A Holga master and a Tenkara master go fishing...

I recently had the pleasure of meeting, fishing with and getting a little instruction from Daniel Galhardo, the founder of Tenkara USA.  If you've never heard of Tenkara, it's a form of fly fishing that originated in Japan a few centuries ago, it's very simple, in that all you use is a fly rod and line.  In many ways I think it has some similarities with toy camera photography in that it is primarily about the challenge of using a simple tool to obtain amazing results.

Dan was in the Salt Lake area doing an informal workshop and demo of tenkara fishing and his Tenkara rods, through a local fly fishing shop, Western Rivers Fly Fishing.  I have had fished once with one of these simple fly rods once before, but wanted to know more, so I went and took my Holgas along.   As see it, there is a connection between what I do with my photography and tenkara fishing.  The rods that Dan produce I think are really comparable to Holgas, they are made of a composite material and telescoping, which puts them somewhere in between a bamboo stick and a more contemporary fly rod, comparable to a Holga where you could put them somewhere in between a pinhole camera and your average digital SLR camera.

The technique you use while fishing with a tenkara rod is slightly different than what you do when fishing with a more contemporary fly rod, in that it's all in the wrist, and how you grip the rod is a little different too.

The sign of a great master, is that the master is able to teach the subject to any and all skill levels, and while the fly fishing ability of the group I was with was above average, Dan was certainly generous with his time and knowledge and got around to all of making sure that we all had a good technique.

 

 I really like the idea of tenkara fishing because it is so simple and minimalistic, while most of in the class carried our big backpacks with all of various gear, Dan didn't carry all that much, in his small hip bag. 

I enjoyed the day I had with Dan and the others, so much so I'd like to get a tenkara rod, perhaps if you took at look at my Etsy Shop, so that I might be able to buy one sooner rather than later.

Thanks for reading!