Tenkara

[JohnScott]

... is that TenkaraUSA agreed with The Grizzly Hackle to replace the broken grip section on my Iwana 12' for no more than their normal mailing charge on warranty work, which runs less than $10. The rod is on the way to TenkaraUSA and should be back within a week to ten days. Much more than I expected or hoped for. Thanks to the guys at The Grizzly Hackle for their help.

Great News ...

... is that the Danville 210 Flymaster Plus thread furled line / leader that I made yesterday performs beautifully on the Ayu. First cast, fishing another neat fly from ScottP, a mini convertible, I think you would call it, I'm thinking this is too good to be true. Second cast I'm thinking BINGO !! The Danville 210 throws a beautiful loop, cast to the full extension of the line with flies from size 16 to 10 ( and that fly was more like a size 8 ) all on 5X, drifted the fly nicely with the line off the water, performed all the casts I use fishing small streams extremely well, and did its submerged furled leader thing when I fished it in that manner.

Conditions were perfect for the Danville 210. No breeze at all. Just the right size water.



Just the right size fish.



Some challenges on bigger water.



And the fish just kept coming midday when things are supposed to be slow.



I didn't push my luck. You can't really see them, but just to the left of the dark rock at the center of the following picture, swimming around the area defined by the flat rock at the bottom which is probably close to 10' deep, and to the right of the dark edge of the large rock then to the left, were three Chinook Salmon. They looked to be big ones, which means that they were probably around 36" long. Pretty cool to see them just taking a break before hitting the next rapid section immediately above the hole they were in. Only about ten more miles to their spawning place, after a 700 plus mile trip up from Pacific !!



I didn't try to catch them.

Back to the Danville 210. It is hands down the best line / leader I've fished on either of my Tenkara rods. Won't know for a week plus how it will perform on the Iwana 12', but I'm surely looking forward to finding out.

John

[JeffHamm]

Good stuff! Some really great looking water in those photos. You always find some wonderfully bits of water.

- Jeff

[JohnScott]

Between the four of us, we did good.

Utah line / leader.


Idaho water.


Virginia fly.


Montana angler and rod.


Fished the furled Tenkara line that Joni ( Fly Goddess ) made from Uni 6/0 for about four hours over in Idaho. Fished quite a variety of flies on a good variety of water. The fishies weren't so varied - smaller bows and medium size cuts, although a couple large cutts did take a look at the offering.

Joni's line is top notch workmanship. Not sure what the taper is, but it certainly works. The line / leader is a two part / two color in darker and then lighter green tones. Looks like she used the same method I did for connecting the two parts - a loop to loop directly with the open loops at the tip end of the line section and those at the butt end of the leader section. Pretty cool.

The test today was a little more difficult than I faced the other day with my own line. There was some breeze. Not enough to impede effectively fishing Scott's mini convertible and some other flies, but enough that I had to take it into account most of the day. Having said that, Joni's Tenkara line passed with flying colors. Turns the fly over beautifully, cast reasonably well into the wind, got fully extended casts when the breeze died down, and it performed an odd cast that I have developed for fishing smaller water quite well. And all together, we caught a bunch of fish under deteriorating conditions as the creek has dropped noticeably and warmed some over the past week.

Not to compare Joni's line and my own 210 Tenkara so much as to point out a few differences. The 210 is about 2' longer and has somewhat more heft. It tends to carry the larger flies a bit further so I can fish a bit more water with it. For my casting stroke with the Ayu, the 210 seems to be a better fit. Joni's Uni 6/0 would clearly offer some advantages fishing a smaller creek with consistently smaller flies, and no breeze.

Odds are that out of any ten Tenkara anglers, hers would be a better match for five based on their casting style. Color is a factor, also. I prefer the lighter colors ( which is why mine is off white behind yellow ) which helps me pick up the smaller flies on the water and to see the line both when held up and fished submerged. Odds are that a majority of anglers would prefer the colors Joni used.

For the fishing I do with the Ayu, both the 210 and the Uni 6/0 work better than TenkaraUSA's furled lines. It will be interesting to see how these lines do on the Iwana 12' when I get it back next week.

Thanks, Joni. We had a good time.

John

[Fly Goddess]

Wow thanks John. I reversed the colors with dark at the butt, light at the tip because as you mentioned...lighter colors. I do have lighter material in both color and weight I am experimenting with now.
I am trying to come up with a weight forward line.....

[CM_Stewart]

Joni's Tenkara line passed with flying colors.

That's the same impression I got when I tried one of her lines. I have to agree with you also on the light color. I just can't see a green line against this background:

[Fly Goddess]

So, you are watching the line more than the fly? I need to know this stuff to improve, thanks guys

[JohnScott]

So, you are watching the line more than the fly? I need to know this stuff to improve, thanks guys

... Joni.

With the larger, lighter color flies, I can follow them all the way to the water and through their drift almost regardless of the water - soft, hard, glossy, really ripping, foamed over, etc. The line color is less of a factor with those flies.

With the smaller flies, especially darker ones with no light colors in them - for example a deer hair wing HHFC, it is almost impossible to track the fly all the way to the water surface and follow it even on smoother water, unless the light is just right. With the smaller flies, light line color definitely helps pick up the fly, kind of a pointer to a small parachute, for example - although noticing the flash of a fish taking a fly you can't see is more satisfying.

John

P.S. My situation is a lot different than Chris'. I'm fishing very open streams with a lot of blue sky. And not to overstate the difference in line colors. A lot of the time I could easily pick out the lighter green of the leader end of your Tenkara line. A matter of degree.

[CM_Stewart]

Absolutely!

I usually fish a wet fly upstream with short drifts. If I can't see the line as I'm casting, I'll miss the first half of the drift before I can find it and make sure there's no excess slack. Plus, the subtlest twitch or hesitation of the line is often the only indication of a strike. I have to be able to see the line very clearly. Being able to see the slightest twitch more than offsets (by a large measure) any thought of a bright line scaring the fish. Besides, I don't think it scares the fish.

[herefishy]

Not to hijack the thread, but is that the foam humpy, John, and is it a "trude" humpy? Did a search, but couldln't find all the references to the foam humpy I have found in the past.

[JohnScott]

Not to hijack the thread, but is that the foam humpy, John, and is it a "trude" humpy? Did a search, but couldln't find all the references to the foam humpy I have found in the past.

From Scott's note -

"While I was sitting in the airport at Bozeman waiting for my flight home, I found an article on the Lochsa River, written by Al & Gretchen Beatty, in the latest Flyfishing and Tying Journal. In it, they mention ... the Lochsa Special ( like an H & L Variant but with an abdomen of chartreuse floss ). ... a foam back improves just about everything so I added that, as well as the Convertible's Trude / Wulff wing. Also, I've had good results with orange flies for cutts, so modification 3#, an orange butt. ... I'd guess these would be pretty easy to cast with your Tenkara rod."

Scott got that right. And his modified Lochsa Special has been a very good fly on the creek I have been fishing.

John