Tenkara vs. Western Fly Fishing

[heathcote]

Western fly fishing: Where did it start? From my reading ancient Greece with a short rod with line attatched (no reel) fishing for trout with a fly made from red wool and a feather. Advance to 1600s in Britain Izaack Walton in 1653 published "The Complete Angler" and he quoted from older work by Dame Juliana Berners of fishing with artificial flies. Long rods with fixed lines were the tools for pleasure fishing up to and including the early 1900s though reels were also used by this time. My first fly rod was of split cane 14ft long and the technique was very similar to tenkara, short line held off the water and the fly worked or dibbled on or close the the surface. Now I have a tenkara rod so light it might as well be made of a feather and my catch rate is as good as the Scotish burns I fished with my 14 ft rod. It is all about presentation and water craft, staying hidden from your prey, becoming a part of the environment as every successful predator must. I supose it is epitomised by the expression "What goes around comes around" so if it floats your boat ..............................

[adam]

Enjoyable read.

I've learned a lot about the history of flye anglin from Jeff Hatton.

Worth a look on the computer...

[Jimbo]

Agree 100%. To my mind Tenkara is simply fly fishing technique, as is french nymping and other leader-only methods. Am waiting for my first 12' Iwana rod to give the system a shot. We had so little snow this past winter that our streams are already as skinny as they normally are in late summer! I'm having all sorts of presentation issues and am already working drys on long leaders and 1' of fly line because the pools are so small and flat ant the fish are so spooky. For me the predatory process begins with presentation ..... how the artificial will appear to the fish and how he will react .... and everything works back from there. Fly selection, drift assessment, stalking .... and finally casting .... are all in service of this singular requirement.

I'm not at all sure that I might not prefer a reel option (i.e. a dedicated, ultralight, ultra-long, multi-segment, euro-nymphing style rod, that broke broke down a reasonable size) both to play the occasional large fish at drop offs (where chasing after them is not an option), but more importantly to facilitate easy leader-length adjustment (by adding or taking in a few feet of line for casting, and especially for feeding into slow down-stream drifts) ....... but I sure don't feel like paying for that rig! Sitting here getting ready to head out, Tenkara is really just looking like an affordable, portable option for offering up a presentation that I believe at least some of my fish may prefer.

[heathcote]

I fish both tenkara and modern western style, tenkara is what Izaak Walton fished in the Complete Angler when he attached a fly to his furled horse hair line. He also fished bait under a float on the same rod. I fish bait under my tenkara rod. All are ways of decieving fish from a great diversity of waters, all is fishing and that as Izaak said is the comtemplative mans recreation. Long may it continue.

[Ernest]

A fly shop about four towns over now has some tenkara rods, lines, and flies in stock. I'm impressed by the rods, but I haven't decided to buy one. My question is this: How do you handle a large fish on one of these rods?

In the Midwest many of us fish happily for 8-12 inch trout. But there are bigger fish in many of the streams. Every day I have at least one chance at a 18"+ trout. I use 5x and 6x tippets (and once in a while 7x) to match the sizes of flies we use, and I have landed many 18-23" inch browns on 6x. Those fish usually run around the pool and up and down the stream before tiring, and I play them off the reel, sometimes on a pretty long line. Most of our small steam fishing is jungle fishing, with trees and brush over the water. Most of my trout rods are between 6 and 7 feet, for 3, 4 and 5 wt lines.

There are some open pasture streams where a tenkara rod might work just fine. I don't fish those pastures very often. I have found a meadow stream that no one else is fishing, and in a few weeks will be overhung with long grass. The "meadow" is a quaking bog really; every step has to be carefully weighed, and runnig up and down the bank with a fish is not an option. I've caught a few 15" browns there this spring, but there are bigger ones. The long rod will help, I think, with a presentation over the grass, but do I have a chance to land a 20" fish on a long rod, a short line, and 5x tippet?

Before I buy one, I just want to know if I have a chance to land a nice fish without being able to chase it around the next bend. Any help you can offer will be appreciated.

