The Original Tenkara USA Tamo: A Product Review

Article by Mike Lutes

I received the original Tenkara USA Tamo 15 or so years ago as a gift from my wife. Whether it was a present for Christmas or for my birthday or some other occasion is lost to time. Now, it is time to retire it. Well, maybe retire is the wrong the term. It’s dead. It deserves a viking funeral or some other ritual to honor a life well lived. And to be clear, its passing is not a failure of the product. I killed it. Repeatedly. As Matt Sment has said “you fall a lot, but you usually get up”. The Tamo broke more than its share of my falls over the years. I have repaired it several times, but when it failed under the heft of a 22 inch brown trout this summer, I decided it was done.

We should start with the aesthetics of the net. I happen to think it is a sleek, simple design befitting to how tenkara was marketed as simplified fly fishing from Japan in the early days of tenkara in the US. The wood is worn smooth with years of use and, to my eye, looks even better with age. It is an attractive, timeless design that looks like it could have been lovingly crafted by hand.

In terms of function, I could not be happier with this net. It’s lighter than other trout nets. Don’t expect me to get all Tom Davis about it and actually weigh it. I can tell you it feels lighter in the hand and does not at all weigh down my pack. I love the ergonomics. It feels great in your hand. The slight curve of the handle makes it easier to scoop up fish and you can hold the net between your knees with fish in the basket for photos. Keep ‘em wet.

So, how did it fail? The netting itself has held up fine, but the thread that holds the netting to the frame started to fray years ago. I could have re-wrapped it, but zip ties did the trick. Then came the hard landings. It has fractured now in three places. I first fixed it with wood glue and zip ties, and that actually held up for years. When that failed, I screwed in metal brackets and wrapped it in duct tape. Admittedly, it was a less attractive tool for the job, but it held up for a couple years after that. When it broke earlier this year, I tried to fix yet again but I think I am past what can be reasonably expected of a tool treated so harshly.

I guess that means I’m willing to hear any recommendations from the community about nets that they love. And TUSA, if you’re listening, bring back the Tamo. I can promise you at least one customer.

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Mike Lutes is an avid tenkara angler from Wisconsin. He co-founded Badger Tenkara with Matt Sment.

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