Twelve Dollar Tenkara

“Say what? Blasphemy! Tenkara fishing for less than a hundred bucks? You lie!” But wait – I don’t! What is a Tenkara type fishing rod? It’s a telescopic pole with line attached to the tip. Hm. Sounds a lot like cane pole or panfish poles to me!

Tenkara USA lists “rods” (rods have reels attached. Poles do not) from 11 to 14 and a half feet. They start at about $140. For a telescoping graphite pole with a simple cork handle.

Fly fisherman really ARE asking to be separated from their cash at a much more substantial rate than other anglers.

Okay, so how can I fish Tenkara style for $12? Simple!

Shakespeare – maker of (sometimes) fine fishing tackle for the better part of a century – makes their own line of telescopic graphite poles. One such pole is called “Durango” – you know, like the Dodge SUV, or the town in Colorado. They come in lengths from 10 to 14 feet, 3 or more sections. Okay, so it’s not fancy like the Tenkara’s two jillion sections that let you have a 14′ long pole that’s only 12 inches long when compact. You *could* get that with a Durango pole, if you’re willing to buy two and take a dremel to one (you buy the second, in case you’re as good with a dremel tool as a virgin is in the back seat of a ’52 Chevy with the captain of the varsity cheerleaders). Chop that one up into 12″ long sections and reassemble the pole.

Want a fancier grip than the textured graphite? Okay, buy a roll of twine, parachute cord, or some other water-resistant line that’s around 1/4 inch in diameter. Watch some YouTube videos – like THIS ONE – about wrapping thread onto the guides of a rod. Now get the wheels turning in that big ol’ juicy noggin of yours and apply what you’ve learned, in macro scale, to the twine and the big, thick butt shaft of your soon-to-be Tenkara pole.

Okay, now that you’ve wrapped your grip half a dozen times and have it ‘just right’, you need one more thing to be a Tenkara fisherman – you need a line. Now, you *could* buy the Tenkara line. Or you could be less of a sucker, and buy or build a simple tapered leader, using a heavy, stiff butt section and a supple, thin tippet. You can play with leader length – but I wouldn’t deviate much from a 1:1 ratio of pole to leader lengths. A leader more than about half again as long as your pole is going to make landing fish interesting, especially if the fish is bigger than 10 or 12 inches.

Assuming you went the tapered leader route – tie a perfection loop in the butt – you know how to tie a PERFECTION LOOP, right? Tie a perfection loop in the butt end of your leader, slip it over the loop eyelet on your Durankara (I just made up that word. Now you’ve got to pay me money any time you fish with this concept, muahahahaha) Pole, run the tag end of the line through the eyelet, and snug tight. “Hey, that’s just like that loop to loop connection I use on my fly line!” Yes, yes it is.

Now take this assembly, head to your stream of choice, flick your wrist and watch your pole assemble like the cold, blued steel of policeman’s ASP baton as he’s about to unleash a can of Whupass on some miscreant, and prepare to fish.

Wait! We forgot something. You need a *fly* to fish with. Grab a soft hackled wet fly, or if you want something that looks more like a Tenkara fly, grab a cool Reverse Spider pattern and tie that on your leader point. Now get to fishin!

Spread on your blog, and on every Internet forum you post on about the superiority of Tenakra (or rather, Durankara) fishing. Tell them all how anyone who fishes with a traditional fly rod and reel is a sucker, and needs to simplify their lives and their fishing. Carry nothing more astream with you than a single fly box with half a dozen wet flies, a single spool of tippet, and a pair of line nippers (who needs hemostats when you are fishing barbless flies, right?) and your Durankara – Tenkara pole.

Wade wet, while wearing tan cargo shorts and a floppy hat, and a Grateful Dead T-shirt. Slather yourself in patchouli and sunscreen (or patchouli scented sunscreen.)

Enjoy life on your superior Astral Plane, and revel in the fact that you only spent $12 on your Tenkara pole, while all the other suckers wasted their money on those Tenkara USA made poles.

The above was written half in jest – Tenkara is a fine way to find a different challenge in fishing, even if some folks have managed to take it to an extreme level. Seriously though, you don’t need to drop a hundred bucks to fish with what amounts to a panfish pole. Try the Durango rod by Shakespeare before you plop down the cash for a Real Deal TenkaraUSA rod, unless you poop gold coins and piss crude oil, unless you like spending way too much money on crap.