After posting in here about tenkara last week, I bought a 7 dollar tenkara rod off of amazon to see if i liked it. In addition, I bought some mini trout magnets (even smaller than the regular ones with a 1/200 jighead instead of a 1/64) off amazon and some traditional tenkara flies from Tenkara USA.
I got to my local pond to test things out for the first time. Setting up the rod took only about 2 minutes (I tied my tippet to my level line at home). Took me only a few minutes to get the hang of casting. I was targeting bluegill and other panfish just to see if I could catch anything in the 30 minutes i had before work.
I started fishing the mini magnets because my trout magnet is usually my go to lure to see what kinds of fish are living where I'm fishing, and they almost always catch fish. The minis did not dissapoint, and I had my first bluegill on the 6th cast.
I switched over to the tenkara flies after catching a couple more bluegill, and the difference casting these compared to the magnets was pretty noticeable. This was the first time I had ever fished with any type of fly, and now I'm starting to understand how to place the fly in the water in a natural way (I think i really have caught the fly fishing flu now). After around 10 casts, I landed a nice little bluegill, pics in the link below.
All in all, I really enjoyed tenkara fishing and fishing with flies! I'm definitely going to continue with tenkara as well as try out some fishing with a regular fly rod setup once I get my hands on one. If you haven't tried this type of fishing, you're only 7 dollars away! Most people assume not having a reel may impact your enjoyment of fishing, however it was pretty refreshing and I felt more connected to each fish I hooked up with.
Tight lines fellas!!!!!
https://www.flickr.com/photos/147680.../shares/T7x55s