Amanda Hoffner APRIL 2023

FEATURED ANGLER PROFILE

Amanda Hoffner

a.k.a "Ladytenkarabum"  
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/ladytenkarabum/
Facebook: Amanda Hoffner
Web page: Ladytenkarabum.com
Etsy: is where I sell my stickers and flies.  All sticker sales go towards LGBTQ+ youth and organizations that promote the outdoors being for everyone!
Visit the LadyTenkaraBum Etsy Store for more information.

TELL US ABOUT YOURSELF:  When I am not fishing I enjoy lounging around my house and playing with my black cat, Vega.  She enjoys watching tv with me.  If I am not watching tv and spending quality time with my cat, I am tying flies and attempting to learn new patterns.  As of September 2022, I opened up an Etsy shop that I sell my flies out of and enjoy spreading the word about tenkara through my flies and Instagram.  My girlfriend’s name is Rachael and she is an avid hiker and nature/bird photographer.  I moved away from the Northeastern US because she has a job as a watershed manager at a Riverkeeper organization in Charlotte, NC.  She has inspired me to want to be more Earth conscious, travel more and get out of my comfort zone in the Eastern US and start to venture out of this mountain range and hopefully to the West coast as well! 

I have a habit of leaving kitchen cabinets open and lights on in rooms when I leave.  This may be due to some undiagnosed ADHD, but time will tell with that.  Depression has been a part of my life for a while ever since my brother passed away from suicide in 2014 and I have found myself grounded in my nursing career and tenkara ever since.  This has allowed and encourage further exploration of my heritage as a half Japanese woman and who I am as a human.  

TENKARA HISTORY:   Started the summer of 2020. That was when I consistently started using my tenkara rod.

FAVORITE PLACES TO FISH: 
My favorite places to fish are in the mountains and away from people.  I grew up in the Appalachian mountains in the Pocono Mountains, PA and that is where I find I am at peace.

FAVORITE ROD: 
My ideal rod is light in the hand and well-balanced.  I have since grown in my practice of tenkara over the past few years and I am very into the Tanuki Ninja 350.  It fits my style of mountain stream fishing and its balance and weight allows me to fish all day since I tend to walk a distance to start my day to get into the area I want to start fishing. 

FAVORITE FISH:  100% the only native “trout” or char from my childhood…the brook trout

FAVORITE FLY: 
My go-to fly is my black sakasa kebari with soft hackle.  It was the first kebari I ever taught myself to tie by watching youtube videos. 

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FAVORITE BOOK:
My favorite book isn’t a fishing book, but is a children’s book.  It is a book that I learned about in my AP French class in high school.  It is called “The Little Prince” and has since been made into a cartoon and can be streamed somewhere on the internet I am sure.  It is my favorite book because of all of the life lessons that can be taken away from it for children and adults.  I even have a tattoo of the fox and the boy on my arm.

FAVORITE QUOTE: 
My great grandmother used to say “never take yourself too seriously” and I tend to remind myself of that when I start to get frustrated or otherwise not laissez-faire throughout the day either at work, on the stream, or wherever I might be!

SOME WORDS OF WISDOM
Ideally, I would love to be fishing a mountain stream with a weightless kebari, any and every day of the week. But my style of fishing isn’t going to be everyone’s cup of tea…and that is ok!

Handle fish properly and do what you love for “your style”.

One of the things that draws me to tenkara is the simplicity in bringing you closer to nature and the fish…
I have a deeper appreciation for nature because of tenkara and I am only growing closer to the world around me because of it. I am so thankful for this.

Don't forget where tenkara has taken you or what it has brought to your life as a result.