Book Review and Possible 2012 Fishing Season Experiment

Last year I picked up a copy of Modern Midges Tying and Fishing the World's Most Effective Patterns by Rick Takahashi and Jerry Hubka. I have been reading and studying Modern Midges for quite awhile now and have now decided that it is high time that I tie a number of midge patterns that are listed in the book. I am curious as to whether I can tie a passable midge pattern on my own. Something tells me that after reading this book cover to cover a few times and doing some research on the patterns that are listed I think I might have a chance at it.

That being said, I think that I am going to try and experiment with a full box of midges this summer and see what happens with my numbers of to net fish. And from what little I understand of midges and the places they are found I am hoping for some good numbers.

The book is broken down into two parts which make the manuscript very user friendly. Part 1 is called Tying Midges. It is comprised of eight chapters which are ordered according to the life cycle of a midge.  By this I mean that it starts at the larval stage and works up to the adult stage. One chapter of each life stage includes instructions on how to tie the common flies for this period. The instructions are clear and concise and have definitely helped my tying to improve quite a bit in a short time. The following chapter is what I would consider quite exhaustive in my opinion but I know that is not the case. Although, with the number of recipes included, I am sure I would not be able to complete all the patterns in my life time or be able to use all the recipes. (Hmm, now there is a fun idea! Tie and fish every pattern listed in this book! I throw down my gauntlet Sir and take you challenge!) 

Life Lessons and Tenkara

We all learn new things every day thru multiple avenues be it the internet, magazines, books, or personal experiences. I have found that some amazing things have occurred since I started fishing the Way of Tenkara as I have come to call it. So I guess the thing that I should do is explain the things I have learned and hopefully maybe even allow you to take some of my experiences and incorporate them into your lives. They might even open your eyes to something that you had not considered in the past.

I have experienced a major increase in my level of patience. I used to get agitated when I went fishing and didn't catch anything. I find it very interesting that after having picked up my first Tenkara rod that I slowly but surely became more patient with my fishing results.

As I learned how to cast a Tenkara rod correctly my patience improved based on the fact that I started out just piling my line on the water. Once I figured out the correct casting motion the frequency of my line pilings dropped drastically. I also came to understand that with each style of fly I needed to modify my casting stroke and it didn't bother me in the least. I finally got to the point where most of my casts are great but I don't stress if my cast is not dead on every time. So I guess that was a great thing for me to experience and that patience has melded into my daily life and has now become a very positive influence.

Another aspect of a the increase in my patience has been the frequency of the fish that I catch. As I said earlier, I used to get agitated when I did not catch any fish or I could see the fish but they were ignoring my fly offerings. I have now come to a point where if I am fishing a hole where I can clearly see the fish, I now focus on those individuals and work that hole to the best of my ablilities until one of three things happen.

1. I catch a fish and land it successfully.

2. I get skunked and give up and go on my merry way.

3. I run out of time and have to leave the water to attend to "life events" or "honey do's".

My patience level has also increased during my forays into different fly techniques. I used to have no patience for dry fly fishing even though everyone said it was so much fun. I never found it that much fun since I apparently have the visual acuity of a half blind owl or as some might say a very selective person who ignores all but the "most important things to me at the time. Now having experienced dry fly fishing I am definitely finding I want to do this more and more. I am also learning how to fish a traditional kebari fly which I had never considered until I experienced Tenkara. There are many other styles of flies that I am going to work on experiencing and hopefully using in the future.

Having said the above about different flies, I am sure some of you are wondering if I am a one fly guy or if I am a western Tenkara fisherman. I think the one fly maxim does work, but that is all that I want to say in this post. I will expound on my feelings about the one fly/multiple fly discussion at a later time in a separate post.

Tying Tenkara Flies Volume 1 Review.

Recently, I received the new DVD from  LearnTenkara.com. I had heard about the DVD from Karel Lansky of TenkaraOnTheFly after he returned from the 2nd Tenkara Summit held in Utah. Ashley Valentine had given Karel a copy along with a small press kit. I was very interested to say the least and decided to contact Ashley and see if I could get some more information from here about this. To my surprise and glee just a few short days after contacting her I received a small package in the mail. I was extremely excited to find the same press packet that Ashley had given to Karel. Suffice to say it didn't take me long to head downstairs to my DVD player to sit and watch the video of all the flies being tied. I sat for the 2.5 hour duration of the film and find myself in awe of what I was seeing.

The DVD is produced by Brian Flemming and co-produced by Ashley Valentine, who by the way, is the creator of the Punk Rock Sakasa Kebari, which you will see later in the video. These two are absolutely amazing in that there passion for Tenkara and the flies associated with this form of fishing really showed in the video. With the use of the most amazing macro video equipment and some of the greatest Tenkara fly tiers in the world this video helped to make even a  mediocre tier like myself into a much better tier.

When you have a group of tiers who include Dr. Hisao Ishigaki, the man who many believe to be the modern day Tenkara Sensei, Daniel Galhardo of TenkaraUSA, the man credited with bringing Tenkara to the forefront here in the United States, and Mr. Chris Stewart of TenkaraBum.com fame, the man who has in my opinion, written a virtual encyclopedia of information on Tenkara lead you through a number of amazing flies that as a Tenkara fisherperson you will become quite familiar with over a period of time. With 17 flies tied in this video, I have to say that you will stay plenty busy whipping these bad boys/girls out so that in the coming season you will be well stocked and ready to rumble so to speak.

With a few introductory videos by Dr. Ishigaki, Daniel Galhardo, and Chris Stewart, you get a great intro into the philosophy of the one fly approach to Tenkara from Dr. Ishigaki himself, then you get a short introduction and overview of traditional Japanese fly-tying. Daniel includes some more exotic traditional Japanese flies as well. This definitely opened my eyes to the possibilities that are out there. Then, Mr. Steward steps in and introduces the minimum tools needed to start tying Tenkara flies without a huge outlay of money. Mr. Stewart's tips on equipment are very insightful and make fly tying accessible to even a total novice.

I have watched and tried to tie a few of these flies and all I can say is wow. Even a manually challenged person like myself can tie these flies by watching this video. Even a beginner that has never tied before could pick up the techniques shown. That being said, I am now chomping at the bit to see the second volume.