[adam]

There is a little bit more to it than any tenkara rod handling a big fish. You want to match the rod to the fish size. If you are going to be catching fish of size 16" or larger with frequency, you want a tenkara rod that is going to handle it. Even "heavy" tenkara rods, you still have relatively light tippets, 5x is the heaviest that I use. For big fish in a small stream, I use the TenkaraUSA "Ito" and I've caught many fish larger than 16" with it. I use a longer line with it and you will have to chase the fish a little, not much if you know how to pressure the fish and not let up, tiring it fast. Fish fighting is subjective, the last thing I want to do is talk about a fish fight. I can pressure a fish with a zero weight more than a 6-weight because I can feel the tippet "breaking strength" better with a lighter giving rod (to a degree) With a tenkara rod, this is even more pronounced as it is like a 0000-weight rod. Tell me rods that are available 4 towns over and I will advise you to which one I would choose or you can order one online or what ever. It is fun.

[Ernest]

Thanks for the tips. I'm camping/fishing in SE Minnesota with a bunch of older (than me even) rich guys this weekend, and then traveling next weekend, and I won't get to that shop for at least several weeks. The shop doesn't sell stuff online, so I don't know for sure what they have. I saw the tenkara rods at their booth at a fly fishing show. Maybe when I get there I can get some advice.

There are guys in the Midwest that have used tenkara equipment, and the reviews are mixed at best. I see this as a specialized tactic for a few places only. Most of our jungle fishing won't allow for a long rod. In my quaking bog meadow, there's no chasing the fish up and down the stream. One misstep and you're waist deep or deeper in the muskeg. I have to strike the fish and land him without moving.

Well, we'll see how it goes.

[adam]

Hmm, that might be a tough way to learn it but I'm pretty sure that you would take to it pretty quickly.

I've taught (more like oriented) many fly fishers to use a tenkara rod effectively.

The common mistake is overpowering the cast...

For small streams of all kinds, even steep gradient plunge pool, bucket to bucket tunnel streams, I've learned to use tenkara effectively. I use a shorter stiffer rod and shorten up the heavier than normal tapered line.

I'm three years into it now, not fly fishing small streams since then.

At one point, I chose to use just one type of fly pattern, nothing else, my catch rate did not drop, if anything, I caught more fish.

I've had a handful of 100 fish days in three years where that was not so common with a fly rod, close but not the same. Also, more first cast days.


It isn't me, it is the combination of my experience and a rod that allows extreme control over the fly.


Tea cup precision, like in between blades of grass, tucked up sideways under a grassy overhang or a skitter hop hop of the fly with no line on the water at distance.


The rods allow a good measure more of control.


I use long tenkara rods, the length being a positive attribute.


Have not felt the need to fish my favorite fly rods in graphite or bamboo rods that I have made that are absolutely beautiful.


For me, it is all that and a bag of chips.

http://www.tenkarausa.com/product_in...roducts_id/125 That rod will handle the fish you describe and is still fun to catch typical small stream trout.

http://www.tenkarausa.com/product_in...products_id/85 That one will do the same thing and is a little bit cheaper and probably better to start with.

http://www.tenkarausa.com/product_in...products_id/85 This is the rod I started with but it is far too heavy for me now that I have experience with many premium Japanese tenkara rods.

I like the good stuff, Sakura, Nissin and Shimano. I understand that Daiwa makes a clean rod too. There are many others.

I have sold many rods to my maker friends and other small stream fly anglers picking up tenkara but the rods I sell are expensive in comparison to the rods above and are probably a better second rod once you know that you like tenkara. The premium stuff is really light, strong and precise as well as gorgeous in comparison: http://tenkara.phpwebhosting.com/tkf...issin-Airstage or http://tenkara.phpwebhosting.com/tkf...-3-3m-(Part-1)

Imagine being able to cast your fly 20' away and suspend the fly on the surface of the water, no line on the water while it drifts... The tippet being 5 or 6x a meter long and the rest of the line like 12lb test. STEALTHY No line slap, even gin clear, still, thin water, you won't spook them.

It works for me.

Lots of choices, try using one of your friends rods first.

[Ernest]

It occurs to me now that a friend who is a professional trout fishing guide and fly fishing teacher and writer works out of the fly shop with the tenkara rods. So I will ask him for help with my questions for tenkara in the Midwest. Maybe I'll offer to show him my bog stream if he'll bring a long rod with him. That would be fun.

[adam]

That would be the best bet. If he uses a braided taper, ask him if he will rig up a level line.