Tenkara

fixed line fly fishing
CM_Stewart

Post by CM_Stewart »

It really is a simple process. Think of it as a 12' "nothing" weight rod that is designed to cast just a leader. The leader doesn't weigh nearly enough to "load" the rod, so you don't have to cast hard enough to load the rod. You just need a leader that will turn over by itself - either because it's furled and the diminishing mass forces it to turn over or because it's so dense that wind resistance can't stop it from turning over.

I don't think it would be possible to break a tip on a strike. The rods are too flexible, and if the line is where you would get a strike, the rod would be at an angle that it could take it. If you collapse the rod before going through doors (or woods), and don't play with it in a room with a ceiling fan, about the only way you can break a tip is while collapsing the rod by putting sideways pressure on the last few segments as you push them together. The only rod I broke on a fish (by using too strong a tippet) broke at the junction between the second and third segment up from the grip. It was not a Tenkara USA rod - or even a real tenkara rod, but a telescopic graphite panfish pole. To be fair, it was designed for panfish, not the biggest trout I've ever hooked. May have been the most exciting 10 seconds of my life.
User avatar
SnooKen
The Great Mosquito King
Posts: 1528
Joined: Fri Dec 28, 2007 5:24 pm
Location: Mosquito County, Florida

Post by SnooKen »

Direct connections. As a kid in Central and South Florida I, like Adam, did a lot of cane pole fishing, in both fresh and salt water. A 5 lb. Jack Crevalle on a cane pole is quite a rush. Same for largemouth bass and snook. Even more intimate was fishing with handlines ranging from sewing thread and a micro hook for minnows and baby panfish to 40 lb. mono on the inshore reefs for grouper.

For myself, the best takes in fishing are up close and on or just below the surface where everything can be seen and felt. There is a Zen quality to fishing a piece of water so slowly that you become part of the scenery. A state of mind is reached where thoughts slow down to match the pace of the surroundings and everything else goes away.

Here's a favorite quote, from a woman flyfisher and author.

Fishing is about being alone on the other end of a stick plunged into eternity, into primordial life.
The rods you guys are making today would cause Hiram, Edwards and the Paynes as well as Fred Devine to crap their pants then giggle like boys peeking into the girls' locker room as they strung them up and laid out the first casts.
pcg

Post by pcg »

Fishing is about being alone on the other end of a stick plunged into eternity, into primordial life.
Wow, the instant I read that I disappeared into... the "primordial" soup.

Many thanks.
CM_Stewart

Post by CM_Stewart »

SnooKen wrote: There is a Zen quality to fishing a piece of water so slowly that you become part of the scenery.
That's the part I liked. Become the heron.
User avatar
Tom Smithwick
Posts: 166
Joined: Mon Mar 23, 2009 10:18 am
Location: Shippensburg, PA, USA

Skaters and spiders

Post by Tom Smithwick »

To fish a real Hewitt skater, which is a big fly, I think you would need a PVC line, which is not so bad with this fly. Chris, I would wait until Spring to try it. The best time for the skater is an ideal dry fly day, except that nothing is hatching. Fish it in moving water across and down, twitching it across the stream, just as you would a streamer, except that it's on the surface. Don't expect many hookups, but do expect a lot of splashy hits. I've actually had fish clear the water, slapping at it on the way down. It does not always work, but when it does, it's something to see.
A better fly for Tenkara might be the dry fly spider, which can be tied in smaller sizes on a short shank hook. It's tied with a stiff tail, and bushy hackle about 2 1/2 to 3 X the hook gape. There is no body. It can be either dead drifted, or twitched and skipped like the skater.
CM_Stewart

Post by CM_Stewart »

Wait until Spring? Who can wait until Spring?!?

The answer to whether a tenkara rod can cast a Hewitt skater is somewhere between "kind of" and "probably". The slightly shorter hackled dry spiders that Tom suggested were much better, and I'll probably go even slightly shorter yet when I reluctantly do wait until Spring to actually try to catch fish with them rather than just try to cast them. I didn't get quite the line speed necessary to completely turn them over, but I was trying a pretty light line to see if they would cast at all. It was easy to just raise the rod tip a bit after the cast to take out the slack in the tippet, and quite easy to get the fly to dance and bounce and skitter and slide. I'm sure I can come up with a combination of hackle length and line weight that will achieve what I want to achieve and still be way short of PVC. Actually, the Tenkara USA furled line would probably be heavy enough, as the line I was using was much lighter. Over the winter, I'll be working on furled fluorocarbon lines, as fluorocarbon casts much better than nylon, and I'm coming to the conclusion that furled casts better than the equivalent #test of a single strand.
User avatar
SnooKen
The Great Mosquito King
Posts: 1528
Joined: Fri Dec 28, 2007 5:24 pm
Location: Mosquito County, Florida

Post by SnooKen »

Chris, I'm wondering.......fluorocarbon is stiffer than mono of equal diameter, also heavier. I can see the higher specific gravity of fluoro making it a better "windcutter" than mono but seems to me that the limper a line is the tighter a loop it will throw with less energy lost in the transition of the loop down the line. Have you tried boiling or steaming some fluoro to see if you can decrease its stiffness while keeping the density factor?
The rods you guys are making today would cause Hiram, Edwards and the Paynes as well as Fred Devine to crap their pants then giggle like boys peeking into the girls' locker room as they strung them up and laid out the first casts.
CM_Stewart

Post by CM_Stewart »

SnooKen wrote:seems to me that the limper a line is the tighter a loop it will throw with less energy lost in the transition of the loop down the line.
That may be why furled seems to cast better.

I have heard of competition anglers boiling leaders, but I had thought that was nylon mono rather than fluorocarbon. In any case, I haven't tried it but I will.
CM_Stewart

Post by CM_Stewart »

Anybody here use the Common Cents System for measuring rods?

Quick and dirty analysis of a few tenkara rods was pretty surprising, and made me realize I had no idea what "fast" meant. Out of five rods measured, none had an Action Angle below 85 degrees :shock:.
User avatar
adam
hobbyist tinkerer
Posts: 2625
Joined: Mon Apr 16, 2007 11:30 pm
Location: Phoenix, AZ

Post by adam »

Gees, I don't know what to say...

I thought the common cents system was the way to go until I meet Jerry Foster. He taught me that there was a totally different way to look at how a rod works...

Let's see if I can find it: http://www.grassart.net/forum/viewtopic.php?t=86 It's in there somewhere.
Post Reply