There are many things I am good at. I can cast a heavy streamer into the wind, I've built a couple decent looking fly rods, and both my wife and my mother think I am a damn handsome fellow. One thing I have yet to master is tying a decent fly. I tie flies in fits and starts, devoting hours a day for a week or so, and then putting away my vise for months at a time. As with anything, I know it takes practice, and I just can't seem to devote the time.

Tomorrow I am heading back to the Little Sur with my tenkara rod, so I thought I would dust off my vise, dig out my feathers and try my hand at a few sakasa kerabri reverse hackle tenkara flies. I have a handful of black and gray sakasa's in my box, and while they caught a fair number of fish, they weren't greeted with the kind of enthusiasm I am used to on that river.

I am hoping that by tying similar profiles on a slightly larger (14 instead of 16) and by using some brighter colors, they might get more action. I'll report my findings when I get back. 

--Posted by Eben

After a productive but exhausting business trip last week, followed immediately by a wedding over the weekend, I decided that I was entitled to some "self-care" time (as my fishing buddy David terms it). The only self-care I am really proficient at is fishing, so I took the day off from work, threw a lunch and my wading boots in a backpack and hiked down to the river to say hello to the little coastal rainbows.

Since the rain came too quickly for me to give it a try over memorial day weekend, I decided to take out my Fountainhead tenkara rod. My previous tenkara experience had been on a large tailwater, and it seemed high time I try it out on the kind of mountain stream it was made for. 

The Fountainhead Caddis 360 is a 12 foot deep flexing telescopic tenkara rod. Last time I took it out, I used a 12 foot level line and two feet of tippet, making a line two feet longer than the rod. On the windy tailwater, this level line cut through the wind, but didn't have the delicate feel I was expecting.

On this trip, I used a TenkaraUSA 10.5 foot furled tapered line, and verrying lengths of 6x tippet. The furled line was a bit light, blowing off in a light breeze, but with it I was able to make much more delicate presentations. I eventually decided that, for the narrow water I was fishing, a line slightly shorter than the rod's 12 feet gave be the best combination of control and reach. 

The trout on this river were eager to rise to any small dry fly, so I took the opportunity to try out some traditional Japanese reverse-hackle Sakasa Kebari flies. My hope was that if the small to medium sized fish were rising to dries, some larger specimens might be willing to take a wet hackle in the film or below the surface. 

The Sakasa Kebari flies, in a variety of colors, did induce many strikes, but for one reason or another I had a hard time setting the hook and missed every other strike. I would like to say that this is because the trout were taking the fly more gingerly, but it is more likely that I need to shed some of my slack line, dry fly instincts, and keep more tension in the line between between the rod tip and the fly. 

I think I will keep trying Sakasa Kebari flies, if for no other reason than I enjoy a challenge, but the Tenkara rod when paired with a furled line is a perfect dry fly delivery system. The rod presented Large EC Cutter's Caddis and small emerger patterns with ease, and while I tried to keep proper line tension, I could still accurately present and set the hook with a bit of tippet floating on the water.

Truthfully, I often feel like I am figuring out Tenkara techniques by trial-and-error. While casting seems to come very naturally for me, I have to constantly remain vigilant about the hight and angle at which I hold the rod. My instincts were honed with a veritable length line, and so I am used to controlling my line primarily by taking in or giving slack. With the tenkara rod's fixed line, the position of the fly on the water seems to be controlled through arm position and angle of the rod. That is, the angle of the rod controls how much (if any) line is on the water, and to some extent how far the fly is from the point of casting. The hight at which you hold the rod controls how far out the fly can get into the river.

Of course, the same is true for western style fly fishing, but without the third dimension of line length, it becomes vital for tenkara. This may seem quite obvious, but somehow my arm would often fail to respond how I wanted it to, and the fly would wander away from the seams I was trying to fish. 

Playing and landing the fish were quite different as well. On the larger tailwater, I was glad for the extra length of the rod. It gave me the leverage to fight slightly larger fish in the broad fast current. In the small stream, however, I found that the same leverage caused me to lift small trout out of the water and send them flying through the air, where they came off the barbless hooks.

After loosing a couple of fish this way, I found that as soon as I had set the hook, I could collapse the bottom two sections of rod, reducing the length and allowing me to play the fish more gently. 

All-in-all, I am glad I gave Tenkara a second chance on more appropriate water. I enjoyed my first experience, but I was often frustrated by my inability to get the fly out to where I wanted it. On the small stream, it was able to completely cover the water, and I was able to make some casts and fish some currents that would probably have been more difficult with a Western fly rod. That combined with the small size and eminent "Packability" of the tenkara rod and kit, will probably be enough to take a Tenkara rod on most hikes with a possibility of fishing, whether or not fishing is the goal.

