A 4-Day Backpacking Trip to Test Rigs Floating Tenkara Fly Line

[Golden]

Here is a link to a 4-day high lake backpack fishing trip type fishing log entries: http://www.flyanglersonline.com/bb/s...k-Fishing-Trip

[Ed Wahl]

Hey Golden, (as I have asked many others before you, is that the name your mom gave you?) are you a Tenkara rep?

After reading the blog I fail to see any advantage of using the Tenkara over a standard fly rod. With a standard fly rod you can switch to a fast sinking line and deal with deep fish. What's the tenkara answer for that?

Sales pitch aside it does look like a fun way to fish small streams.

Ed

[Darian]

Karl (I believe I saw your name on another forum. So please forgive me if I'm wrong),.... Once again an interesting report. I have to hand it to you for being focused enough to go thru all of that beautiful country, gather all of that info and share it. I would've been distracted by everything along the way. I'm sure the guys who back pack and fish Tenkara around here will appreciate it.

After some knee related problems, I don't think I'll be back packing any time soon but I'll certainly take the info you provided on fly patterns for my own use. Thanks again....

[Golden]

No, that's not my given name. And I am not a rep for anyone or anything. Nor do I care in the least what type of fishing tackle you choose to use. Its your fishing, do it the way you enjoy doing your fishing the best, with all my best wishes for your success. And you are quite correct that fishing deeply in the water is not very doable with Tenkara tackle, so keep on doing what you are doing. You will get no argument from me at all on that score, as well.

And as for my out fishing my friend on that end of the season lake fishing trip we made together, it had nothing and everything to do with the two different kinds of tackle we were using - Tenkara and conventional fly tackle. John, using a 9 foot long rod and a 9 foot leader, casting 30 or more feet of floating fly line, could quite easily place his fly 50 or more feet out in front of him. Consequently he had developed a false sens of security and he used no stealth at all in approaching his casting positions, so he was scaring the shore cruising trout out of the area he was approaching long before he could get close to his chosen casting spot. And then he would cast his line and fly straight out into the lake for as far as he could cast, and retrieve his fly back through fishless water for most of the return trip. Most of the fish he caught hit in the most productive water that was tight to the bank. Unfortunately, with a 9 foot rod and a 9 foot long leader, he was picking up his line to make his next cast just as the fly was about to enter the most productive water. When we arrived at the lake, I gave John his choice on which side of the lake he wanted to fish, and in which direction he wanted to fish it. I took the leftovers. Our plan was to fish once around this mostly timbered lake and then leave, so I was not with him to coach him along the way. Although I did give him a yell to put on an ant pattern when the breeze began to rise. We both started out with Peacock Sheeps Creek patterns, it being too late in the morning after the 3 hour drive up there and the hike into the lake for there to be a midge emergence that late in the day. I carried my rod in on my back in an Ebira rod quiver, with the line wrapped around the EZ-Keepers, so all I had to do was stretch the line to get the coil set out of it and tie on a fly to start fishing. And I had caught 3 brook trout by the time John had assembled his rod, mounted the reel, and strung his line through his guides, but, at least, he knew what fly to tie on. So he went his way and I went mine.

With only 10 feet of line to cast, I had to sneak up on the fish I was casting to. I was hiding behind trees, rocks and brush, and casting only to the fish that I had previously spotted cruising toward me, putting the fly well out in front of them and letting them come to the fly. I was making mostly bow-and-arrow-casts, so no back casting room or rod movement was required to put my fly in front of a fish looking for food, most of which charged the fly and took it readily once they entered the fly's strike zone. The biggest fish I caught that day came out of only inches of water depth, between a fallen tree trunk floating in the water and the bank, out of a strip of water maybe only 3 feet wide. I saw him come out from under the log and take an insect on the surface, and then return to his ambush hide. I cast the fly close enough to the tree trunk that he could not see the fly, but he could hear it hit the water, sense it with his lateral line, and see the ripples the fly made as they spread out on the surface toward the bank. The fish came out to investigate, saw the fly, and pounced on it as prettily as you please.

As John and I were approaching each other to pass by on our separate ways fishing around the lake, I saw a trout rise within inches of the bank. I cast the ant pattern to the mouth of the 18 inch wide channel it was feeding in, and that brook trout rush the fly with its mouth open and its head out of the water just like a bass would, almost at John's feet, where he was standing back in the timber. All of my fish were caught tight to the bank, while casting parallel to the shore out ahead of my line of travel. If John would have copied my fishing techniques, he would have done much better than he did. But in John's defense, the ability to cast a lot of line usually causes almost any angler to be looking too far ahead to see the close fish before it is too late and they are spooked. You can do all of these things with western fly tackle as well, Tenkara tackle just forces you to look, sneak and cast at shorter more efficient distances. For sure this kind of fishing is not for everyone, but it sure is a lot of fun and very rewarding.

