This year,
June 2014, The European Tenkara Convention was organised by Oleg from The
Tenkara Times and held in Czech Republic.
The whole
purpose of The European Tenkara Convention is to introduce Tenkara and to bring
different companies that are involved within Tenkara together so we can create
a good network and cooperation instead of just looking at each other as
competitors. Although it is not really looked at as a commercial event, the
companies are allowed to sell and promote their products and services at the
event. During the first European Tenkara Convention, which was an initiative of
Chris Hendriks Fishing – Experiences and his site
www.tenkara-norway.com , we met companies and people from England,
Czech Republic, France, The Netherlands, Norway, Japan and the USA. We had a
very good time and learned a lot from each other and introduced Tenkara to the
Norwegian people!This year,
Oleg and his site
www.tenkaratimes.com showed us Czech Republic and how he fish with
his rods on his waters. It is a beautiful country with a lot of hidden spots to
fish at. We were blessed with nice and warm weather and so was the day that the
European Tenkara Convention was held on. Oleg opened the European Tenkara Convention
and Misako Ishimura started with a presentation about the history of Tenkara.
Misako is a great resource when it comes to the historical part of Tenkara and
although I have seen here presentation before, each time I learn something new.
After the presentation of Misako I offered a presentation that explained a little
bit more the practical side of tenkara.
After and
between the presentation we held a coffee-break
and lunch-break where we could get more acquainted with each other. Besides the
normal anglers we met a professional fly tyer, a fly fishing guide and an
online fly fishing shop owner. All these different people created together some
very interesting conversations! People
from the Netherlands, Russia, Czech Republic
Japan and Austria were present which gave a very international setting
to the event.
Now we
walked to the demonstration area where Oleg had several rods rigged with
several lines so everyone could try different rods and set ups. During the
demonstration almost all the visitors caught some fish and learned very quickly
about the casting, that the fly should land first and why it is so important to
keep all the line from the water.
We were
blessed with a very good stretch of the river that was used as a training
stretch during the Fly Fishing world championships. Normally it would be
pressured very hard but as I already said, this was a trainingstretch so there was plenty of fish left for the
demonstration.
All in all
it was a great day with about 15 visitors. The European Tenkara Convention is
still at a small stage but all the visitors where getting all the attention
they needed and even more. Since the organiser, Oleg, and Misako and I where
there we were able to give very detailed lessons to the visitors. And both Oleg
and I are convinced that with cooperation of different people and companies the
European Tenkara Convention will grow to a bigger event with a lot of different
content that will be held each year at a different spot in Europe so a lot of
people will be introduced to Tenkara!
So if you missed it this year, we will
make sure that the 3
rd European Tenkara Convention will be held in
2015!!!!
