Just Another Sales Niche / Opportunity

[Paul Boote]

So, Tenkara (no frills, no reel, fly stick fishing) is currently being billed as pared down, stripped back, back to Soul Fishing basics. Here is Yvon Chouinard, founder of the Patagonia Corp., extolling its virtues.

Simple Fly Fishing: Techniques for Tenkara and Rod & Reel Book by Yvon Chouinard - Craig Mathews - and Mauro Mazzo


And here is the Trade's response - https://twitter.com/Riverworks_Co

Nice graphite. I used to have a few dozen woven carbon tomato / plant canes (rods / blanks smashed in transit whern I made a lot of rods in the mid-late 1980s) just like that.

Ever wondered why there might be something of shortage of new fly fishers at present....?

 

[bennygesserit]

Paul I am not sure what your point is , a commercial response to a new fashion in angling , the fact that the proposed fashion never went away ( have you seen kids fishing these days ) , or is this a newly created fashion designed to sell us more soylent green ?

However i must say I love fishing this way for roach , the venues aren't Patagonia of course , but still fun tempting them out from beneath the Lily pads.

Today Huck Fin would have fished with a lovely piece of carbon inbetween spending time at the states leisure or appearing on Jerry Springer.

 

[Paul Boote]

K.I.S.S.

We have over-complicated in our desire to sell a lifestyle and make a buck.

Killed the goose etc.

 

[keora]

K.I.S.S.

We have over-complicated in our desire to sell a lifestyle and make a buck.

Killed the goose etc.

Not sure that this applies to Tenkara. It is a simple system - a long whippy rod, a length of nylon line fixed to the rod tip, no reel, and a few flies. How can it be over complicated ?

 

[Paul Boote]

Still missing my point.

Yes. The ultimate in simplicity, until the The Business (as traders in the flyfishing world call it**), with fly rod sales down and looking for sales of peripherals (flies, gadgets, fishing vest dangly bits) to see them through, gets its hands on it.

1) The Dream ... back to Aelian and W.B. Yeats's immortal and lovely

I went out to the hazel wood,
Because a fire was in my head,
And cut and peeled a hazel wand,
And hooked a berry to a thread;
And when white moths were on the wing, 5
And moth-like stars were flickering out,
I dropped the berry in a stream
And caught a little silver trout.

2) The Late Capitalist Modern Reality ... well, you know that as well as I do.


Don't kill The Dream, for The New Reality will surely kill you.



** Correction - they call it The Industry. Which rather makes me think "Don't kill recreation and leisure and turn them into work".

 

[Paul Boote]

It finally might be beginning to dawn on some high-profile fishy herberts, especially those whose lodges, guiding operations, fisheries and flystores aren't seeing the footfall they once were, what with the big-spending Boomers slowly but surely heading for the great fishing gig in the sky. A line from the blog entry below:

"I believe this portrayal of how fly-fishing has to be consumed has been a reason many people have stayed away from fly-fishing."

http://www.ginkandgasoline.com/tenkara/tenkara-or-how-people-consume-fly-fishing/

 

[bennygesserit]

A chap I met on the bank last week fly fishes , he pays fifty quid for 3 trout , once you have caught your 3 that's it you have to pay to leave , he has developed a way to de-hook the fish before its out using the end of his rod. So he waits till he has landed 3 decent sized fish.

I'll be honest ( and it isn't big or clever ) but a part of me wondered how much you purist anglers would wince at that.

 

[Paul Boote]

Plus, I saw just now, a Tenkara water filter - Tenkara USA Offering $30 Portable Water Filtration System | Hatch Magazine - Fly Fishing, etc.

Fine, I've used them on occasion in the a'-end-of-nowhere tropics, even being lent a very good imported American one by a wealthy Indian Bangalore-ite in 1978 to take on to the Cauvery with me, which worked very well until after ten days its pump handle snapped off, yet I still can't help thinking of Robert Traver's words....




