For what it’s worth, a current gear list.
Clothing: Columbia convertible pants I bought for ultralight hiking, very lightweight and comfortable; a TenkaraBum camo t shirt; a Lamson LED hat in camo; a trout buff worn as a neck wrap; Patagonia Gunnison Gorge wading pants, Patagonia felt ultralight wading boots.
Vest: Patagonia convertible vest.
Rods: Tenkara USA Rhodo, Nissin Fine Mode Kosansui 320 (James), Nissin Zerosum 6:4 400, Dragontail Tenkara Tatsu 360 (James), Dragontail Tenkara Shadowfire 360.
Lines: Tenkara USA 3.5 orange, Sunline Hi-Vis Fluoro Level Line 3.
Tippet: Tenkara USA 5X, Maxima 5x.
Fly Boxes: Tacky Day Pack, a $7 Wheatley Clear Site I currently use for my dries, James has a double-sided foam slit box from the local outdoors shop.
Net: a 30 cm Shimano Folding Net.
Zingers: six T-Reign, one C&F Design 2-in-1, one Gear Keeper.
Nippers: Dr. Slick black nippers, one from Dragontail Tenkara, a Rishing Fish nipper.
Age Humiliation Magnifying Device: Flip-Focal Magnifiers. I used to have awesome close vision. I’m a palaeontologist, and could look at tiny fossils in the field right in front of my eyes. It devastated me when it suddenly went. Now I have bifocal contacts, progressive bifocal glasses, the whole bit. My first couple of fishing trips were done wearing bifocal contacts and nothing else (I don’t have prescription sunglasses). I remember sitting by the stream at Little Paint Creek for 20 minutes trying to tie a blood knot that I couldn’t see and almost starting to cry. (I now realize blood knots are basically unnecessary in tenkara.) So I waddle around with these things stuck to the front of my hat. I tried them in x3.5 but that was more than I needed, so I wear x2.5. They’re basically flip-down plastic reading glasses. Now that I’m used to them, they’re a godsend. Flip down to thread eye, flip up to tie clinch knot, flip down to thread tag end, done. I must look like some rare kind of dork walking around with them sticking out from the brim of my hat.
Light: I bought a Streamlight and clipped it to the hat alongside the Flip-Focals for a while. But my hat has built-in LED lights that are more powerful, so I tend to leave the Streamlight at home now. A camo hat that lights up is not something I would have ever thought would sit on my head. But it has the advantage of working really great when getting back to the car in the dark, so it’ll do. It’s possible the Streamlight is now discontinued – I bought mine on eBay. For hiking and camping I use a Black Diamond Spot in black.
Pack: BW Sports backpack.
Stream forceps etc: Rising Fish Ultralight Pliers, Dr. Slick Mitten Clamp, Dr. Slick Split Shot Clamp.
Sunglasses: A cheap plastic green-framed amber polarized pair from a local sports shop which have now broken the frame above one lens and a Chums No Tail Adjustable Eyewear Retainer which doesn’t quite fit the wide frames of the glasses. Definitely an area awaiting major upgrade. But I’m wary of spending silly money on fishing sunglasses because bad things happen to my glasses so often. Another $25 pair is probably in my immediate future.
Camera: First I used my ancient iPhone 4S. Then I drowned it and ruined it and had to replace it with an iPhone 6 which isn’t going anywhere near a stream. I switched to my ancient Canon Powershot A700 which worked great until I drowned it last week. I managed to dry out the LED and the electronics seem to work fine. I was able to download the final photos from it. However water has gotten inside the optical unit. First it was just blurry impressionism through the lens then it went completely dark, making me think the CCD has packed it in. Regardless, the optical unit is not readily opened to dry it out, can’t find anything on the internet about it except that even repair shops used to sell it as a single preassembled unit. The camera is around 10 years old, so even if I could buy one, it would cost more than a new camera and there’s no guarantee that that’s all that’s wrong with it. sigh. Waterproof camera is the only answer; I can’t keep destroying phones and cameras. So, have to somehow manage an Olympus TG-4.