Short Cast: My gear

0:00Thanks for listening to the Tenkara Cast. This is a short cast where we talk for just a few minutes about your favorite subject, Tenkara. This episode is made possible by your purchase of Tenkara USA rods, lines, and flies. hey everyone thanks for tuning in again to the Tenkara Cast in today's shortcast i'm going to be talking about the gear that i use beyond the rod line and fly that we always tell you about But before I commence on my going through my list of equipment that I use at WorldWare, I want to thank everyone for tuning in and listening to the episodes that I've been putting out. We've actually just had about 6,000 listens in about two weeks. If you haven't listened to the other episodes, we actually have six other episodes already published and available for you to listen to.

1:07You can subscribe in iTunes. If you just look up Tenkara, you'll find Tenkara Cast in iTunes as well. But thank you so very much for listening, for sharing it with your friends, and for all the feedback that you've been giving us about how much you're enjoying the podcasts. But in any case, without further ado, I'm going to talk a little bit about the gear that I use because that's the kind of question I get really often. Like, what is your preferred this? What do you prefer for that? And I figure out probably just make an episode and I can point people to this as a resource. Because I do have some very specific gear that I like. Typically, when I find something that I like, I tend to stick with it. And I do experiment for quite a while or sometimes. And when I find something that really works well, oftentimes I might even buy a couple just in case it gets discontinued. because I am the kind of person that if I find something, I really want to stick with it.

2:08But if I were to look at all the stuff that I wear and take with me, let's say from top to bottom, from my head to my feet, I'll start with my hat. I change hats all the time. It depends on what is easily available at home. But the only thing that I am very particular about is that whatever hat I use should have a dark underbill, if you call it that. The underside of the hat should be dark because that does kind of reduce the reflection into your eyes coming from above. So the Tenkara USA hats that we have available, the trucker hats, they do have that, and those are usually the ones that I use. But that's my main criteria for when I'm selecting hats. And then below that, probably the most important item item beyond my rod line and fly is going to be my sunglasses. Polarized sunglasses are incredibly important in my opinion when you go fishing, in particular mountain streams. What polarized sunglasses do is that they cut the glare and they really allow you to see through the water really well oftentimes. They're also very important for me when I'm driving because it cuts kind of the reflection that happens on your windshield that, you know, sometimes is reflecting the dashboard.

3:29So very important to have polarized sunglasses. I have been using native sunglasses for a long time. So if you look up native eyewear, and I'll put all the links to the gear that I use on our website, tenkarausa.com forward slash podcast. I've been using native for years. There's a couple of things that I really like about them. There's some of the lightest sunglasses that I know of. Very, very lightweight frames. They have some really good, almost frameless sunglasses that, you know, where the bottom half of the frame is not there. Not all the glasses that they make are like that, but the ones that I like are like that. The model that I use right now is the Hardtop Ultra. It fits my face really well. The Hardtop XP, I think it was called the extra protection, was really good as well, a little bit wider than the ultras, but those have interchangeable lenses, so I can have lenses that are a little bit lighter color, some that are darker, and of course they're all polarized lenses for the native puts out. When it comes to lenses too, the lenses that I typically prefer to have on are the copper color polarized sunlenses. And I find that copper is a really good color lens to retain most of the colors from nature. They don't change colors a whole lot. And I find that I can use it when it's bright out as well as when it starts getting dark.

