In a surprising turn of events I was watching a guitar related YouTube video by Josh Scott of JHS Pedals. In this video Josh shares his favorite reads of 2024. One of the books that he mentions really caught my attention. It’s called Essentialism by Greg McKeown. I have not finished the book yet (just started as of this writing). But it’s had an impact on me.
Very briefly, the book is about identifying the essential and eliminating the non-essential in order to identify and achieve want you really want. It’s generally workplace and career oriented, but there’s plenty that can be applied to life in general.
“Essentialism is not about how to get more things done; it’s about how to get the right things done. It doesn’t mean just doing less for the sake of less either. It is about making the wisest possible investment of your time and energy in order to operate at our highest point of contribution by doing only what is essential.”
― Greg McKeown, Essentialism: The Disciplined Pursuit of Less
It’s got me thinking about the limited resource of time. It’s made me want to be much more mindful of how I spend that resource. So, I sat down and started to list the things and activities in my life that that make me happy and are essential.
While I was at it I figured I’d examine my fishing life as well. Take a look at the past year and look forward to the new one and make a mindful list of what is important to my fishing life. What things about the past made me happiest and which things did I not have enough of? What things can I do without?
In this connected age of Facebook and Instagram, etc. it can be easy to lose track of the essential in your life. I’m not saying that social media platforms don’t have a place and aren’t fun and useful. But it’s very easy to get caught up in other people’s essentials. It is easy to get caught up in a “keeping up with the Jones’s” situation. You see photos and posts about new techniques, new flies, materials, hooks, rods, etc… and it’s very easy to just want to be a part of the conversation around those things. I am guilty of this. No doubt. And after all, I enjoy sharing things with you all on Facebook and here at Tenkara Angler. I guess it’s a balancing act.
One idea from the book has been particularly useful to me – but hard to implement. And that is the idea that in pursuit of the essential you’ll need to eliminate good things along with the bad. Eliminating the obviously useless things in your life is pretty easy, but there are plenty of things that are pretty good things or ideas. Those are harder to eliminate but in order to pursue the great things you need to eliminate some just “good” things.
“If it isn’t a clear yes, then it’s a clear no.”
― Greg McKeown, Essentialism: The Disciplined Pursuit of Less
So without further preamble here’s my list of tenkara Essentials for 2025:
Figure out bigger water
One thing that continues to plague me is bigger water. It frustrates me time after time and it’s something that I’ve avoided for that reason. I want to learn how to be more successful on larger streams. It would make me so happy to make even incremental growth in this area. If anybody wants to come meet me for fishing on some bigger trout water in central Pennsylvania to teach me a thing or two give me a shout, I’m open to learning. Also, please feel free to comment below if you’ve got tips for honryu tenkara. Perhaps you’d even like to write an article for Tenkara Angler on the topic.
Further explore my home stream(s)
As much as I’ve fished this water, there are sections that I’ve not explored at all and other sections that I’ve only fished briefly. It’s very easy to head to the same places. It’s like comfort food. But even so it has been a weight on me that I’ve not spent much time on certain stretches of water. I know that it would really scratch an itch to expand my knowledge of this water.
Do a better job exploring other great streams in the region
This goes along with the previous goal but on a regional level. There are numerous high-quality streams nearby that I did not even venture to last season. Or that I went to only once or twice. As I look back on 2024 this fact really disappoints me. It’s a misstep that I want to avoid in 2025. And honestly I didn’t realize this until I went through this exercise of looking for the essential.
Continue to explore active techniques on the local limestone streams
Looking back on 2024 I very fondly remember the fish leaping out of the water after flies that I was bouncing on the surface. I mention it and show some of the flies that I used in my 2024 recap article. This is a technique that I did as far back as my first year of fly fishing (maybe that was 1991 or so). But with long tenkara rods and light lines it can be elevated beyond what conventional fly rod and reel allow. Of course active techniques are integral to tenkara. Still I’m not afraid to admit that I’m certainly no expert in the area. I’ve had an on-again / off-again relationship with traditional tenkara techniques. Sometimes I go down the fixed-line nymphing rabbit hole (and still reserve the right to do so) but in 2025 I’m feeling the itch to twitch.
What are your essential fishing activities in 2025?
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The last few years, being limited in my time on the water, I’ve been on a somewhat parallel journey exploring ways to simplify (down to the more essential) both in my Tenkara and Rod and Reel strategies. I’ve cut my fly box down to a dozen patterns and I’ve moved heavily into a wet flies first approach. Nymphing works, as it does everywhere, but it tends to create to much non-fishing time with the inevitable snags it brings, and it’s harder to detect takes. Dry fly hatches come fast and short lived and in such a volume of usually very small insects that a size 20+, which is often required, just gets lost in the mass of real bugs. A dead drift into a swing into a rise with a wet fly is seems to be an optimal presentation for the slower, deeper spring creek water that’s prevalent where I often fish. It also seems to get the fish to move more and it’s much easier to detect the take.
“A dead drift into a swing into a rise with a wet fly is seems to be an optimal presentation for the slower, deeper spring creek water that’s prevalent where I often fish. It also seems to get the fish to move more and it’s much easier to detect the take.”
That’s a great presentation and I’ve had good luck with it. I’m no master of it for sure, but it’s a tool in the tool box
I like that none of your “essentials” for 2025 are about trying new gear or other tangibles – all of your essentials are about exploration. Cool.
In response to your query, my 2025 essentials are:
1. To start, a sort of ‘anti’ one, in line with the book Essentialism: buy fewer (or no) flies, and see what I can do with what I have – rely more on technique, less on pattern.
2. Get to at least one tenkara event/campout, and hopefully a new one for me (current eyes are on the White Mountains gig in June…).
3. Work down through my list of new Driftless streams to explore (especially those that may have native brookies).
4. Reading – I have a few trout/tenkara books in the queue, and have started on a couple of them.
Hey Bill,
“I like that none of your “essentials” for 2025 are about trying new gear or other tangibles – all of your essentials are about exploration. Cool.”
Well in response to that – it’s certainly a conscious choice. But until I sat down and thought on it, that wasn’t apparent to me. I can get a case of G.A.S. (gear acquisition syndrome) from time to time, Im definitely not immune. But at the end of the day I really do get the most joy out of improving skills and figuring out the puzzles of angling.
Your list is a good one – good luck on it.
And hopefully I’ll see you out in the Driftless this year.
Would love to see a good write-up on fishing bigger water. I too struggle with this, and often avoid going to those waters.