Anyone try Tenkara?

[Riz]

I never tried it. I mostly bass fish but the times ive been down in the keys and central America, fishing for bonefish especially, fly fishing is a great skill to master. im no expert at fly fishing but any form of new "angling" is worth learning in my opinion. I say go for it

[Hookmanski]

Originally Posted by Riz

I never tried it. I mostly bass fish but the times ive been down in the keys and central America, fishing for bonefish especially, fly fishing is a great skill to master. im no expert at fly fishing but any form of new "angling" is worth learning in my opinion. I say go for it

Oh I'm going for it! My first extremely cheap-o tenkara rod comes in the mail tomorrow

[Riz]

that's awesome brother, congrats on the purchase looks like the next few days weather wise will be beautiful to fish . catch one for me . I gotta work

[briansnat]

It looks a lot like the long pole method I've seen people using on back country Catskill creeks. The main advantage I see is the compact rod, which would be nice for backpacking. The disadvantage I think would be if you were to hook into a nice smallie or a breeder trout. I can't see just hauling one in on one of those rods. A reel, or at least the ability to hand strip line would be a necessity.
They would be fine for the cookie cutter stockies or wild trout on small backwater streams though.

But if you are truly interested in fly fishing, I would still recommend getting a standard fly outfit. No need to learn fancy casts at first. The roll cast is easy to learn. You can probably learn to do a functional roll cast with less than an hour of practice. I've been flyfishing for about 45 years and probably use 90 percent roll casts when I'm fishing NJ streams. And at least you have the option of trying more advanced casts when you have the time. Why keep putting that off if it is your eventual goal?

No need to spend a ton on a fly outfit at first. I used a very cheap beginner outfit bought at Two Guys for about the first 15 years or so and caught some pretty nice fish on it. I used it for bass bugging and trout. Then I "splurged" on a $100 LL Bean fly rod and have been using it ever since. It does the job well. The fish don't seem to care that my rod is 30 some years old and was inexpensive (as fly rods go). This year I upgraded my reels from the ancient, 40+ year old Pfleugers I was using (they were finally falling apart) and bought two very decent reels for LT $100. I've seen no need for a $600+ rod and reel outfit yet.

[Hookmanski]

Originally Posted by briansnat

It looks a lot like the long pole method I've seen people using on back country Catskill creeks. The main advantage I see is the compact rod, which would be nice for backpacking. The disadvantage I think would be if you were to hook into a nice smallie or a breeder trout. I can't see just hauling one in on one of those rods. A reel, or at least the ability to hand strip line would be a necessity.
They would be fine for the cookie cutter stockies or wild trout on small backwater streams though.

But if you are truly interested in fly fishing, I would still recommend getting a standard fly outfit. No need to learn fancy casts at first. The roll cast is easy to learn. You can probably learn to do a functional roll cast with less than an hour of practice. I've been flyfishing for about 45 years and probably use 90 percent roll casts when I'm fishing NJ streams. And at least you have the option of trying more advanced casts when you have the time. Why keep putting that off if it is your eventual goal?

No need to spend a ton on a fly outfit at first. I used a very cheap beginner outfit bought at Two Guys for about the first 15 years or so and caught some pretty nice fish on it. I used it for bass bugging and trout. Then I "splurged" on a $100 LL Bean fly rod and have been using it ever since. It does the job well. The fish don't seem to care that my rod is 30 some years old and was inexpensive (as fly rods go). This year I upgraded my reels from the ancient, 40+ year old Pfleugers I was using (they were finally falling apart) and bought two very decent reels for LT $100. I've seen no need for a $600+ rod and reel outfit yet.

My main reason for putting it off is that I can't really even afford a 100 dollar rod at this point. I'm working full time at my first job out of college, student loan, cellphone and car payments are taking their toll on my funds. I bought a tenkara style rod off of amazon for literally 7 dollars, so obviously I'm not expecting the rod to be that great but at least I can dip my toes in the water of fly fishing for under 40 dollars total when you include some flies, line, and tippet.

In addition, my hours working are pretty strange and I don't get a lot of time to fish, so have this rod packed into the pouch on the back of the drivers seat in my car might allow me to fish a little more often than normal. I received the rod last night (it is actually much nicer than I had thought, still nothing fancy though) and total setup time was under 10 minutes. It keeps things simple and quick for me, and my hope is that I'll love it so much that I'll start to save up for a proper outfit.

That being said, if anyone ever knows of a free fly fishing clinic or something similar, I'd be very interested in trying it out!

[Capt. Lou]

Funny u mention how much it cost to get into a traditional fly outfit . I bought a complete travel fly kit 7.6 # 4 Rod w/ reel, line leaders at fly show last season for my son in law for $65.00 !
He's new to sport as u r &'this Outfit by Shu- Fly Co. performed really well , good bang for the buck !
As for Tankara type fly fishing it's basically nothing more than dabbing or drifting a fly via the long rod that's is the apex of the outfit . It can be deadly in low water since ur can adjust ur drift with basically very little water line contact .
The motion like mentioned similar to nymphing but with more directed short floats whether it's a dry or nymph .
Works well in pocket water where depth of stream is moderate but water runs well .
There's a stealth approach required in slower water since ur cast is strictly limited by amount of line secured to rod .
Actually u can do virtually the same with a std fly outfit via euro nymphing technique where ur basically in many instances fishing a super long leader delivered from a longer rod , most like 10' plus rods in 3/4 weights for this fishery . Some fish the leader only with heavy butts to achieve flat turnover & garner more distance the length of the rod is important in this application .