As you may or may not know, I make furled leaders. I recently got a request for a furled Tenkara line. I have never fished a Tenkara rod, so I am going to ask the experts for a little help. I have furled 4 different lines in different configurations, with different materials. All lines are 10’ 6" long. I would like to send the lines to 4 of you that fish Tenkara to evaluate for me.
Here is what I would like. When the lines arrive give each of them a workout, and send your findings/opnions to me in the form of an e mail, After you are done with the lines, send them to the next person on the list. The last person will send them back to me.
For your trouble, I will send each of you the line of your choice in your choice of color free of charge.
If you want to play, post a reply here, and send me a PM with your mailing address. The first 4 folks that post here will be the ones that I will use.
One more thing…plese do not sign up if you are not willing to test these lines soon after they arrive and send them on to the next person on the list ASAP. I don’t care if you just lawn cast them, fishing them is not required.
I am going to leave this up until Monday to see if one more Tenkara fisherman wants to play. If not, I will go with the three that have Pm’ed me. I thought more of you Tenkara guys would like to try a different line, but I guess not…
Perhaps if you gave a description of the materials, colors, configurations, and proportions of each of the lines, more people would express interest.
It would give potential testers some idea of whether or not any or all of the lines might work on the particular rod or rods they have.
And you might get some feedback independent of your test that might be useful to you. Like “Been there, done that, and won’t go back.” Or “Wow, that sounds cool, I’m in.” Or maybe just some suggestions for alternatives.
John,
If you read the book, “Tenkara” that is co-authored by Mikasa Ishimura (a casting instructor and guide on Team Japan), it states that Furled Lines are superior (especially for fishing Tenkara). It will present the Fly very lightly on the water . If you want, I can post some of the Line construction specification that is in the book. These lines certainly can be used in other styles of Fly Fishing such as Bamboo etc. with great effectiveness. Certainly Kaboom 1 might or could have posted the line specification for this Furled line of his, but that means that anyone could have taken these specifications and built their own lines (why not, I have done it; as well as leaders, etc) I do feel that Kaboom 1’s Line is worth giving it a test (what do you, or I have to lose ???). I ask the same in regards to many of my Fly patterns. I want them to be tested by others before I put it on market !!! Certainly, people who would go out of their way to ask others the test their Lines, fly patterns, rods, etc. for free before putting them on the market are a lot mor honest then those that just go with their own test (whether it works or not) put it on the market, and tout it as “DA BOMB” or whatever marketing words you want to use.
I was very surprised at the low response to this thread. I guess most of the tenkara folks here must fish level lines. I love furled lines for tenkara casting as well as traditional western. The chance to cast some new to me formulas in different lines is awesome. I for one am very thankful for the opportunity and plan to take a methodical approach to testing and give as much feed back as possible. I do understand why the maker may not give to much information on there design ,there may be a trade secret or two in there. In short , thanks Brad for the chance to test the lines. For anyone who hasn’t cast a furled line , give it try , you’ll enjoy them. The turnover and presentation they provide is awesome.
I’ve been making my own furled leaders going on seven years and have used furled leaders made with various materials and in different lengths and configurations on a number of 3-7 wt graphite rods, a 5 wt bamboo rod, a 4-5 wt Hexagraph, and two different TenkaraUSA rods - the Ayu and the Iwana 12’. About the only time I am not fishing a homebrew furled leader is when fishing large stonefly nymphs ( single or in tandem ) under an indicator on my 5 and 7 wt rods.
My suggestion was intended to get some ideas and feedback for Brad, who doesn’t fish Tenkara rods. I know what works on my Tenkara rods and don’t see any particular advantage to either Brad or me by participating in the experiment, especially if I don’t know the specs on the lines. Others on the Bulletin Board who make Tenkara lines for their own use or to sell would likely give Brad the benefit of their experience if they knew how these lines were being bult.
I certainly respect any reason(s) that Brad has for not posting the specs on these lines. Just as I am sure that Brad has respected the fact that I have posted the materials, lengths, configurations, and proportions on the various homebrew leaders and Tenkara lines that I have brought up for discussion over the past several years.
i love my Tenkara, but i am not completely happy with the line i have. may i join the fun? a quick perusal of the thread led me to believe that there is one more slot.
I think there is one more slot in there. I know many, like the legend George Harvey put many of his line specs into articles and even books. I like that. It is nice to be able to build such and experiment with such. Even with special leaders and Tandem sets. I remember Hank Roberts sharing with me a Nymph Streamer Leader that he put on the market. I have built them for my own use since. I for one do share things to a point, then there is just some stuff that is simply and will always remain top secret.
The leaders are still out there MR.JML had a few medicial issues and just got his evaluation finished. They should be in the mail to the next person on the list sometime next week. Sorry about the delay…
hey, no apologies needed! after all, life is what happens while we’re making plans. i’ll keep an eye out and when they come, i’ll enjoy the opportunity. until then, i can plan where i’m going to do all this testing.
Lines are in the mail to the next guy in Texas. I also had e-mailed the report on the testing. I would like to see more testing under real fishing conditions. I will be happy to share my report after everyone else on the list has finished testing , so that the testing results will not be skued. Thanks for the opportunity to test this and I apologize for the delay. I hate hospitals, Doctors, and being bedridden. I need a long fishing trip to secluded Mountain wilderness long about now.
lines rolled in here late last week. plan to go out Thursday to my favorite Tenkara stream and have at it.
BTW, who put the ultra-realistic house-fly fly into the pack? it fell out of the package unnoticed onto the kitchen counter, and caused great distress to the daughter helping dinner-clean-up. i nearly swatted it until i noticed it was not moving, and looked Somehow Different…<8-0
The Virtual Horse Fly. Thought you would like it. Douse it with Floatant and have fun casting it on the water. It will catch all kinds of fish… Where there is water, there are pesty Horse Flies. Where there are pesty Horse Flies and water, there are fish. I tie all kinds of flies, including Tenkara. Your Daughter would have really freaked out if I would have put in the Bumble Bee or the Spider !!! LMAO They will all be in Rick Takahashi’s new book on Terrestrials !!!
