Welcome to Week CXXXI of 'Fishing Parkland Shorelines'. Like most of us I am a novice fisherman, loving to fish, but far from an expert. In the following weeks I'll attempt to give those anglers who love to fish but just don't have access to a boat, a look at some of the options in the Yorkton area where you can fish from shore, and hopefully catch some fish.
I have mentioned on occasion how I remain surprised by the number of comments I get on my writings about fishing.
In all honesty it is a near weekly occurrence, and the numbers of comments are more than the rest of the writings I do for this paper.
And, I appreciate every comment, so never shy away from coming up and talking fishing, which brings me nicely to the true topic of this week's column, which has everything to do with one lady doing just that.
I was in the local Salvation Army Store recently, indulging another interest of mine by looking for old board games, when a lady walks up and mentions she not only reads my fishing columns, but has on occasion even cuts them out of the newspaper to keep.
Now for a newspaper writer that is rather humbling. Yes, I realize when you write about someone they themselves, or a family member, might cut out the story to add to the family, but a random clipping is rather rare.
I told her thanks for reading, since that is what we writers strive for, to be read.
The lady then mentions she has a fly rod at home her family might be looking to sell. I said I would at least take a look at it, and we parted company.
I have to admit I didn't give the meeting, or fly rod, much additional thought, expecting it to be unlikely she's ever call.
Flash forward a few weeks, it's production day at the newspaper, and I am in the corner office with the grand exalted Poobah of Yorkton This Week, giving the front page a final look over, when the intercom announces a call for me.
It is the lady, and she hopes I can take a look at the fly rod. We make arrangements to meet for a coffee that afternoon.
Now in the world of fly fishing I am something less than a novice. As Patrick Thomson, my fly fishing guru and all around bud has pointed out on more than one occasion my casting with a fly rod has a definite 'skunkish-aroma'. OK that is my interpretation of his far kinder words regarding my casting, but you get the idea.
So the rod the lady was bringing could be the best in all the realm of fly fishing, or the worst, and I would likely not know. I contacted Patrick and invited him to coffee.
As it turned out I arrived first and the lady was waiting.
I opened the case, pulled out a collapsible rod that would extend to some 16-feet, and had no reel. It was indeed a fly rod, but it was a rather unique one.
The rod the lady had was for tenkara fishing, something I knew about from past Internet searches only.
If not familiar with tenkara, and I suspect most might not be, here is a bit of information.
"Tenkara fly fishing (Japanese, literally: "from heaven", or "from the skies") is a traditional type of fly fishing practiced in Japan. Primarily used for mountain stream trout fishing, tenkara is one of the most popular methods of angling among fresh-water mountain anglers in Japan," details Wikipedia.
"Tenkara has been virtually unknown outside of Japan until the first company to introduce and popularize tenkara outside of Japan, Tenkara USA, was founded in April 2009 in San Francisco."
"Tenkara fishing originated in Japan at least 200 years ago. The first reference to tenkara fly-fishing was in 1878 in a book called "Diary of climbing Mt. Tateyama" written by Ernest Mason Satow, an able linguist and British diplomat during the early modernization of Japan. Tenkara fly-fishing originated with professional fishermen in the mountain streams of Japan who found it an effective method of catching the local fish, Yamame, Iwanaand Amago.
"Originally the rod was simply a bamboo/cane rod, which was cut and treated, but unlike contemporary western bamboo rods, they were not "manufactured" (i.e. split and glued back together). Unlike in the western fly-fishing tradition where anglers used heavy wooden rods, in Japan anglers always used bamboo, which is readily available and very light. Because of its light weight, Japanese anglers were able to use very long bamboo rods and reach as far as needed without the need to develop reels for the short rods developed in the west."
The rod the lady had was long, even by tenkara standards, and when Patrick arrived, he was pretty well as surprised as I was finding what for local fishing was something of an oddball fishing rig.
We were to learn the rod, by Super Flex, was actually bought for fishing in the American northwest, and Patrick said that made sense since there were bigger trout rivers there to work such a long rod over.
Super Flex proved a bit hard to research, Patrick finally finding a sister model for sale on ebay. The brand is not the upper end of such rods, but it was still a highly intriguing piece for Patrick and I to look at.
Sadly, the longer version of a tenkara rod had no local applications to warrant our making an offer on it. So if someone out there knows anyone looking for a tenkara rod, get hold of me and I'll pass you along to the lady.
Still I have to say it was great to even see such a rod, and once again brought into focus just how much interest in fishing and this column there is. Thanks again all for reading, and I hope there are a few more rare treasures out there we might discover together.
