Looking to expand your fly fishing arsenal is never a bad thing. With its increasing popularity outside of Japan, now sounds like a great time to get into tenkara, the traditional Japanese technique of mountain stream trout fishing. If you’re not quite sure where to start getting into the back-to-basics awesomeness of tenkara, this Patagonia Simple Fly Fishing Kit sounds like the perfect starter set.
Bundling everything you need for tenkara fly fishing in a single pack, it lets you quickly get up to speed on the centuries-old Far East technique, so you can quickly drive up to the nearby freshwater and start catching yourself some protein dinner. Unless it’s snowing where you live, of course, in which case, maybe wait till the fall (just practice indoors with your Practicaster, in the meantime).
To keep you busy while waiting the winter out, the Patagonia Simple Fly Fishing Kit comes with a copy of the book Simple Fly Fishing: Techniques for Tenkara and Rod and Reel, authored by Yvon Chouinard, Mauro Mazzo, and Craig Matthews. That way, you can read up on the subject and pretend to know what you’re doing when you finally do make the drive. Aside from the book, the set includes a telescoping tenkara fly rod (available in different lengths, up to 11.5 feet), a level floating tenkara line, three 5.5-foot taped leaders, a dozen soft-hackle flies, and an instruction booklet (for setting up the gear), all bundled inside a storage bag. If you’re wondering why there’s no reel, that’s the beauty of tenkara – you literally fish without one, which is why the rod is much longer than usual.
Available now, the Patagonia Simple Fly Fishing Kit is priced starting at $200.