Tenkara Mary:
The Club’s Own Japanese Angler
Mary Kuss has been a guest at my fishing cottage on Spruce Creek in central PA for a number of years. Her arrival never
fails to include a surprise: often it‘s a new joke, some-times a new rod to try out, sometimes a variation on her great venison.
In her October 2011 visit, Mary outdid herself. She arrived with a set of Tenkara fishing equipment (rod, a reel of tippet
material, and about four flies), de-signed to fish the Tenkara system, a re-cently touted Japanese fishing method for small streams.
When I asked her to show me the rig, she emerged from the trunk of her car and, at first, I didn‘t see anything.”Here we are,
here we go,”,says Mary. Then I noticed a short rod (about 18” long) with a small tippet reel hanging off its tip end.
“That‘s it?‖”, I say.
“Yup”, says Mary. “Now I‘ll show you how I think it works.” She pulled out the tip of the rod near the spool of tippet, thus
extending the telescoping rod to its 11-foot length. We approached Spruce Creek directly in front of my house.
As she entered the water, I pointed out a nice run that not one of the anglers who preceded her on the same water earlier in
the day had touched. Mary promptly placed herself in the appropriate spot to cast her Tenkara rod, and instantly there was a fish on!
Mary giggled, her inimitable laugh, saying, “Wow!”
During the next 10 casts, only changing her position up or down by two or three feet, she proceeded to catch and release
another five fish. “Wow, Wow – this is great!”
It was great. Club members know that Mary is a consummate fisherman. But this was like she was experiencing fly fishing
for the first time. Mary fished that rod every day over three days on Spruce Creek, never ceasing to hook and land more fish than I
could on conventional fly tackle. At one point I remember saying, at the top of one big long pool, “Mary, I don‘t recall catching
anything there at dusk.”
“Just let me fish up top to the get out,” says she. In the course of those 15 minutes she caught another four fish.
Here‘s what Mary and I concluded after her three days (maybe four hours total) of Tenkara fishing on Spruce Creek:
 It is huge fun and you are in intimate contact with the fish at the end of your line. (The rod tip is very soft.)
 You must carry a net, as the Tenkara system, by definition, has no reel. You‘ll have to reach out with a net to land your fish
to release it. (Not difficult.)

Mary says that her finest fish on the Tenkara system was a 17” brownie – that‘s very good, given the restrictions of the
equipment.
 The Tenkara system was developed in Japan eons ago, and designed to catch fish in small streams. This method will work
well in the small streams of North-eastern PA where many of our members fish regularly.
 I hope other members will urge Mary to demonstrate this system in the spring of 2012. The more experienced angler may
find it a new challenge, and beginners will find it exceptionally simple and pure.
 The way the Tenkara flies are tied is like an upside-down version of soft hackle flies. They pulse as none other, especially
given the lightness and give‘ of the rod. It‘s a joy to watch, and – as I hope to discover next spring – a joy to fish and catch.
Really a Haiku of fishing.
--Ann McIntosh--