Finally took some time to get on the water with my new 12’ Tenkara Iwana rod today. I had some things to do for work in Layton–they finished early and nobody expected me back so I ran to Ogden to fish the Ogden River just below and through the canyon. I was surprised how high the water was running–It’s been a long time since I fished the river and I couldn’t find a spot I loved so I decided to move to the South Fork above Pineview toward Causey. One note about the Ogden–at the mouth of the canyon and half way up the canyon there were hundreds of medium and big hoppers in the grass next to the river.
I didn’t take my conventional fly rod out of the car–just the Tenkara this time.
Setup was super easy. I have a 11’ long high visibility leader with about 4’ of tippet–you make a slip knot in one end of the leader and cinch it down on the string that comes out of the tip of the rod. Tie on a fly, extend the rod (it’s telescopic) and cast. To take it off I collapse the rod, wind the line onto a spool & loosen the slip knot to remove it from the rod. Setup and takedown takes less than a minute–I have a spool to hold the line–I can see having 2 lines, one set up with a nymph, one with a dry fly, and you can switch between the 2 in less time than it would take to switch flies.
I fished only dries today just to be able to see where I was casting and get used to the technique. Its similar to conventional fly fishing but a slower rhythm. With a nice slow pace the line would lay out perfectly, and the size 16 caddis would land very softly on the water. Because the rod is so long I could get flies into small pockets behind rocks and hold them there by keeping most of the line off the water. Drag free floats were pretty easy too for the same reason. Because the line is fixed my drifts were shorter than with my conventional rod, but I had the fly over the ‘spot’ more because it was very easy to drift it, pick it up and flick it back to the top of the hole.
I didn’t get caught up in any bushes, trees or myself–probably the first time ever for me. Back casts go almost straight up and with a fixed casting distance I could get it up close to obstacles or the bank. What I do sometimes with my conventional rod is feed out just a little too much line trying to hit a spot which gets me into trouble. I could just use the right amount of line with my fly rod but it seems with more available I tend to pull out too much sometimes.
With a 12’ rod, there were times where over hanging trees was a problem–either for casting or trying to keep line off the water during a drift. In those spots my 7’ 3 weight would have been easier to use. On the South Fork there weren’t many spots that were an issue, and there was always another hole a few steps away so I just move on but on some streams that have much more dense vegetation, it could be a challenge.
I caught 4 brown trout and missed another 4 fish due to slow reflexes and/or bad technique. Landing the fish was easy. Average was about 8" with 1 fat 12".
Overall I enjoyed using the Tenkara a lot. It is a very simple way to fish flies and I found I was much more focused on the fly and getting a good drift than line management.
As for the South Fork of the Ogden–I think it’s just a beautiful little creek. The flows were pretty good and very clear. There were dozens of caddis cases on every rock, thousands of them in every hole, dark green and probably size 14-16. I’m sure I would have had a lot more success with nymphs or even a dropper but I wanted to stay strictly with dries for the practice. There was what looked like the beginnings of a caddis hatch starting at 3pm when I was leaving. I didn’t see any fish rise except to take my flies.
Mike