Testament of a Fisherman

I fish because I love to; because I love the environs where trout are found, which are invariably beautiful, and hate the environs where crowds of people are found, which are invariably ugly; because of all the television commercials, cocktail parties, and assorted social posturing I thus escape; because, in a world where most men seem to spend their lives doing things they hate, my fishing is at once an endless source of delight and an act of small rebellion; because trout do not lie or cheat and cannot be bought or bribed or impressed by power, but respond only to quietude and humility and endless patience; because I suspect that men are going along this way for the last time, and I for one don't want to waste the trip; because mercifully there are no telephones on trout waters; because only in the woods can I find solitude without loneliness; because bourbon out of an old tin cup always tastes better out there; because maybe one day I will catch a mermaid; and, finally, not because I regard fishing as being so terribly important but because I suspect that so many of the other concerns of men are equally unimportant - and not nearly so much fun.




Yes, amoeba taste better in an old tin cup.

 

[Paul Boote]

Hmm. Did some Gear Junkie / Tackle T'rt say "Can you do a Big Gun with stripes?".

First Look: Big Water Tenkara Rod


Hmm.

[ame=http://youtu.be/R3SFqV0hMyo]Portlandia - Get The Gear - YouTube[/ame]

 

[andygrey]

Tenkara is getting quite a following though I'm not sure if it's just a bit of a fad...
I tried it once and didn't really enjoy it.
It is however relatively cheap compared to a full fly outfit and the casting is debatably) easier as you don't need to worry about shooting line and line management. You can draw a lot of parellels with 'leader to hand' methods (Czech, Spanish and French nymphing methods) which use a long rod and a fixed length of leader.
As for it being 'Just Another Sales Niche/Opportunity' you could apply that to any form of angling.
Plenty of people seem to enjoy to though.

Cheers

Andy

 

[loc_han]

I`ve tried trout fishing with a Tenkara pole (I refuse to call it a rod) and caught fish, then armed with the same pole, my mate and I went to our local canal, where using the pole and a quill float, size 20 hook, 1lb line and a single maggot, pulled in about 20-30 roach. To me it`s just another way of getting anglers to part with their hard earned cash. Why not, if you are Tenkara inclined, don`t you just tie a leader to the top eye of your fly rod? The tackle dealers, tell you it`s not the same if you don`t use a Tenkara rod (especially if they can sell you one), but where`s the difference? You can catch trout with a Poundland £1.00 2metre whip and save yourself a fortune. cheers P.:wh

 

[Alan Tyler]

The clue is in a line from the first video in Paul's first post: "The more you know, the less you need".

Fine if you're campaigning to keep libraries open, but of little use to those trying to part fools from their money.

There is no point looking to a site called "Gearjunkie" in hopes of finding knowledge promoted over the accumulation of high-cost equipment, is there? (Unless, of course, you seek commoditized* knowledge between the lavishly Morocco-leather-bound covers of a signed, limited edition, sensuously illustrated "high-end" table-wobble reducer).

The downsi - sorry, disadvantage - of encouraging anglers to be knowledge-heavy, tackle-light, is that the more successful ones suddenly find they have more of their disposable income to spend on fisheries... which they promptly syndicate, raising the drawbridge behind them...

*Note good ol' Yankee "zee"...now, why could that be?

 

[greenie62]

.....(Unless, of course, you seek commoditized* knowledge between the lavishly Morocco-leather-bound covers of a signed, limited edition, sensuously illustrated "high-end" table-wobble reducer).....

Ar eh Al,
That's blown my brilliant idea for a Xmas prezzy for you! - I thought you would have appreciated Mark W's new book on Roach - whether your table wobbles or not!
Tight Lines!

 

[Alan Tyler]

I side with the poor Moroccan goats on this - I strickly cloff-bound.
(After my son's last school, I've had enough of "hide-bound" to last a century or so).

 

[Paul Boote]

Chewy indigestible mutton dressed as lamb ... you can't make a silk purse out of a sow's ear...

Far prefer the real thing in any old cover.

 

[Richard Jamieson 2]

I`ve tried trout fishing with a Tenkara pole (I refuse to call it a rod) and caught fish, then armed with the same pole, my mate and I went to our local canal, where using the pole and a quill float, size 20 hook, 1lb line and a single maggot, pulled in about 20-30 roach. To me it`s just another way of getting anglers to part with their hard earned cash. Why not, if you are Tenkara inclined, don`t you just tie a leader to the top eye of your fly rod? The tackle dealers, tell you it`s not the same if you don`t use a Tenkara rod (especially if they can sell you one), but where`s the difference? You can catch trout with a Poundland £1.00 2metre whip and save yourself a fortune. cheers P.:wh

I was of this opinion initially and tied the fixed line to one of my fly rods. The fact that this was the lightest, softest and longest 10ft rod I had, a 3#, didn't alter the fact that compared to my friend's Iwana (a Tenkara rod) it was like fishing with a poker. That's when I went out and paid the princely sum of just £68 to get the real thing. Far more responsive and for the correct purpose is the best tool for the job.

