We made it – 2023 is officially here! With it means a blank slate and new opportunities to look forward to in the upcoming year. In the interest of dreaming big, the Tenkara Angler team got together and wanted to share our individual thoughts on what we hope 2023 will bring not only each of us, but the community as a whole.
Matt Sment
Personally, I’m excited to focus on fishing with as wide a variety of people as possible in ’23! Spending time with anglers of all skills levels on different types of waters is my favorite way to expand my understanding of tenkara. Watching others mindfully, I ask questions and develop opportunities to work past personal limitations in my own fishing. Teaching others, I am challenged to thoroughly consider tenkara’s fundamentals so I can communicate actionable feedback. Everyone I fish with creates growth in my style, so I’m excited to explore that effect in 2023!
Here at Tenkara Angler, we’ve got plans to make 2023 a big year in the community. Your support and participation was evident in ’22, so we’ve been inspired to meet your energy. Our plans this year include lots of new media content, more opportunities to meet and learn in person, and to top it all off – you’ll have lots of opportunities to WIN FREE TENKARA RODS!
Jason Sparks
The end of each year always seems to arrive well before I am ready for it. Can you relate? I’m realizing now that I didn’t get my list done for 2022 and it’s passed the eleventh hour now. Some of it will carry over into the new year, and some of it will just be lost to Father Time. Looking forward, this Tenkara Angler team has many things planned for 2023 and we will be working every week to bring these new segments to life. I am pretty excited about these projects. I anticipate our community to respond well to them.
We need help from our fans and friends to share more stories, repost more videos and tell more people about the community project that we are stewards for. Each of us has an opportunity to be ambassadors for tenkara and fixed line angling. Many of us do our part in a myriad of ways. Take this request kindly, partly as a Call-to-Action and partly as a challenge. Please consider helping us move content in new directions to new eyes this year. We are working to create the buzz, I’m asking you to share it.
Lastly, like my comrades here have stated, I too am looking for more time on the water and shared experiences with all of you. North Carolina, Wisconsin, Idaho, California… we are looking to really get around this year and hope to meet so many of you.
Anthony Naples
Looking forward to 2023 … what do I see? Maybe I’ll should ask some questions and shake the Magic 8 Ball. Will I fish in the west this year? The 8 Ball says “Cannot predict now.” What about the Driftless? The 8 Ball responds, “Signs point to yes.” It’s being cagey so far. No definite answers. In all honesty, I am satisfied in my fishing life. There are always new places to fish and old familiar places to revisit, and I look forward to the opportunities as they arise, but I can’t say I’ve got a big itch to scratch in that department.
So what then? I guess maybe that’s what I look forward to the most. The unknown. In the way that streams lure us around the next bend with unknown pools and glides and pocket water, I’m hoping to be surprised. Joining up with Tenkara Angler was a totally unforeseen highlight of 2022 for me. So I don’t know what’s coming, but If I’ve learned anything in my 50+ trips around the sun it’s that the lands beyond the horizon and the stream around the bend always hold unguessed at joys and delights. Sorry for the cop out. But that’s it. I didn’t realize it before I began typing away. But that’s it. I most look forward to seeing what surprises 2023 has in store me and for Tenkara Angler.
Tom Davis
For me personally, I’m looking forward to getting back to the streams of eastern Idaho/western Wyoming (referred to as Wydaho by us locals) and exercising the resident trout population. This won’t happen until late autumn, but I do look forward to it!
For the website, I’ll be giving my thoughts on some rods from Zen Tenkara, Uzaki-Nissin, Tenkara Tanuki and others. I’ll also be revisiting rods I’ve reviewed in the past, but now giving my thoughts after long term use – what I like about them, what I don’t, which ones I still own and which ones I sold. It should be a fun year!
Mike Agneta
The personal highlights of each year for me are the gatherings and events, the opportunities to be around fellow tenkara anglers. Annual trips like the Smokies and the Driftless have created so many memories (and lasting friendships), it’ll be nice to reconnect again at camp or on the water. Maybe I’ll even try get up to the Northeast or out West to the Rockies or Sierras again.
For the website, I’d like to rediscover some of Tenkara Angler’s roots. We’ve spent the last year or so creating a lot of in-house content and talking about somewhat emerging topics such as big fish, fixed line nymphing, and even glow in the dark rods! While we’ll certainly continue celebrating everything new in tenkara & fixed line’s evolution in the West, I would like to reel that in a little (see what I did there?) and try to get back to some long form story telling.
Tenkara Angler may currently have five contibuting editors, however it has always primarily been a venue to share your stories, the stories of the community. I’d like to put more focus on that moving forward, although I’ll need your help. The heartbeat of Tenkara Angler is, and will always be its readers.
It would also be fun and informative to try extract some thoughts from our Japanese friends, particularly some that we’d consider “Masters.” I’d like to better tell their stories as well. 2023 feels like it has more potential for this than ever before.
Oh, and I’d really like to get the podcast going again, no joke this time. Even if it’s only a half-dozen new episodes for the year. Seems achievable, right?
What’s Your Tenkara Year of 2023 Look Like?
In closing, let us know what you’d like 2023 in tenkara to look like. Are there any gatherings you’d like to attend, any new gear ideas for the brands to consider… are there any topics in particular you’d like to see Tenkara Angler cover? We’re all ears! We’d love to hear your thoughts in the comments below!
Article Header Photo: Don Lux
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I would love to see more articles on the fixed line fishing with Tenkara rods. I’m a southern (Bama) tenkara rod fisher. I’m older and have mobility issues. That said I still love the wade fishing challenges in creeks and streams. I would love some articles on chasing Red Eye Bass. Happy New Year!
Well, if this comment doesn’t inspire the community to perhaps contribute, I’d love to catch some redeye bass to write some articles for you! Not sure how many people are chasing them with tenkara rods, but the article Chris Lynch wrote for Tenkara Angler a few years back is one of my favorites. An excellent primer for those who want to give it a try.
https://tenkaraangler.com/2019/08/11/southern-hospitality-alabamas-redeye-bass/
Masami Sakakibara will be back in Utah this year for Oni School 2023. Closing in on dates as I write this. Looking like early July 2023
Oh, getting this info is very, very good for anglers here in the US. Thanks for the update John, keep us up to speed once the dates are set and registration opens up!
Well then, keep me posted.
Given that this will be my first season as a retiree, my goal is to take advantage of the luxury of mass free time to explore more streams in high the Sierras… taking more pictures and perhaps writing those experiences down to share! I began doing a little casting instruction last year and enjoyed that immensely, now I’ll expand on that.
Sounds like wonderful plans. Congratulations on the recent retirement!
I just thought I should give some feedback and say I am really please with the growth of the Tenkara Angler presence of late. Adding Tom Davis was a real coup not that the rest of you are chopped liver but it is good to see Tom contributing as he has much to offer. Of the staff I know Matt and Tom and hope to met the rest of you in the future. Was hoping to get out to the Driftless for the Campout this year but as luck would have it the family calendar says I am stuck in Kauai on vacation with some of my favorite people so I will suffer through that and hope to join next year. Otherwise perhaps I encourage folks to come out west to Oni school. I seem to keep showing up there. John and Erik keep cashing my check. I keep threatening to put together a get together here in SW ID but considering I am still in the full time work world I have been hesitant. One year we will make it happen probably as soon as my kids are through college and I can cut back a bit. Thanks for all you do!
Thanks for the comment Conrad. We’ll miss you in the Driftless, but if Kauai is calling, you must go. Ha! Either way, it does sound like a swing over to Utah or Idaho is in order, huh? We shall see…