my tenkara journey

Lady Tenkara Bum
Ahoy!
My name is Amanda Hoffner and I am LadyTenkaraBum.
Welcome to my tenkara journey…
This is my attempt to put into a single space my thoughts, ideas, and information on tenkara and fixed line fishing. On the drop down menu, you will find links to my blog, kebari I have tied, tenkara product reviews, and other podcasts and articles I have written or been a part of. Happy exploring!
I am fortunate enough to have been involved in a community on Instagram called the “Fixed Line Freaks”. This has lead to making friends in the tenkara-verse and connections to people around the world who do tenkara or would like to experience the style of fixed line fishing. Most of my fishing since starting fixed line fishing has been with a tenkara rod. I enjoy being outside and in nature, but because of the portability and compact travel size of a tenkara rod, I am most likely packing a rod, line, and some flies when I am hiking and exploring the outdoors.
I also like to make sure people have the opportunity to do what I do since I enjoy it so much. So, I have been known to lend a rod or several to people in order to spread the good word of tenkara. Since there are rarely any fly fishing shops with tenkara gear on hand, let alone people who might not have much knowledge on the fishing style or the want to push the product, there is not much exposure to the sport itself. I would encourage everyone to fish a small blue line or wild trout stream with a tenkara rod if I could…and I do! 🙂
Recently, I was invited to join the board of the Native Fish Coalition of South Carolina and am looking forward to increasing my conservation knowledge and encouraging others to value our waterways in order to enhance our land, water, and ecosystems. Being a native of Pennsylvania and having the opportunity to travel with my job, I am fortunate enough to have traveled and fished every New England state and caught native fish in each. This exploration has inspired me to want to share my adventures with people on social media and record my journey on this platform in order to document important findings and pass on information that I find interesting and important.
Please feel free to reach out to me via instagram or facebook if you have any questions regarding anything tenkara related. You can find me by searching “ladytenkarabum”. If I dont have the answer, then I can point you to somebody who does. Looking forward to talking tenkara with you!
Where does tenkara take you?



“There is an art in fishing tenkara. The way your body instinctively learns to cast the rod because second guessing often turns into flies lost in branches or missed targets on the water which frighten the fish…”
“My Journey Into Tenkara”
– Amanda Hoffner, TUSA blog
https://blog.tenkarausa.com/my-journey-into-tenkara/

In other news…
If you haven’t checked out my girlfriend’s photography, Rachael Rosenstein Nature Photography, then you should.

Rachael is the reason I was on the cover of Tenkara Angler. She always travels with her DSLR camera and I am happy to say that she has taken some pretty neat pictures of me on the water. Amazingly, we have already traveled to 14 states together since meeting just 15 months ago.

If you want a look through Rachael’s lens, she has her nature and bird photographs on sale here. She frequently has fundraisers going on where she donated proceeds to an organization whenever you buy a print and her instagram is filled with her photographs as well. She is easily my favorite hiking buddy and I cannot wait to explore more of the US and world with her.
As she works as the Southern basin watershed manager as part of the Catawba Riverkeepers, she inspires me everyday to keep to a cleaner living and has increased my knowledge of conservation and care for the earth. Enjoy some of her photographs now 😉






These are just a few of her photographs, but be prepared for more within my blogs and such. If you have any questions, please feel free to reach out to me or Rachael herself on her instagram or website.