The tip of a Tenkara rod is much finer than any running line rod I've ever seen and due to its telescopic nature is far easier to transport in and out of overgrown streams, something that a whip would struggle with. I've tried it BTW. The tip of a whip is also many times the diameter of the dedicated Tenkara rod and just doesn't offer the same effortless casting ability or flex when playing fish and will bend double when required.

In the end, a Tenkara rod is just another fishing rod. There are umpteen different types and ratings of fly rod and then there's all the differing coarse rods and sea rods, not to mention whips and elasticated poles. All of these could be claimed as attempts to rip off the angler as I daresay I could catch roach or just about anything else that swims on my 30/50 boat rod if necessary. I don't in most cases because I wouldn't enjoy it. I use a Tenkara rod for situations where I know I will.

BTW, I totally agree about using it for roach although I've found I can also get good results from a size 18 gold head PTN jiggled up and down in front of them.

 

[Paul Boote]

"Full hipster velocity" according to the very sound guy who runs the Moldy Chum Blog in the States.

First Yuppies, then Preppies, now the Hipster with obligatory interesting male facial hair and St(r)eam Punk accessories. Not knocking fixed-line fishing, I once had an absolutely wonderful day of it myself thirty years when I arrived at a distant river with four fly rods and not a reel or line to put on them, but I am clearly not the only one who has seen the way this Tenkara thing might be heading. Get the gear, then dump it in the cupboard with the power-scooter, the GoPro, the used-once snowboard etc etc.

Fly Fishing | Blog | Photos | Podcasts | Travel | Gear | and More - Moldy Chum - Tenkara meets�Huckberry

 

[Richard Jamieson 2]

"Full hipster velocity" according to the very sound guy who runs the Moldy Chum Blog in the States.



First Yuppies, then Preppies, now the Hipster with obligatory interesting male facial hair and St(r)eam Punk accessories. Not knocking fixed-line fishing, I once had an absolutely wonderful day of it myself thirty years when I arrived at a distant river with four fly rods and not a reel or line to put on them, but I am clearly not the only one who has seen the way this Tenkara thing might be heading. Get the gear, then dump it in the cupboard with the power-scooter, the GoPro, the used-once snowboard etc etc.



Fly Fishing | Blog | Photos | Podcasts | Travel | Gear | and More - Moldy Chum - Tenkara meets�Huckberry

I know what you mean Paul, I have a Grey's rod doing ****** all in the cupboard because I found something I preferred. Except with me it's in company with a Hornby Railway set.........not found anything to replicate the Tenkara rods to date but I live in hope...........


Sent from my iPad

 

[Paul Boote]

"Drink it, sir? Oh no, sir. We use it to shine the windows of your shooting lodge. Some might like to try it, though ... even think it potable...."

[ame=http://youtu.be/MaMuQPmzrrU]David Beckham's Extended HAIG CLUB™ Ad - YouTube[/ame]

 

[nicepix]

I`ve tried trout fishing with a Tenkara pole (I refuse to call it a rod) and caught fish, then armed with the same pole, my mate and I went to our local canal, where using the pole and a quill float, size 20 hook, 1lb line and a single maggot, pulled in about 20-30 roach. To me it`s just another way of getting anglers to part with their hard earned cash. Why not, if you are Tenkara inclined, don`t you just tie a leader to the top eye of your fly rod? The tackle dealers, tell you it`s not the same if you don`t use a Tenkara rod (especially if they can sell you one), but where`s the difference? You can catch trout with a Poundland £1.00 2metre whip and save yourself a fortune. cheers P.:wh

Been there and done it. Small river near Barnsley, just too wide to jump across, Poundland whip, 3 metres of 3lb line, small trout fishing indicator float and a pheasant tail nymph. Over twenty wild brown trout on two hours, a couple pushing the 2lb mark. Same gear on the same river a few miles lower down and I could catch dace all day long.