What is The White Mountains Tenkara Campout?

The schedule is the same every year.

The event is run by a team of volunteers,

including Nate Camp, Sean Coffin, Amanda Hoffner, Tony Parmenter, Dan Pierce, Scott Haskell, and me. The event ticket covers our expenses and helps us manage attendance.  The volunteers meet on Zoom throughout the year to plan. Planning involves booking guest speakers, securing the campsite and brewery, designing and ordering swag, soliciting donations from the tenkara industry to raffle, and, of course, the cookout menu.

Our event has drawn campers from all over the United States and Canada. We also have participants from groups like Project Healing Waters and Casting for Recovery. We are a diverse group from all walks of life, with one thing in common: tenkara fly fishing. Nothing but good vibes all around.

Every year, I say I am going to write a recap of the event, and somehow, time always seems to get away from me.

Probably because in addition to owning Red Brook Tenkara, I also have a regular job in civil engineering. So, for now, I am going to tell you about some of the highlights or lowlights as I remember them.

Every year, the volunteers show up on Thursday to set up. One year, I pulled into the campground with a truck full to the max and was suddenly overcome with a feeling of dread. I managed to pack everything for the event except my clothes. My bag was fully packed and sitting at home, 3 hours away.

So, I reached out to Scott, who was coming up the next morning. Scott lives south of me and would have to drive past my town. I couldn’t get hold of Scott by cell phone, so I emailed him. Worried he wouldn’t get the email, I borrowed a pair of pants and a blaze orange hoodie from Nate. Then I headed to Walmart to pick up some essentials just in case. Thankfully, Scott got my message and saved the weekend.

Last year, we set up camp with a 30’x10’ canopy, a bunch of 10’x10’ easy-ups, and our personal tents. A storm came through with heavy rain and winds over 40mph.

The wind and rain destroyed the canopy and my tent poles.

So we MacGivered my tent poles to get through the weekend and tied together some 10’x10’s to take the place of the canopy. One of the volunteers was holding down a 10×10 and was actually lifted off the ground a few inches before we staked it down.

On the first year, I was teaching a group of beginners on the water. One of the beginners, Jeff, had never camped or fished before. He spends most of his weekends golfing. We managed to get him started in a short time, and he caught his first brook trout. The next best thing to catching your first fish is helping someone else get their first one. Jeff was so excited that he started singing and dancing in the stream (see video).

Click here to accept Marketing cookies and load this content

Another time, Tyler dropped his cell phone in a deep, fast-moving run in the Ellis River. I waded up to my chest before deciding the water was too cold. Jeff stripped down to his shorts and made a valiant attempt before quitting. The next day, Tyler went back with his wife, and they were able to retrieve it from the washing machine it fell into. Amazingly, it still worked after being dried out in a bowl of rice.

On Fridays, we have had guest speakers cover topics from general tenkara methods to local waters and fly patterns.

Steve Angers, author of New Hampshire Secret Waters and owner of North Country Angler, is a regular contributor who provides us with local intel. I usually give a general tenkara talk meant for beginners getting started. One year, we had Luong Tam from Tenkara Tanuki travel from California to hang with us.

Last year, while fishing with Scott, Jeff, and Tyler, I slid off a rock and into a chest-deep pool that was moving fast. I managed to jump halfway up the same rock and save my phone and keys from the water. Tyler came and grabbed them so that I could jump back down and spring myself out of the water. Jeff ran downstream and grabbed my hat and sunglasses. It wasn’t until we were on the trail that I realized I had lost my net with GoPro attached. The zinger it was attached to broke away. We spent some time looking for them before giving up and moving on. Another donation to the trout gods.

Every year, there are some challenges that we overcome, and it’s different each time.

We have had everything from falls to technical difficulties with presentations to bear and moose sightings to storm damage. Every year is also filled with great stories of friendships formed and great days out on the water. Days when you find brook trout holding in a pocket pool, in the most beautiful mountain stream setting. Nothing makes me smile more than when I hear from one of the campers about their epic adventures and how they cannot wait for next year.

Of course, none of this would be possible without the awesome team of volunteers that put their time and effort into making this event what it truly is, an amazing adventure that brings so many of us together, year after year.

Hope to see you at the White Mountains Tenkara Camp Out next year!

-William Holleran