Adam Trahan

In Kauai hunting for wild trout in Waimea Canyon

You can contact me through this e-mail link.

As a child, I was taught to fly fish on a camping trip in Southern Utah. Early in life I fished other ways, cane pole, bass fishing and charter fishing in the ocean but it was fly fishing that I returned to.

My sporting life started out with my mother introducing me to skateboarding in the 60's. I graduated to surfing in the 70's, hang gliding in the 80's. I continued to fish my whole life because it was just so enjoyable for me to be in the forest returning to my childhood, fly fishing. 

As an adult, cross country hang gliding was too dangerous to maintain. I quit flying and I dove headfirst into my fly fishing and writing about it on the internet ultimately focusing on small streams. I meet Yoshikazu Fujioka in 1997 while producing my small stream fly fishing web site.

I progressed to building bamboo fly rods and during that time, I was looking for a taper to make a fixed line split cane rod. A rod maker friend introduced me to Daniel Galhardo of Tenkara USA. I bought a rod and immediately fell in love with tenkara. Fujioka san told me about tenkara in the late 90's but it took Daniel to get me a rod. 

I started producing tenkara-fisher.com shortly after that first rod. 

I began to research the history of tenkara and came upon Sakura, an old family fishing company in Japan. I started importing their rods to help my friends understand the quality of a good Japanese tenkara rod. Many early adopters of tenkara all around the world got their first Japanese rod from me. I began to visit Japan to fish with the experts there.


In 2016, I was awarded the title, "Tenkara Ambassador." I am humbled by this appointment.

Daniel interviewed me in 2014, you can find that interview here.

I choose a minimalist style, my wading equipment is Japanese and so are most of my choices for shore lunch, hiking and camping.

I take inspiration from Soseki Yamamoto, a Japanese author of many keiryu books that include the community, tenkara anglers from all over Japan.

Below are some of my favorite tenkara-fisher articles that I have written or have organized.


I put together collective articles with the best, here are a couple of my favorites.

What I've Learned About Tenkara

One of my favorite things to do is to interview people in the tenkara community. I interview people to learn from them and to pay tribute while sharing the interviews with the community. I started doing interviews early on in my sporting life and continue to this day.

Several years ago, Keiichi Okushi approached me to help him share his tenkara business. We reached the masses and now he has joined me here to co-create tenkara-fisher, the first American ~ Japanese tenkara web site. We detail the past, present and future of tenkara inside Japan and as it travels around the globe.

I love tenkara.

Over the years, I have worked for and with many companies. I often mix my personal choices with my professional life. I always wrote honestly but anytime someone pays you, it will leverage against personal choices. People make personal choices quite differently for profit or gain. I've always written the truth and there are "reviews" that I've made that do not reflect what I use personally and at this time. Below is a list of the equipment that I have purchased with my own money that I made from my profession outside of tenkara.

My personal quiver is as follows.


My Favorite Rod (not really but really)

Also on a personal note, I have many wonderful events to look back on. Many people continue to visit this web site for ideas, to help them with their own adventures in tenkara and that's what makes me happy. I've helped build communities, some in other countries, sharing the history in Japanese tenkara and my own path in it. 

I am grateful to be a part of this wonderful world of Japanese style fly fishing.

I hope you have fun with tenkara-fisher.