Where every time I see a body of water you will hear me say…
“I’d fish that”
My name is Amanda Hoffner and I am LadyTenkaraBum…
Firstly, I’d like to introduce myself as a lady angler who possesses the schooling and training as a critical care registered nurse. I prefer to be on a mountain stream, but also realize I need to be productive in other areas of society than inspiring and pushing others into the mountains, creeks, and tenkara. So, when I am not fishing tenkara style, then I am in either a cath lab or cardiac icu keeping people alive or trying to. I love what I do as a career and also in my spare time. Alongside of my fiancé and love, Rachael Rosenstein, I live and hang out in the Catawba Watershed of the United States with our black cat, Vega. Rachael is usually chasing me down as I bushwhack through brush to get to water and taking my picture. When she isn’t with me, then she is being a bird nerd and chasing waterfalls. My own personal paparazzi, check out her photography here.
I currently work in the Southeastern part of the US, but will always be a Pennsylvanian at heart. I grew up fishing in Northeastern Pennsylvania and it is where I got my fishing shoes wet. My heart will always be drawn to those mountains and creeks. However, traveling and seeing most of the Appalachia up and down the East coast of the US has been lovely and inspiring.
Tenkara Goals
My goal in life is to catch a brook trout with a tenkara rod in every state that they natively inhabit on the East coast. So far, I have caught native brookies in the states of Maine, Vermont, New Hampshire, Connecticut, Rhode Island, Pennsylvania, New Jersey, New York, Virginia, North Carolina, South Carolina, Tennessee, Georgia, Maryland, and Wisconsin. So, the only state I have left is West Virginia! I look forward to this completing this tenkara goal of mine this year.
I also plan on getting to every state and catching a fish on a tenkara rod and am well on my way! The map of the US below is where I have caught fish with a tenkara rod. I can add New Mexico to the map, but that will be for another day. That was my last fishing trip of the 2024 year and it was a great one catching wild and native Gila trout in their native territory.
For the year of 2025, I want to visit the PNW, catch fish a few more states, and catch some new-to-me cutthroat trout. Stay tuned for those future articles in my blog and on the websites of Tenkara Angler, and Heritage Tenkara Project.
Tenkara and Beyond: Groups I Belong To
I am fortunate enough to have been involved in a community on Instagram and Facebook called the “Fixed Line Freaks”. This initially lead to making friends in the tenkara-verse and connections to people around the world in the early 2020s 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.
As of January 2024, I have been a contributing editor for Tenkara Angler. I have written several articles before joining the team and continue to do so, but have enjoyed being a part of the banter and discussion on the monthly podcasts as well. Tenkara Angler is a primary resource for me and my tenkara journey. I hope to build more relationships with people as I continue to contribute to the tenkara community through writing and reading more articles.
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! 🙂 That is where the Heritage Tenkara Project comes in. You can read more about what HTP is here. Please be on the lookout for events hosted by HTP and you can find those here.
For the past year I have been a member of the Native Fish Coalition and, over the past year, I have been Vice Chair of the Native Fish Coalition of South Carolina. I 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 Pennsylvanian 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.
Where You Might Find Me
For the past several years, I have been attending fly fishing trade show events around the east coast with Luong Tam of Tenkara Tanuki. Actually, the Atlanta Fly Fishing Show in 2022 was where I met Luong Tam. For three years in a row, I have been to the Virginia Fly Fishing & Wine Festival and the Atlanta Fly Fishing Show with him. I visited both the Boston and Lancaster for the fly fishing show once with Luong as well. These fly fishing trade show events have given me opportunities to meet and mingle with people who are tenkara-curious, tenkara masters, anglers and non-anglers alike. These meetings have increased my ability to meet people where they are on their own journey into tenkara and learn how to teach different learners of the art.
I have also helped plan and host the White Mountain Tenkara Campout for 3 years (2022-2024) as a volunteer. As a person who grew up in Pennsylvania and lived most of my 30+ years in that area, I was excited to get a tenkara events into the Northeastern United States and love to see it still growing and continuing without my participation. You can find buy tickets to the WMTCO event online at Bill Holleran’s Red Brook Tenkara Website here. You can also find past articles and podcasts about the event on Tenkara Angler here. This event it usually sold out, so try and get your tickets as soon as possible!
Along with the WMTCO, I have been known to show up at other tenkara events and I, along with Martin Montejano of Heritage Tenkara Project, are starting to get more involved with the tenkara community by hosting camp outs and field trips that encourage community involvement and tenkara angler participation with free in-person tenkara events and paid tenkara education sessions and excursions that benefit the tenkara companies, tenkara guides, and fly shops or outfitters.
Please feel free to reach out to me via the “contact me” button on my website with any questions or concerns tenkara related or not. Or you can reach out to me via instagram or facebook if you have any questions as well. You can find me by searching “ladytenkarabum”. If I dont have the answer to your questions, then I can point you to somebody who does. Looking forward to talking tenkara and fishing with you!
You didn’t include Wisconsin in you list of states that you have caught native brookies in. Did you not catch a brookie during the campout ? If not I will make it my mission next year or put you on some goo brookies.
Gandolf.
My Tenkara Journey 
You didn’t include Wisconsin in you list of states that you have caught native brookies in. Did you not catch a brookie during the campout ? If not I will make it my mission next year or put you on some goo brookies.
Gandolf.
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OMG!!! I just fixed it. I most certainly did catch brook trout in wi! ill be back to catch more 😉
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