The Backstory
Over the years, Tenkara Angler has established itself as a leading source of tenkara and fixed-line fly fishing content. The catalog of materials is deep with gear reviews, tactical guidance, technical explanations and some “best days ever” fish stories and trip reports. We generate many more ideas than we have bandwidth to produce for everyone to enjoy. In fact, the white board in the office every week gets updates with fresh “brilliance.” Mike, as Editor in Chief, is constantly saying that he loves the range of ideas we produce. However, he quickly reminds us to stay focused on completing the current one before moving on. That does make good sense.

The Lightbulb
When this idea came up about six months ago, the four of us liked it right out of the gate. After the idea was explained and kicked around in conversation, we were left scratching our heads on how to bring it too life. We understand 80% of the concept and 40% of the technical solution to make it happen. It was time for some homework. We read up on and learned a bit about text-to-speech programming. We dove into the video editing console to get some of the basics down. Then we found ourselves collecting the video content footage to run through the project. It wasn’t long before we started getting that good feeling that we could pull this together and get it launched.
Listen In
We have been working to create an audio catalog that covers the Tenkara Angler posts through the years. In getting started, we selected a cross section of topics and stories that seems to convey well in an audio format. With some editing tweaks, we started producing the audio files for each story. Then we paired it with a video to offer a soothing and relaxed visual to enjoy. We are publishing these to our YouTube channel in the coming weeks.
I think we all consume information in different ways. On most occasions, I can find the time to read one article and then have to move on to something else. On rare evenings, I make time to read several. Time for listening to music, podcasts and audiobooks is easier to come by. Whether you are cooking dinner, sitting out by the fire pit or edged up to your fly tying desk, listening to a series of great tenkara pieces would be very easy to do. Now you can.

The Playlist
This new video series will sit in the “Listen In” playlist on our YouTube channel. The initial release is the following 6 presentations. Each week we will release 2 or 3 new entries on Saturday mornings. As time passes, this playlist will grow into an excellent audio collection curated from the many years or stories and posts previously presented at TenkaraAngler.com. We hope that you find the time to listen through to these. I’m not saying that Huey Lewis, Henry Rollins or Linda Ronstadt aren’t good choices when you have background music on in your den, but you could be sharing time with us.
We look forward to having you join us every Saturday for the new releases in the weeks to come.
Listen In: The Debut List
- “Angling with Ghosts” by Christopher Seep
- “Tenkara Gold in the High Sierra” by Adam Klagsbrun
- “Southern Hospitality” by Chris Lynch
- “Coffee and a Pinch of Optimism” by Melissa Alcorn
- “Urban Tenkara – An Eye-Opening Introduction to Fixed Line Fly Fishing” by Kyle Settle
- “The Second Most Un-Tenkara Thing” by Mike Lutes
Do you have a story to tell? A photo to share? A fly recipe that’s too good to keep secret? If you would like to contribute content to Tenkara Angler, click HERE for more details.