5:03The gray lenses are really good too, but when it starts getting dark, you either have to change lenses or stop using sunglasses and I find that with copper I'm able to keep the one set of lenses pretty much all day so that's what I use right now the native sunglasses with our top ultra copper lenses be below that you know before after my sunglasses of course I'll have my waders if I'm if I'm waiting if I'm just going on a hike I might not really carry waders I might just be wet wading or stay on shore but very often if I'm going somewhere and I want to really fish I'm going to wear waders the ones that I use are the Orvis Silver Sonic waders and they have this really cool welding system that they use with the Sonic welding system at Orvis that really kind of makes these waders very durable I tend to fish in places that have a lot of rocks and I'm constantly rubbing against those rocks. In most of the seams that most waders have tried in the past, they tend to start failing after a while. These ones, I find that they've been lasting me quite a while. They've been really good waders. And the Silver Sonic, I don't know if there's different models, but I use the convertible ones. It's kind of nice because when it gets warmer, I just wrap it tight around my waist and I don't have the whole coverage on my chest and that kind of thing. Beyond the waders, of course I would be using wading boots and the ones that I've been using are the Corkers, the model is the Devil's Canyon and those are really lightweight boots. Another thing about durability just like with my waders, the stitching on these boots it is protected in a little channel that they uh they kind of carve onto the boot and the stitching goes in there and again for the kind of environment where there's a lot of rocks you're constantly kind of hitting and brushing against rocks I have found these to be incredibly durable I used to use another brand of boots and I I went through like three pairs of them one year and I was able to get replacements but I kind of got tired of having to replace my boots so I decided to give these ones a try They're some of the lightest boots in the market, I think.

7:25And they've lasted me. I've had them for almost two years, and they still look really, really good with the same hard use as always. And the other cool things about the Corkers Devil's Canyon, one is that they have the BOA system. The BOA system is the little disc that you just kind of turn to tighten. And, you know, some of you might be familiar because they're commonplace in like snowboarding boots, for example. make it really, really quick for me to tighten the boots and also to take the boots out at the end of the day. The other cool thing I like about the Corkers, Devils, Canyons, and all the Corkers boots, actually, they have interchangeable soles. And with those soles, you can, for example, you can have a felt sole. And if you're in a real slick kind of place and you're very new to fishing, you can also put like rubber soles. The ones that I use, the ones that are almost always on to my boots are the Vibram soles. I think they're called the Hydro Grip. And I find that those rubber soles, they have the really perfect combination for what I need.

8:31I like rubber over felt and other materials for a lot of different reasons. For one, if I'm hiking, they have a lot of good traction on mud, grasses, and that kind of thing. Also on dry rock, they really grip very well. And these ones, the Vibram Hydro Grip, I find that they really grip well on wet rock as well. So the felt sole, for example, it's going to be really good on wet rock. But sometimes if you're walking on dry grasses, mud, and definitely snow, it's like a pain in the neck because the snow kind of sticks to it. So I find that the Vibram kind of rubber soles kind of do it all. It's a really good combination of everything that I like on a pair of boots. I don't like to use studs on them because I find that I slip a little bit too much on dry rock and they make a lot of noise and I just don't feel like I need it. I just make sure that I have very short placements on my feet and kind of move slowly when I'm in a more slippery environment. Now went through the hats, sunglasses, waders and then boots. And then there's some other stuff that I'll carry with me sometimes. If I'm carrying a few things with me. I may be carrying a pack. You know, for example, if I have to have a rain jacket, gloves, more lunch food, you know, if it's going to be a longer day out, I'll have a backpack with me, especially if I have more people that I'm taking out. And I kind of go back and forth between a couple of packs that I find that I really like. There's the Vedavu Tightline Slink pack it's really good if i have to have like a little water filter um a little lunch and some snacks and a few extra little things and i'm you know maybe i don't have my waders on which i usually use as a little kangaroo pouch um but the vedavu tightline sling pack is really comfortable it's one of the very few sling packs that is minimal kind of design uh but it's also really comfortable on my shoulder. I usually don't like sling packs, but I like that one. And then if I need to carry a little extra volume, like a rain jacket, for example, or a few more things, I found that I really like the one by Zimmer, Chris Zimmer. His company is called Zimmer Built. He's got this pack called a Tail Water, and it's kind of like a little bucket design. It's got a couple of spaces on the sides for tenkara rods, so you can have two tenkara rods in there. So if I'm taking somebody along with me or carrying extra things, I like to carry that pack. Beyond the pack, and sometimes let's say what's going to fill my pack a little bit, I have found that when I'm going fishing, I always need water. And one of the best things that I've discovered in recent years was the little tiny portable water filters. Essentially, instead of carrying a big bladder of water, you're going to be in water all day long anyway, so a lot of times. So if I'm going to be in the water, I'm just going to carry a tiny little filter that I can either attach to a water bottle, a small water bottle, or use directly to drink directly from the stream. And the filter that I like to use is the Aquamira Frontier Pro filter. It's a very sleek design. It's not much fatter than a real kind of thick marker, ultra lightweight. It has a little bite valve with a little cover, which I really like, and the flow is excellent. There's some filters in the market that might filter extra stuff like viruses, but this one I really like the combination of the water flow that he has, just a real nice design as well. If I'm going to be in the water the entire time, I might just carry the filter. If I'm going to be walking any distance or if I don't want to be kneeling down you know to drink water from the stream what i do usually is carry the aquamira frontier pro along with a half a liter platypus foldable bottle i mean there's a bunch of different brands out there they all kind of do the same thing but it's got a standard thread cap that i can attach my filter to it's just a it's a foldable bladder, only half a liter, so I can like roll it up nice and tight and put it in a pocket if I'm not using it. So a combination of that Frontier Pro with a little platypus half a liter bottle, I find that that works really well for me when I'm going out. The other things that I have with me, and I'm not really particular about them, I've been playing with a lot of different gear, but three items that I tend to carry with me, especially if I'm going on a longer outing.

