Tenkara rods are a modern take on a traditional form of Japanese fly fishing. The entire system consists of a long rod, a leader, tippet, and a fly. In many aspects, it embodies the purest form of ...

Tenkara is a style of fly fishing that replaces gear and accessories with the absolute basics: a 3-ounce rod with line tied at the end. Nothing else is needed, not even a reel. Tenkara, which ...

An ancient Japanese fishing technique — tenkara — is becoming increasingly popular in the back country of the United States. Tenkara, which means heaven or from the skies in Japanese, originated with ...

Tenkara tackle still makes people stare, but now it’s drawing stares on multiple continents. The telescoping, 12-foot fly rods with 13-foot lines affixed to their tips — no reels, no guides — have ...

Daniel Galhardo, John Gierach and I are standing on a remote branch of the St. Vrain Creek with 12-foot-long fly rods in our hands. But I should qualify my usage of the word “fly” rod. We are indeed ...

Everybody is in search of some simplicity in life, but perhaps nobody searches harder for it than the fly fisherman. So it’s no small wonder why tenkara, the most simplistic form of fly-fishing, has ...

In a sport as resistant to change as fly-fishing, tenkara is a revolution. Actually a counterrevolution, since its stripped-down, minimalist aesthetic harks back to the earliest days of angling with ...

Rob Lepczyk hadn’t been in the Gunpowder River for more than five minutes on a late September morning before he felt a tug on his line. The 26-year-old Sparks resident yanked at the long rod before ...