Tenkara Fishing...thoughts?

[jburge]

OK, I'll bite. So why isn't Tenkara just dapping? Everything I've read seems to indicate the distinction is semantic at best. John or Ralph? Read through the Tenkara USA pages and Daniel's argument was pretty vague in his blog.

Always appeared to be a highly specialized method for a very specific set of circumstances. I'm sure it is fun, but other than the cool fly patterns, I've never quite understood why I would resort to such a limited approach.

My understanding of dapping (and I'm no expert) is a reliance on the wind to move and dance your fly on the water using spider-web like line. With tenkara, I can use my 11ft furled tapered leader with a few more feet of tippet to cast with a loop just like I would with my western setup. I can use it to fish dry flies (only the fly touches the water) or, as I blindly stumbled upon last year, fish a submerged reverse hackle with fabulous results.

For me, yep and you're right, it's a specialized tool for certain conditions. For my ultralight backpacking and fishing high alpine streams, it's perfect. I don't need to make 30ft casts and have a reel with loads of line and backing when I'm fishing waters that are never more than about 15ft wide (and a lot are even skinnier). Like Ralph said, it's just another tool in the belt. Ain't no way it's going to be my only tool. I love my 5wt and the upper/lower Sac too much.

John

[Adam Grace]

I have never heard of Tenkara. Thank you for introducing some of us to this style of fly fishing. This style of telescopic rod could come in hand while backpacking or camping in spots where you you don't want to carry a bunch of gear with you.

I plan on researching this more. Thanks again

[aaron]

Adam next time your across the pond track down a fly shop if you can and bring up Tenkara. The reactions are pretty hilarious.

It looks like a fun tool for the quiver. All the japanese fly shops I've been into balked at it funny enough.

[Adam Grace]

I have just spent about an hour watching various different videos about Tenkara, and I am now very interested. I love small stream fishing and this looks like a cool new fly fishing style.

If you want to see an interesting video check this out:

http://www.backpackinglight.com/cgi-...t/tenkara.html

There is a video further down on the page.

Enjoy - Adam

[Fly Guy Dave]

Since I'm not a football fan, I decided that I would take out my new tenkara rod out on a small, but very fishy stream and see how it worked, hoping the crowds would be at home watching the "sooper bowl." Once I arrived, I could see a huge pod of trout stacked up and many were consistently rising to "something." I checked the water carefully and tried a few patterns, finally getting some action with a size 20 baetis, but I don't think it was the actual thing that the fish were keying in on. I was there more for trying out the new rod, matching the hatch or using traditional tenkara flies were secondary.

As far as the tenkara rod went...well...I LIKE it! The cast is really soft, making for a very delicate presentation, little, if any, splash from the line, and when I was far enough back from the water, I could just have a bit of tippet and the fly on the water, nothing else. Since I had an "OK" pattern, I did "OK" and landed enough trout, the largest being 10-11", but if I had spent more time figuring out what they were feeding on, I would've done really well with this rod. I can describe my first outing with a tenkara rod in one four-letter word: SOLD!

[JasonB]

Sounds great Dave! I've been really interested in getting a Tenkara rod myself for a bit now, and your report just reconfirmed that I really do need to get one. Cool to hear that you're doing well right off the bat like that
JB

[Adam Grace]

I just found a website where the rods are cheaper:

http://www.allfishingbuy.com/Tenkara-Gear.htm

For these prices a broke college student like me might just try this old Japanese style of fly fishing out

[Golden]

Many of the posts put up here have been very good and informative. Others, mostly made by people who have obviously not tried Tenkara fly fishing, have been off the mark by a good bit.

And as to the matter of being able to land a good sized fish with out a reel or the ability to feed out line, I believe the following link to the information presented and the picture of the brown trout I caught a few weeks ago will illustrate that more can be done than the doubters think. Here is the link:
http://www.tenkarausa.com/forum/view...hp?f=11&t=3811

[PatrickM]

Got my Tenkara rod in May. Haven't used anything else for trout since.

[Golden]

PM, I have not gone quite as Cold Turkey as you have. I have continued to use my western fly fishing tackle for things like float tubing, where I may need to use sinking fly fly lines, and for shad fishing. But other than that I have also used nothing but Tenkara tackle for all of my small stream and high lake fly fishing for trout for the last 1 and 1/2 years, since buying my first Tenkara fly rod.

And I am doing every bit as well and quite possibly considerably better than I did before, using my standard 5 Wt. western fly fishing tackle. In my first Tenkara outing on a high lake fishing with a friend who was using standard western fly fishing tackle, in spite of the fact that John could easily cast 2 to 3 times as far as I could cast, I caught 16 trout to his 3. And I was using a line and tippet combination that was 2 feet shorter than my rod was long - a 12 foot long T-rod at the time. We both used pretty much the same fly patterns, and I called out to John to put on an ant pattern when the fish began to switch over to feeding on terrestrial insects, so the difference could not be the flies we were using.

I believe Tenkara tackle is especially well suited and has many advantages for fishing both timbered and above timberline high lakes, where the fish primarily orientate to the shallow water along the shore line in search of their food. Where casting as far as you can cast out into a lake is not very productive, but making accurate casts parallel to the shore, where tight to the bank is the most productive casts you can make, casting to previously spotted and stalked fish, often in just inches of water depth. The bow-and-arrow cast is also highly effective there because it cuts down on fish spooking rod movement to an absolute minimum. Here, stealth in the approach and casting is much more important than the ability to cast a long line distance. This kind of hand to fin combat is very challenging and quite rewarding and satisfying, especially in the gin-clear waters of our high Sierra lakes.