13:17I like to have a little knife. Recently, and I've got tons of knives and I play with them a lot, but recently I picked up this little Gerber knife that has a rubberized body to it. So it's really nice because it's not very slippery at all. And I also can put it in the same pocket as my cell phone, for example, and not get it scratched. So that's kind of a nice little feature about that knife. besides the knife I like to carry a little fire starter kit if I'm going out for a little longer if there's any possible way that I might get lost somewhere which is not unknown to happen occasionally for me and I like that actually I'll talk about that some other day but I like to carry a little ziplock bag very small one like you know it's probably about three inches long by or four inches by three maybe. And what I put in there is a little kind of sparkler and some lint, you know, and that kind of gives me something that I can fall back on if I really need to ever spend the night.

14:20Luckily, I haven't really had to use it as an emergency, but if you're out there and you're wet and you're cold and there's a chance you might not find your way back, that's a really good thing to have. And then I like to have a whistle. I don't have any particular whistles that I like, but it's always a good idea to carry a little whistle. I've seen a lot of different rescue kind of cases where, you know, people are trying to shout over the sound on the stream and they, of course, cannot be heard. And I've seen several cases where people are actually saved by the use of a whistle because people can hear much farther. And if you don't have much strength, for example, you can always blow on a whistle and make some noise. So that kind of concludes, I think, my list of gear besides the Tenkara Yosei rods, lines, flies that I carry with me, my waders, you know, my native sunglasses, my Orvis, Silver Sonic waders, my Corkers, Devils, Canyons boots, and then my packs, either from Veda Vura Zimmerbuilt, and then, of course, a hat. I like the Tenkara USA hats, of course. A little water filter, water bottle, a little knife sometimes, a whistle, and a little fire starter kit, and usually some snacks with me too.

15:34But that's it. And I should disclose to you that all of this gear, it's stuff that I found over the years on my own and I've paid full price for many of it. Sometimes, you know, the companies like Native, Orvis, and Corkers, they have hooked me up either with a good discount or a couple of times sent me a few little items. But it's really something that I would recommend. I don't get paid to talk about this. And I would recommend it wholeheartedly whether I got it for free or not because I was using it before, but I should let you know that, yes, I have gotten some of their stuff, and usually because I liked the stuff so much, and I kind of asked them, like, hey, is there any chance I could get a little connection here? But I should disclose that I do get some of that sometimes. Let us know what you like for your gear. If you go to tenkarausa.com forward slash podcast and you look up this episode, the short cast, all about gear, and let us know. leave a comment tell with uh tell other people what you like to carry with you when you go fishing if you like this episode of the Tenkara Cast as well as the other episodes we have published so far please take a second and leave us a review in itunes so that uh we know how we're doing and other people know that uh our episodes are actually okay so thanks for doing that and until next time I remember when every day seemed different than the one that came before, the one that came before.

17:06I could hardly wait to greet the day up and out the door. The leaves are falling, the woods are calling, the trees are tall and the autumn covers. And the mountains know my name The mountains know my name The mountains know my name So that was a small part of the song called Limbo by Takenobu. Check out his music at takenobumusic.com