Sorry to hear about the busted digit and rod. Hopefully they both heal nicely!
Steve
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Sorry to hear about the busted digit and rod. Hopefully they both heal nicely!
Steve
Glad you have a back up rod until the warranty thing works out. Sorry to hear about the busted finger. Hope it heals correctly, but with Tenkara you can cast with either hand, right? :)
REE#
... is refer you back to the TenkaraUSA website and suggest that you read everything on that site. Also, go to www.tenkarabum.com and read what Chris has to say about the various rods.
Like any other rod, you personal preferences about action and "feel" are just as important as all the technical stuff. If you read TenkaraUSA's guarantee section carefully, you should find the solution to the fact you don't have a local fly shop that will let you demo a rod. ( I have to leave reading TenkaraUSA's material to you so it doesn't get interpretted by me. )
Note that TenkaraUSA's address is on Geary Street in S. F. That is not a physical location, but it does suggest that they probably aren't much further away than some of the fly shops in your area. If nothing else, mailing costs should be less for you than some others who are interested in trying one of their rods.
John
P.S. The finger is sore, but I managed to find some practically perfect Tenkara type water today and fish it for several hours with the Ayu. And, yes, I did use my left hand on and off. For some presentations, I did much better with the left hand than I would expect to do with the right hand.
TyroneFly,
For those streams and fish I would use an 11' Iwana, although the 12' Iwana and the Ebisu would also be reasonable choices. The shorter Iwana fits the narrow stream the best, and would be the most fun for the smaller fish. It will handle the 14 inchers, but you'll be afraid it won't. The 12' Iwana and Ebisu are both longer than you need for those streams, but not too long if you don't have a canopy of low tree branches to contend with. The 12' Iwana is noticeably stiffer than the 11' model, and will be more comfortable with 14" fish - and for the 6 inchers, you'll be perfectly happy because you won't know what you're missing with the 11 footer ;-). The Ebisu is a softer, slower rod than the 12' Iwana, and will remind you of bamboo vs. graphite. The 12' Iwana would be a better choice if you'll need a heavier line to fish in the wind or if you'll also want to fish panfish poppers for your local bluegills (or if you'll be fishing bigger, wind resistant flies). I am sure that if you decide the rod you've chosen is not well suited, Tenkara USA will allow you to exchange it.
John,
You're making the twisted leader construction much more complicated than it needs to be. One of the primary benefits of tenkara is that you can keep nearly all the line off the water. If the line is off the water (and there are no guides to foul) there is absolutely no reason why it has to be knotless. Twist three-foot segments and knot them together. Also, that gives you lots of flexibility with respect to line diameters and segment lengths to get a taper - no need to fold it over and twist again. I make horsehair lines that are knotted at rougly two-foot intervals. The knots are not a problem.
Sorry to hear about the rod and the finger. Send the rod to Tenkara USA. I don't think anyone's broken a grip section before, but Daniel might be able to get you a replacement.
(Apologies to John Scott for this, hopefully, short hijack)
CM Stewart,
I saw that you are making horsehair lines. How many strands are you starting with at the butt end? Are you using a Walton's Engine, furling by hand or some other means? I just use a double uni knot to join snoods, are you using the same?
REE
Thanks John and CM_Stewart. I see that Creative Sports about an hour or so north of me is a dealer. I will give them a call. The 12' Iwana sounds like it might be a good choice for me given I have a compact casting style.
Ron,
For me, number of hairs at the butt end depends mostly on the rod but also on how heavy I want the line to be. The Ayu rod that John has will cast a very light line. For my Ayu, I've followed Charles Cotton's recipe and made lines for it that start with two hairs at the hook and taper up to 4 hairs at the butt end, although a level three-hair line works well, too. For most tenkara rods, I wouldn't go heavier than five hairs at the butt end. For the much stiffer Yamame rod, I've used nine hairs at the butt end for a tenkara line up to 16 hairs for a longer, heavier line used for 'pesca alla Valsesiana' which is an Italian fishing method that also uses a long telescopic pole with the line tied to the rod tip, but uses stiffer rods, longer lines and a cast of four reverse hackle flies. It takes a much heavier line to turn over four wind resistant flies. David Webster, with a cast of 9 flies and a heavy wooden rod may have needed his lines to have 36 to 45 hairs at the butt end, but for a sensitive modern rod and a single fly, a tenth of that will do nicely.
I have not used a Walton's engine. I started out with a a furling board that worked like the instructions in the Treatyse of Fysshynge wyth an Angle, but now just do it by hand.
Horsehair makes wonderful lines that cast absolutely beautifully, but in the light weights I like to use it breaks pretty easily. I's definitely a specialty line for smaller fish, but it is a joy to fish with.
... for your excellent contributions to this thread, and for the wealth of information about Tenkara on your website.
I have been using thread furled leaders on my 3-5 wt rods for a number of years. I'm really curious how a thread furled line / leader will perform on a Tenkara. It will take some experimenting but hopefully the ideas I have on how to make thread lines for these rods can be successfully executed.
Joni ( Fly Goddess ) is sending me one of her furled Tenkara lines to try out. Considering the quality of the thread furled leader that she gave me a couple years ago and which is presently on my 3 wt rod, I'm confident that her furled Tenkara line will perform well.
Warren ( WarrenP ) is working on another Tenkara line based on some discussions we've had. Warren's creativity and craftmanship will undoubtedly produce a line that will work well on one, if not both, of my rods.
It's looking like I will end up with quite a variety of lines. Considering the differences between the Ayu and the Iwana 12', the waters I fish, and the flies I use, I suspect that I will end up using all of them as each of them performs best for a given set of circumstances.
John
P.S. The Grizzly Hackle has represented TenkaraUSA for the best part of a year, as I recall, and deals with them regularly. They thought it would be better that they deal with Tenkara on the issue of getting a replacement grip section. Can't imagine that it should pose any kind of problem, but I guess we'll know not too far down the road.
... furled line / leader.
http://i273.photobucket.com/albums/j...a/P8010001.jpg
Finished my new furled leader jig today ( that is another story altogether, but it works ).
First off the jig was a 6'3" long Danville 210 Flymaster Plus thread furled leader with a 10-8-6 configuration and proportions 40% butt, 30% mid, and 30% tip with tip ring incorporated and a shorb loop on the butt end. This is the basic thread furled leader I have been using on my 3-5 wt rods. Figured there was a good chance that it would do for the Ayu, and if it doesn't work, I will have a spare for my regular fly rods.
Next off the jig was a 6'3" long furled line made with the same material but furled as a level line with 10 strands of the thread. Put shorb loops in both ends of this part of the line.
Connected the two parts of the line / leader with a standard loop to loop connection and used a girth hitch to connect the line to the rod.
Thread furled leaders don't like wind. And we do have a bit of a breeze today, so doing the lawn test ( without a tippet and fly ) with the Ayu was problematic. When the breeze died down, I did get a reasonably good cast. I'm thinking this line / leader will fish on the Ayu, and plan to find out tomorrow.
John