Sean Hisashi Nagashima spent his childhood summers with his grandfather in the mountains of Japan. If he wasn’t fishing or hunting beetles and grasshoppers, he was with his grandfather, an avid hunter and fisherman. He would catch Yamame trout using a Tenkara rod—a traditional Japanese style of fly fishing without a reel. “My older brother eventually took up Tenkara and fly fishing in his teenage years, so I always dreamed of trying it myself one day,” says Sean, who has lived in Johns Creek since 2009.
In the spring of 2020 at the age of 55, he retired from the corporate world and has spent the last five years adjusting to his new schedule, joining the Atlanta Fly Fishing Club (AFFC) in 2022 and picking up a fly rod whenever he can while traveling and exploring local trails as an avid runner.
He started fly fishing regularly at Jones Bridge Park in Peachtree Corners and around Helen, GA, while also visiting his local fly shop, Alpharetta Outfitters, for gear and tips. “It took me about three months to catch my first fish on a fly rod. One day, while wading in the Chattahoochee River at Jones Bridge without any luck, I noticed a college-aged angler catching fish on nearly every cast. After watching him from about 100 yards away for 10-15 minutes, I saw him take a break, sitting on a rock and eating a snack. Seizing the opportunity, I walked upstream toward him with my homemade wading staff (a broomstick I bought at Lowe’s),” says Sean.
“I approached him and asked if he could help me catch a fish. He smiled and gladly adjusted my rig, showed me how to cast, where to place the fly, and how to drift my line properly. After 15-20 minutes of awkward attempts, I finally felt a tug and landed my first trout on a fly rod. I was beyond grateful for his kindness—it was a reminder of the generosity that exists in the fly fishing community.”
Since then, Sean has been exploring new locations with friends and on AFFC-sponsored trips to target different species and tying his own flies.
Sean and his wife have been married 30 years, with two grown sons (ages 30 and 28), both of whom live in Los Angeles.
Sean and his family moved to Alpharetta from Chicago in 2007 with his job transition, and have lived in Johns Creek since 2009 where he says he enjoys the balance of nature, tranquility, proximity to Asian grocery stores and easy access to fishing spots such as the Chattahoochee River, North Georgia and North Carolina.
Tenkara fishing uses a collapsible rod (to 18" or so) with a fixed line. Karin Miller founded Zen Tenkara in 2012 and is revolutionizing this fixed-line fly fishing method, a “fusion” of traditional fly fishing and tenkara to target not only small traditional tenkara species but also large, powerful fish not typically associated with this ancient Japanese method.