Darian, I am sorry to hear of your knee problems. Have you tried trekking poles? They might allow you to be able to safely handle terrain that you never thought you could handle. I cross country ski, so I use poles all the time as a training aid, and in my backpacking, fishing and deer hunting. I will be 70 this spring, so I need all the help that I can get. Thanks for the kind words, and I hope the information I have provided helps you and others in your fishing, wherever it takes place and with what ever tackle you choose to use. And by the way, the names of the lakes I fished above have been changed to protect the innocent. Any resemblance to any lakes, whether actual or imagined, is purely coincidental....Karl.

[Darian]

Karl,.... Something I read in your report kind confused me. So, I have to ask, what's a lillian connection?? When you refer to "....the glued on braided loop connectors on my Tenkara rods...." are gluing the braided loop connector onto the rod itself??? Do you connect the line to the rod with this loop??? If so, it's a very interesting system.... Sorry If I sound a bit confused but I figure since you and I are about the same age, you'd understand....

"....After I got home I replaced the thin braided line with a super glued on braided loop for the lillian connection, so I can loop-to-loop the line onto the glued on braided loop connectors on my Tenkara rods...."

[Ed Wahl]

Didn't mean to get your dander up Karl, sorry. The name crack was just a razz I give to members posting under a fake name. Didn't mean anything by it. Maybe I should re-think doing that.
Pissin off a 70 year old who is doing 4 day pack trips can't be healthy for me.
Kudos for getting out and doing it, whatever style you use.
Ed

[Frank Alessio]

Didn't mean to get your dander up Karl, sorry. The name crack was just a razz I give to members posting under a fake name. Didn't mean anything by it. Maybe I should re-think doing that.
Pissin off a 70 year old who is doing 4 day pack trips can't be healthy for me.
Kudos for getting out and doing it, whatever style you use.
Ed

This is what the board is all about... Good job guys....

[Golden]

Actually, I was not really offended. The handle name was sort of forced on me by another board I had joined. Because I had linked articles from that board to another board under my given name, the FAOL computer would not allow me to use my given name to join. That must be a very big board because it took nearly 1/2 an hour for me to find a name that the computer would let me use. So when I decided to join this forum, knowing I would be linking to some pieces I did on FAOL, I decided to just use the same handle for the sake of simplicity.

Now on the braided loop to lillian connection, and the braided loop to line connection confusion matter, the answer is yes I am Zap-A-Gap gluing a braided loop connector to the lillian on my rod(s), and then using the loop-to-loop connection for all of the line connections, which includes a couple of Traditional TUSA furled tapered lines, both level and hand-tied tapered FC lines, some braided leader butts used as T-lines, and the floating fly line style of the level Rigs Floating T-line.

I have an old braided shooting line spooled up that I use to make up my own braided loop connectors with, but you can use the commercially sold ones and they will work just fine. You do not need any more of the lillian to go up inside of the braid than the section of lillian that is glued onto the rod is long, and even less than that will do just fine. It might be possible to make a loop out of the lillian but on most rods there is not much lillian material to work with, so I took the easier way out of a separate make and juncture of the braided loop connector.

In working the lillian up inside of the braided material, it helps to stiffen the tip of the lillian with some form of a non super glue, as super glue does not stick well to itself once it has dried. On the braided loop material, shove a dubbing needle up into the braid and out the side if you need to, so that the flat base of the needle handle butts up against the braid, expanding it for easier insertion by pushing the handle base up against the braid a few times. Don't worry about the end fraying. You can cut that off and seal over it again after the glue has cured on the joint.

FC lines have to be stretched to get the coil set out of them, so I just combine the loop-to-loop joining process with the stretching at the same time. Because I backpack fish and space and weight are at a premium for me, I carry my lines other than the Traditional T-lines coiled in small ziplock plastic bags. Rod end line loops are Perfect loops, while tippet end and tippet loops are triple surgeon's loop knots.

I have read of a few T-anglers casting lines off of the lillian on their rods with the girth hitch method and loosing their lines. I like straight line connections that the loop-to-loop connection provides. The girth hitch method also looked prone to hinging to me. About the only draw back I have found in using the loop-to-loop method is that you can not separate the two top sections of the rod for drying and cleaning, and you can't do that either with a knot tied in the end of your lillian, unless you go to the time and trouble to untie the knot. The tip section on most T-rods is solid, so I do not see this as being that big of a deal. But I live in a hot, dry climate for most of the year. De-bonding compounds are available to un-glue things glued with super glue, should it be needed, so this is not necessarily a permanent joint if you do not want it to be permanent. Braided loops and the loop-to-loop attachment were a big part of past fly fishing life using shooting heads and running lines. The girth hitch just seemed like an unnecessary addition and not as secure as the loop-to-loop method is to me, but a lot of people get along just fine withe the Japanese method and their traditional Tenkara knots. Hopefully, this answers all of the questions you had....Golden.

[Mike O]

FAOL is huge...but a good bunch.