Celebrated the new Tenkara Fishing Forum ...

Fishing Techniques & Entomology
1

… on the East Fork of the Bitterroot this afternoon. Took the 12’ Iwana which is better suited to what I had in mind.

Experimented with a big heavy nymph fished off a hombrew thread furled line / leader without an indicator. The line is a bright orange 12’ 6" leader. Used about 4’ of mono 5X. The fly was a heavily weighted size 6 4XL rubber legs stonefly nymph.

The casting wasn’t particularly pretty - actually it was kind of laughable - but it did get the fly where I wanted it.

And the fly did its job attracting and hooking up with a 16" cuttbow which was easily handled and landed with the Iwana.

John

P.S. I’ll add my thanks here for the new Forum.

2

Nice photo. Don’t be afraid to experiment with lines and tippets. The rods can handle it.

Randy

3

Nice catch John. I am curious what is the action like with a Tenkara rod?

4

John,

That is a great looking fish.

I agree with Randy, tenkara rods seem to be able to cast a fish a fairly wide range of line/leader conbinations/permutations.

5

… if you mean how the rod casts, the TenkaraUSA rods range from a slow action on the 13’ Ayu to a relatively fast action on the Yamame with the Iwana rods somewhere in between.

… if you mean how’s the action fishing these rods, within its distance limitations, it’s pretty much like with conventional rods, except it all takes place quite close in and is a highly visual and intimate way of fishing.

… if you mean when you get a fish on, because the fish has a 12-13’ lever to work with and a fixed amount of line to work against and is pretty much free to run where it wants within the space available, either based on the size of the stream you are on or the length of line you have on the rod, the “fight” seems to be much more dynamic and less controllable than with a conventional fly rod. Small fish feel bigger and bigger fish feel really big. Because the rods are so sensitive, you are more aware of what the fish is doing. Using lighter tippets means you have to be more attentive to what the fish is doing on its end, and a bit more skillfull to bring the larger fish to hand rather than breaking them off.

John

P.S. Just a reminder. While these rods can be fished with quite a variety of flies and lines, both as to the weight of the line and the length of the line, they really are designed for close in work with smaller, lighter flies fished off light lines. I wasn’t kidding when I said casting that big weighted nymph with the thread furled line / leader was almost laughable. But it was fun …

6

I should have been more specific in my querry. You covered it nicely. :smiley: Thank you John.

7

I shall be fishing the local burn (creek) come spring, and will post some pix when
the time comes. There are a few are others worth investigating.