A little over 9 years ago I began fishing with a tenkara rod. At that point I had been fly fishing for 17 years or so but tenkara gave me the gift of becoming a beginner again. It was a wonderful gift.
“In the beginner’s mind there are many possibilities, but in the expert’s there are few”
― Shunryu Suzuki, Zen Mind, Beginner’s Mind: Informal Talks on Zen Meditation and Practice
When I began fishing with a tenkara rod it was as if I had pressed a reset button for my fishing. It was a relief to be unburdened by former experiences to some degree. It’s not that I abandoned all of my preconceptions at once but it was exciting to explore the possibilities that tenkara gear offered. Because I was new to it (along with most of us here in the U.S.) it was easy to have a beginner’s mind full of possibilities. I didn’t know what to expect and so most everything was novel and because of that very mentally engaging. Novel experiences, are by their nature, mindful experiences through which you cannot sleepwalk. And it was all very novel.
However, nine plus years on and some of that novelty has gone and been replaced with habit. A beginner’s enthusiasm can quickly become replaced with a veteran’s cynicism and if ego is allowed to creep in one might even be in danger of feeling that one is some sort of expert.
I have developed a tenkara “style” and when I head to the stream I’m very often going to be fishing the same way with the same gear and rigging. There’s nothing wrong with that per se. It’s very comforting in some ways. But yet at the same time I can’t help but feel I’m missing some of that excitement that comes from novel experience.
So this season I am trying fish more mindfully and less out of habit. What will that mean exactly? I’m not so sure yet. But that not knowing is actually pretty exciting. I think in an effort to be a beginner again I’ll need to let go of some of my “expertise” that I’ve worked to gain. One way that I think I’ll do that is in my fly tying. You know how people are constantly tinkering with fly patterns ? I’m guilty of this. We all think we can tweak this or that and make the fly “better”. Well I’ve been thinking about trying to dial that back a bit. Don’t get me wrong, I have too much fun experimenting at the vise to give up the fly tweaking completely. An example would be the Pass Lake wet fly that I posted about. It’s been years since I really fished the original version – so I’ll be trying those out this year. Will they work better ? Worse? The same? I don’t know but it will be fun to explore. There are quite a few flies that I’ve tweaked over the years so I’ll be trying that with various patterns. Trying to let go of my “improved” flies is just one example. This can easily be applied to ideas on techniques and rigging.
So like I say I’m not exactly sure what all it entails – but I’m excited to press the reset button and try and get back that excitement of being a beginner again. I’m guessing some of my “expert” notions will stand the reassessment and others probably won’t. At any rate I think I’ll come out ahead.
Some people take fly fishing and tenkara so seriously. I have been guilty of that from time to time. I suspect part of that is that egos get all mixed in with the fishing.
My step grandmother summed it all up pretty well. I was talking about fishing with my step dad at a family picnic and she was sitting and listening to us. Finally she piped up and said “Fishing’s stupid!”. Yeah it is. It’s important to remember that it’s a pretty silly pursuit for grown men (and women) – especially when we’re not doing it for survival purposes.
In his book The Longest Silence Thomas McGuane had something to say about this that I quite like:
“… “sophisticated angler” is an oxymoron. And if it wasn’t, it would be nothing to strive for. Angling is where the child, if not the infant, gets to go on living.”
-Thomas McGuane
As a beginner,a little over a year of serious tenkara fishing, I’m head over heals, obsessed, my wife’s say slightly neurotic. I don’t think I would have this inspiration if it hadn’t been from the guidance of a,in my opinion, a tenkara master. His guidance and patience with my ineptitude has shaped me into a ok tenkara fisher. Be that as it may I’ve found my main drive for all out door activities is the desire to be outside. To reset, to listen to the wisdom of the gurgling stream, whispers of leaves blowing in the wind. Catching fish is truly secondary, unless as Anthony said it was for survival. The one guarantee is my wife would agree with your grandma full hearted.
Glad to hear yo had some good guidance in your tenkara fishing – that can be a great help to get things moving along. I never had that so I had to make up as I went along for better or for worse. As Ted Leeson says in his fantastic book The Habit of Rivers “There are a lot of advantages to being self-taught. Quality of instruction is not one of them.”
By the way that book is just about my favorite non-instructional fishing book ever. Ted Leeson is a great writer.
I’ll always be a beginner but at least I keep trying. Broke my first rod today and had a weekend of getting stuck in the Driftless mud. Wouldn’t change a thing!!
The most important thing is having a good time of course. And hopefully get some peace and mindfulness along the way too. Envious of that Driftless fishing!! I can’t believe I had to cancel my last two trips out that way. It is heaven.