Some Books to Inspire Tenkara Anglers

… if you culture a healthy poverty and simplicity, so that finding a penny will literally make your day, then, since the world is in fact planted in pennies, you have bought a life -time of days.
—Annie Dillard, Pilgrim at Tinker Creek

The tenkara angler enters into the flowing waters and wooded glens of the natural world, perhaps in an attempt to escape his or her own thoughts for a time. Or maybe it’s to recalibrate one’s thoughts and recharge– to forget one thing and to remember another. Reading can offer much of the same escape and recharge.

I thought I’d share a few books that I’ve read over the years. None of them are tenkara books, and one is not a fishing book at all. But I think they can resonate with the tenkara angling crowd.

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Pilgrim at Tinker Creek: Annie Dillard

I’m only a few decades behind on this gem. First published in 1974, Pilgrim at Tinker Creek won the Pulitzer Prize for literature. This is not a fishing book at all. But it is a virtuosic feat of writing that deals with the natural world. Annie Dillard revels in the world. She constantly reminds us – as in the quote shared at the top of this post, that the world is full of little wonders. It is only up to us to remember to see them and appreciate them for the miracles that they are.

If I had to summarize the theme of the book I’d say that it is an enthusiastic (frantic almost) exhortation to the reader to really look at and to really see the world for what it is.

What do I make of all this texture? What does it mean about the kind of world in which I have been set down? The texture of the world, it’s filigree and scrollwork, means that there is the possibility for beauty here, a beauty inexhaustible in its complexity, which opens to my knock, which answers in me a call I do not remember calling, and which trains me to the wild extravagant nature of the spirit I seek.
-Annie Dillard, Pilgrim at Tinker Creek

It’s a slow read for me. I read a section and I feel full to brimming and have to put it down. And I think that’s a great way to read it. Pick it up now and then, read a chapter and get refreshed and reminded of the “filigree and scrollwork” of the world that is all around.

One of my favorite lines, and one that seems to sum up the book for me is this: “I’m in the market for some present tense”.

Amen – bring on that present tense.

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Many Rivers to Cross: M.R. Montgomery

The aboriginal fish are not necessarily isolated or always distant from the nearest gas station. They hide out in small refugia, in little corners … I have given up talking about them with anglers who own more than one fly rod or who have luggage manufactured expressly to carry fishing tackle. “Oh,” they say, “You like those little cutthroats,” and then there is a pause and the first driplet of condescension: “Easy to catch aren’t they?”
-M.R. Montgomery, Many Rivers to Cross

Whereas Annie Dillard took us on a ramble in our back yard and woodlot and local stream valley, M.R. Montgomery takes us to the American West on a quest for native cutthroat trout. Along the way we’ll learn American history and natural history. It’s a book that involves fishing, but that is more about fish and the places that they live.

And though it’s not a tenkara book, there’s one passage in particular that ought to resonate with the tenkara angler:

“A mountain-stream fishing expedition requires little in the way of equipment, We set off for Fish Creek with one tapered monofilament fly leader, a pocket knife, and a small box of trout flies. When we got there, we were going to cut a willow branch, strip the leaves, lash the leader on the thin end, tie on a fly, and catch a trout … What we had was sufficient unto the trout.”

“Sufficient unto the trout.”– that could be a shorthand tenkara manifesto.

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Good Flies: John Gierach

I don’t know if the Sulphur mayfly we have here in the West is the same as the eastern fly or not. I once asked a bug guy about it and got an answer that was much longer winded than I’d hope for. (I was sort of looking for a yes or no). I did come away with the impression that in various parts of North America there are various sized yellow mayflies, which I already knew.
-John Gierach, Good Flies

Good Flies by John Gierach is ostensibly a “how-to” type book. But it’s the rare type. It’s one that you can actually sit down and read. For though it does contain fly patterns and their recipes, it’s more than a dry fly-ting manual. It’s not overly technical, but it’s still full of good solid patterns and advice, all delivered in Gierach’s typical slightly curmudgeonly style.

The patterns are presented with anecdotes rather than complicated tying instructions. So, don’t buy it if you’re looking for a book from which to learn fly-tying. You have to bring the basic skills with you. I found it quite an enjoyable book. It’s sort of like sitting down with a buddy while he goes through his fly box and tells you why he likes certain patterns and how he came to tie them. I wish there were more contemporary instructional fly fishing books being written in this style.

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Links to the books if you’re interested:

• Pilgrim at Tinker Creek by Annie Dillard at Amazon
• Many Rivers to Cross by M.R. Montgomery at Amazon
• Good Flies by John Gierach at Amazon

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