Tenkara Takes Off in UK

by Dave Southall
(Yorkshire UK)

Tenkara is really taking off here in the UK. I gave a talk on my experience of Tenkara at our recent British Fly Fair International where great interest was shown. There were even two UK distributors of Tenkara gear present.

I talked to several professional guides who have taken to Tenkara in a big way.

Last week I met up with Stuart Wardle, another guide, who has fished for the England Team. I introduced him to Tenkara on the pocket water of the upper R. Tees. He was very impressed with the presentation which was possible, and in his blog comments on a catch rate of 2 to 1 compared with conventional gear.

A lot of controversy has been stirred up however, mainly from ill informed anglers who've never tried or seen Tenkara in action and a couple of clubs have already banned it. On the other side of the coin, there are moves afoot to form a 'Tenkara Only' syndicate to fish a stream amd 2 small reservoirs in the Peak District of Derbyshire.

It will be interesting to see how Tenkara progresses:

Is Tenkara here to stay? YES

Is it really fly fishing? Undoubtedly

Is it the best method of fly fishing? In some situations, YES.

Will the present explosion of interest continue? Certainly it will for the immediate future.