Tenkara Fly Fishing
Gink & Gasoline
Tenkara has taught an old dog some new tricks. Since I started learning tenkara, it’s become obvious to me, that regardless of how intuitive the method is to the novice fly angler, some parts of tenkara are likely counterintuitive to the experienced fly angler.
Here are a few things about that are likely counterintuitive about tenkara to the experienced fly angler:
A long rod is an asset in small streams
Small streams call for short rods. It makes sense right? Small mountain streams have always been my preferred playgrounds. Prior to my discovery of tenkara, my favorite rod was a soft action 7 ½' rod. It cast beautifully, I felt the force of the line loading it, and I felt I could maneuver it anywhere I wanted.
But, that short rod probably contributed to my falling in love with tenkara. In streams we have this thing called drag. When line lays on the water, currents pick it up and drags the line downstream faster than the fly. Then, you have to mend. And, with that beautiful 7 ½' rod I had to mend…a lot. It was hard to achieve a good drift when fishing moving water.
Like anyone else, I was absolutely intimidated by the idea of using a 12' rod in those waters.
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