I realized the other day that my tenkara posts are going to soon bog down my personal blog so I decided to create a whole new site – Northwest Tenkara. The site now just contains a blog with my last few posts and a short bio, much more to come soon.
Category Archives: Tenkara
Iwana Rod Series Review
The Iwana rods from TenkaraUSA are named after the Iwana, or White Spotted Char, found in Japan. These small char are probably the perfect target for the Iwana series of tenkara rods which are made for small to medium streams with smaller average sized fish.
Iwana Rod Handles – 12′, 11′ and 9’3″ from top to bottom
TenkaraUSA sells two versions of the Iwana rod – an 11′ and 12′ model and also a conversion handle that will turn either rod into a 9’3″ rod. The rods share most of the segments and just use different handle sections and a reduced number of sections as they are made shorter. This is a nice feature, especially if you own several Iwana rods and break a section on one. I recently broke the tip on my 11′ rod and when I was heading to very small water just turned the 12′ rod into an 11′ rod and went fishing.
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Fishing in Bathtubs
OK, not really fishing in a bathtub but fishing bathtub sized pools in rivers. After taking up Tenkara this year I began searching out smaller waters and smaller sections of bigger waters looking for trout and have been pleasantly surprised by what I have found.
Today was a great example. I was on the Middle Fork and the really nice corner run I wanted to fish was just so windy that I couldn’t control my line well with the wind blowing straight upstream on me. I managed a few fish but was getting frustrated so I moved downstream to check out the next spot where a long riffle ended and dropped into a pool. What I found was that the riffle did drop well but on my side the current was pushing into the bank and got deep fast so I really needed to fish from the other side to fish it well but didn’t want to cross into someones back yard to fish. Looking at the shore from where I was in the riffle I found a spot about the size of a bathtub that had some good rocks and depth, I figured there was probably one fish there. A few casts and I had a grab but missed. Next cast another grab and I was into what turned out to be my biggest Middle Fork cutthroat of the year so far, a nice 14″ fish. I sort of figured he was king of the little pool but made a few more casts. Wham, another grab and another nice 11-12″ cutt to hand. A few more casts, wham, another fish. What the heck. By the time I was done I had landed four, lost two and missed another two in this little run.
Becoming a Tenkara Bum
Early this year I decided to buy a Tenkara rod and try this very minimal form of fly fishing. I was pretty much hooked after my first few outings, it made me feel like a kid fishing for the first time. A few months later and I haven’t even picked up a standard fly rod and somehow ended up with a small collection of tenkara rods. Find out all about the gear and flies I use at my new Northwest Tenkara page.
Like a kid with a cane pole
A few months ago I purchased a tenkara rod and decided to take up this Japanese style of very minimalist fly fishing. This month the small streams in the area finally opened up and I’ve felt like a little kid with a cane pole going out fishing. I’ve been out a half dozen times on streams in western and eastern Washington and have caught easily over a hundred trout now on my 11′ Iwana rod and a single kebari that I tied. This is the most fun I’ve had fly fishing in a long time and I’m only catching 6-10″ fish for the most part. Recently I began exploring a small stream only 15 minutes from the house and am having a blast catching dozens of small trout on each outing with a few big-uns up to 9-11″. It brings back memories of being 10 years old and first learning to fly fish when an 8′ rod seemed way too long and I couldn’t really cast but could lay out 10′ of line and pull a bluegill out of a farm pond. I’m totally hooked now and plan on spending the rest of the summer wading small streams and working on becoming a tenkara bum.
Minimalist Fly Fishing
For the last several years I made the transition to minimalist running, running in shoes that are barely more than a moccasin and allow one to run more naturally like you were barefoot. This year I’m going to try minimalist fly fishing.
My small stream setup had already become more minimal over the years. I used to carry a rod, reel, vest and net when fishing small streams and the vest was packed full of two fly boxes, leaders, tippet, etc… I then parred down a bit and went to a small chest pack that held one fly box, an extra leader, tippet, nippers and some floatant. Then a few years ago I got even more minimal and went to a lanyard system that has a very small fly box, a few spools of tippet material, a nipper and a bottle of floatant. This works pretty well with the only disadvantage being that when hiking it still takes a while to put together a 4-piece fly rod, attach the reel, string up the line and tie on a fly.