Downstream Tenkara Sasoi Manipulations

There was a great five-minute video on downstream tenkara manipulations “sasoi” that was published to YouTube last week from the “Tenkara From Japan” channel. It sums up four different approaches to fishing water that you may have already fished upstream. It’s a wonderful short narrated by Dr. Ishigaki that if nothing more, will associate some terminology to tactics you may already be using. If you’re not, they’re definitely worth adding to the arsenal. Give it a look:

With the video not clearly showing the line, it’s a little difficult to see exactly what’s going on in each of these four techniques. We’ve summarized the action below, to possibly help in that translation. You may want to read this first, then concentrate on the video (rather than the subtitles) to follow along.

• Tomezuri – This is the anchoring of the fly in one place, keeping the rod tip low and allowing the fly to “bounce” on the surface of the water. Dr. Ishigaki suggests not pausing the fly for more than 3 seconds.
• Ougibiki – This is casting across the flow of the water, and while keeping the rod tip low, pulsing or twitching the fly back toward the near bank as it travels downstream.
• Gyakubiki – This is casting downstream, and then pulsing/pulling the fly back upstream (against the current). This method is effective, but can be slightly harder to hook the fish.
• Tomeokuri – This is the opposite of gyakubiki. You will cast from an upstream position and guide the fly downstream (with the current). You will want to make several stops and then releases of the fly, which will send it downstream in a choppy motion.

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