the writing style of the author. That being said, learning a little about Japanese sentence structure can often help. And I have a few tips for common odd translations that may help and a few tips about Japanese that may help some too.

It will really help you a lot if you learn hiragana. And later learn katakana. Along the way you will learn a few Kanji. Maybe not how to pronounce it but know what it means. I think being able to speak Japanese is a different skill from knowing how to read it. Though of course if you know how to say it that will help you to remember it.

Basically hiragana (ひらがな) is the Japanese text for native words. Katakana (カタカナ) are a second set of text for the same syllables that are mostly used for non native words. Though there are exceptions. One of the mysteries is why Tenkara is more commonly seen written with katakana. Kanji (漢字) are basically Chinese text or pictograms adopted into Japanese. If you know the Japanese kanji it will mean the same thing in Chinese, or Korean or Vietnamese. Only the spoken word will be different. Many Japanese are uncertain how to say a given kanji. Furigana (ふりがな) are text in hiragana or katakana written in small font above the kanji to help you know the meaning of the kanji or now to pronounce it. Lastly there is romaji (ろーまじ) Roman alphabet for the Japanese word. Close to the phonetic for the word but not always the same. Later I will give some recommendations for learning hiragana or katakana.

I use Google translate. There may be better options, but that is what I use. This web page:  https://translate.google.com/

Open the web site and set the left side window for Japanese from the drop down menu. Set the right side to English. Or whatever your native language is. It will look like this:

Please notice the little icon in the lower left corner. It looks like the hiragana for “a” あ. And also notice the little down arrow just to its right side. Later this will be very useful to free you from having to keep a list of Japanese words or phrases. If you click on the down arrow you get a drop down menu with two options. You will be able to type the phonetic for the Japanese word and if before you hit enter, if instead you touch the space bar, you will be given a list of several Japanese characters to choose from. If you have learned the Japanese word you want to use you can click on it and that word or phrase will be written into the left side window. The Google translation into English will show up in the right side window.

This is what it will look like when you click the down arrow next to あ.

Or you can choose the other option. It is an icon that looks like a small pencil next to Japanese -Handwrite. Click on it and a popup window will open and you can use the mouse to draw a Japanese kanji that you don’t know. This is useful for simple kanji. Not so good for the more complex kanji. It is also useful for a kanji that you remember what it looks like and what it means, but you don’t remember its phonetic spelling that would permit you to write the kanji into the left window by typing it.

Actually the above screen shot shows a hint of some of the other useful functions that you can find on the Google translate window. If you clicked on the down arrow and the left side screen was empty or didn’t have any of the characters already written in that window you would only see the drop down menu. But in the screen shot you can see several Japanese characters printed below the drop down menu.

When I took the screen shot I must have had the word Maki , (巻き) written and highlighted in the left side screen. Maki is one of the Japanese words meaning to Wind a fly. If you highlight a Japanese word or phrase written on the left side of the screen in the lower right corner you can see Translation of 巻き. Below that it states it is an adjective, curly. However in this case it is really a verb, to wind the kebari.

Notice also on the left side it says See Also – followed by a list of alternate words. You can highlight them and then copy them into the left side Japanese text window and see what they translate into in the right side English translation window. Mostly hidden behind the drop down menu are other Japanese words that were written into the left side window. You can see Kebari-m just to the left of the drop down menu. Which indicates that I had kebari maki written in Japanese in the left window when I clicked on the drop down menu arrow and made the screen shot. This gives a hint of the useful options you can find to use on the Google translation page.

If on the drop down menu you choose the top option - あ konnichiwa à こんにちは

You will be able to type the phonetic to get the Japanese word you want to use. As an example if you type in “ tenkara” it will appear in hiragana characters as てんから.

After you type in – tenkara – you can just hit enter and enter てんから on the left side screen. Below the left window on the phonetic line you will see the phonetic Ten kara. Below that you will see written - Did you mean: テンカラ. You can click on テンカラ and it will be move into the left side screen and replace てんから . The phonetic below the window will change to tenkara. The English translation in the right side window will stay the same and say Tenkara. Alternately, if after you type in  てんから if you don’t hit enter and instead touch the space bar. You will get a popup window giving you 9 optional Japanese words to choose from. Click on the word you want and it will be written into the left side window. From experience I know that Tenkara can be written in at least 3 ways. As option 1, 4 or 6. Unfortunately I cannot capture a screen shot of what this popup window looks like. Hitting the keys to make the screen shot makes the popup window close. But the list on the popup window is printed below.

 テンカラ

1. テンカラ

2. 点から

3. 店から

4. 天から

5. テンから

6. てんから

7. 転から

8. 展から

9. 典から

Here is a short list of Tenkara related words to play with. They are listed in this order – Japanese  (phonetic) the default Google English translation in the left side window. Later I will provide more Japanese words, and other hints on how to use the Google translate window. I don’t want the blog post to be to long and this is already at 5 pages. I may have to submit two, three or four post. Try typing in the phonetic without spaces to get the Japanese word or phrase you want to do a Google search with.

 テンカラ,      (tenkara)     Tenkara

竿 ,  (sao)  Pole

ロッド,(roddo) Rod

レベルライン, (reberu rain) level line (a hint, when you type in rain, type the n 2x)

けばり, (ke bari) Fly

毛鉤 , (kebari) Fly

毛バリ, (kebari) Bali hair

毛針 , (kebari, sometimes kehari) Fly

逆さ毛鉤,(Sakasa kebari) Upside down fly

花笠毛鉤,( hanagasa kebari) Hanagasa fly

毛鉤巻き,( Kebari-maki) Fly winding

ライン巻き仕掛け,( Rain-maki shikake) line winding mechanism(trick)

キャスティング, (kyasutingu) Casting

釣り,(tsuri, sometimes dzuri) Fishing

結び目, (musubime) Knot

自作, (jisaku) Self made, homebrew, own.

源流, (genryū) Head waters

渓流, (Keiryū) Mountain Stream.  But 渓 流 (Kei-ryū) Mountain Flow.

本流, (honryū) Main Stream (hint – when typing in ryu, type the u 2x to make the u into ū.

Try combining terms to do your Google search. Google may give you a drop down menu of optional phrase choices that it likes better. Have fun experimenting. More information will be in the next post. 

MOTIVE 390 tenkara rods are back in stock.

MOTIVE 390 tenkara rods are back in stock and they even have some improvements.

Firstly, the purple trim is gone. Secondly, new chunky grip with rubberized cork ends is used. Thirdly, the butt cap is now universal and compatible with all other Tenkara Times rod models.

We had not changed the blank, so the strength and the action is like it was: the best choice for bigger fish and large waters.

TRY390 tenkara rod: season Y15 release.

We’ve upgraded very popular TRY390 tenkara rod. Some cork value is added to the handle in order to make the grip more comfortable, also the painting do not have trims. We had not changed the blank and the action.

Special thanks to Robert Worthing for critics and advices considering the handle shape.