--Posted by Eben

This saturday I got my first chance to take out my new Fountainhead 360 tenkara rod. Now, I freely admit that the river we chose for this outing was not the most appropriate river for a tenkara rod. While there are some nice streamline runs, most of the river is wide and deep. In the winter, the most productive fishing is done with multiple tiny nymphs fished deep under an indicator. However, since I did not want to wait until the snow melts on the mountains or until the season begins next month on the coastal streams, I decided to take a risk and try the new rod in less than ideal conditions.

As fishing can be hit or miss this time of year, my fishing buddy David came along and fished my 8.5 Foot F.E. Thomas Dirigo bamboo rod as a "control". We are at about the same skill level, and he fishes this river in much the same style I usually wood.  The day was slow, but by the end I had caught one trout (on a Fuji tenkara dry fly), and he had caught six on casts of three wet flies. As far as I am concerned, on fish on a dry is worth 5 sub-surface, so we came out pretty even. On another type of river, I doubt there would be much of a disparity.

More important than the number of fish caught is the experience of fishing with a particular rod, or in a particular style. An on that front Tenkara holds up pretty well.

Ease of hiking/wading

The compact nature of a telescopic rod is truly freeing, especially when bushwhacking through dense brush and blackberry brambles. When I first set out toward the river, I was able to simply stick the rod in my pack , and once it had the fly and line on it, it was easy to wrap the line around my hand or line spool, and walk with the rod collapsed. I didn't have to worry about navigating the tip of a fly rod eight feet in front of me between branches and vines.

Casting

Casting tenkara style is pretty easy. Within about ten minutes I was making accurate casts, and after about an hour I was no longer thinking about casting and was just fishing. While I don't think I got caught in tree branches more often than with other rods, I did get tangled in different branches. In general I had to be more aware of higher branches than usual and less aware of of what was way behind me.

Presentation

The long rod and light, fixed length line allow for amazingly long dead drifts, especially with dry flies. With wet flies and nymphs I found myself more aware of the tip of the fly rod than with western style fly fishing. Instead of controlling the depth of the fly with line slack and weighted flies, I was able to control it by lowering and raising the rod tip.

Playing/Landing a Fish

The particular rod I was using transmitted feeling from the end of the line to my hand as well as my favorite bamboo and fiberglass rods. I was able to feel the trout take my dry fly as soon as it happened and was able to hook up with ease. The only fish I landed was not big, but it was fun to play him on the long rod and line. I was standing next to a large current, but I was able to play him into the slow water with side pressure and quickly bring him to the net. 

All-in-all, I really enjoyed fishing tenkara style. I don't think I would bring it back to the lower Stanislaus again, but the I will definitely be bring it with me to smaller rivers, mountain streams, and larger rivers with a lot of pocket water. I can see taking it with me on day hikes that may or may not give fishing opportunities, and maybe investing in a slightly shorter rod for very small trout in tight spaces.

--Posted by Eben

The last few months I have spent a lot of time watching videos and reading about Tenkara, a traditional form of Japanese fly fishing involving only a long rod, a fixed length line, and a fly. I love reels (in fact I am currently trying my hand a reelsmithing), but I must admit that the idea of a completely simplified rig is quite compelling. So, this last Saturday I bit the bullet and ordered a tenkara rod, some line, and some tenkara flies. The packages have been coming in all week, and yesterday I came come to find that lovely triangle shaped box that always announces the arrival of a fly rod.

We are on a budget here at T&S headquarters, so I decided to start with the Fountainhead Caddis Fly 360, a 12 foot rod that sells for only $50. Based on reviews, I only expected a serviceable rod that I could replace if I decided to stick with Tenkara. Maybe it is the fact that the rod is make of a fiberglass/graphite composite, but I was pleasently surprised out how good the rod felt when I took it lawn casting. The slow action fits my general casting style, and the rod is lightweight so that I feel comfortable casting, even though it is almost twice the length of my favorite western fly rods.

For line I ordered a braided tapered line and a level mono line from TenkaraUSA (the main importer/producer of tenkara rods this side of the Pacific). I liked the feel of braided line, but the rod really woke up with twelve feet of the 3.5 level line.

I also ordered a handful of tenkara flies from a very good tier on eBay. While I will also probably experiment with my usual soft-hackles, emergers and dries,  I liked the look of these traditional fies. 

If all goes well, I should be able to fish the rod this weekend, if so, I will give a full report.

--Posted by Eben