Tenkara Fishing

Dan Ransom said:
photoshop rarely give accurate mileage estimates... :)

the high uinta book by mel davis and john veranth says it is 21 miles from leidy peak trailhead to chepeta lake. i can't see it being longer than 13. unless the trailhead is marked incorrectly on the USGS maps...

their total is about 84 total, from leidy to the highline TH on 150. but the ultra-runners who do it from chepeta lake have it at about 66.5. so i suppose it depends on how far it truly is from chepeta to leidy TH. I figured 12 - 13 miles.

but if it's 90, our itinerary might need to be adjusted, that makes it quite a bit more difficult to get to chepeta on day 1.
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I don't think we'll be going off course from the 85 or 84 until we hit Crater and Recon but I still really like that plan.
 
I would take the sage setup but I'm the type that goes into the backcountry to find fish. For me, the 7oz is worth it. On a side note. You should be able to get out 20-30ft from shore with your tenkara setup. Most people I know have a river leader/tippet and a lake leader/tippet setup for their tenkara rods. The lake setup obviously being longer.

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so do you not carry your sage in a protective tube? that's one of the things about the tenkara that is appealing, it is it's own tube. that's an expensive rod to have unprotected... i break rods way too easily, especially ones that stick out above my pack. yikes. i hear people use those flourescent light tubes you can get at home depot, cheap and very light, instead of the heavy PVC tubes.

but i think maybe you haven't given the tenkara much of a try yet? i've never had trouble catching fish on it. you make it sound so difficult. it's not. we camped at lower red castle a few weeks ago, and i killed it on the lake, and in the river. i caught just as many, if not more, than those using normal fly rods. in the winds, i didn't fish a couple of days because of bad winds, but the one day i fished, i just wet a line while hiking in places that looked fun. literally caught a fish every couple of minutes. pretty much as fast as i could bring 'em in and cast again, until my fly was destroyed and had to tie a new one on, and then repeat again. granted, it's not the same as a normal fly rod, it has a learning curve, and you have to fish more carefully, but i've yet to notice it catch less fish. YMMV.

if you are comparing it to a normal fly rod - i think it's about sixes. simply because of how hard it is to cast a fly rod in many locations on lakes anyways (unless there is clean shoreline.) if you want to compare it to the efficiency of using spinning tackle, i think you are far more versatile on lakes with the spinning gear. pretty sure the tenkara would crush spinning tackle on streams though.

anyways, it's far more important to have the right fly. get the right fly - you'll smash 'em either way.
 
Deadeye008 said:
I would take the sage setup but I'm the type that goes into the backcountry to find fish. For me, the 7oz is worth it. On a side note. You should be able to get out 20-30ft from shore with your tenkara setup. Most people I know have a river leader/tippet and a lake leader/tippet setup for their tenkara rods. The lake setup obviously being longer.

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How'd I know you'd say that! :lol:

As for getting 30 feet out on the tenkara, it ain't happening with my setup. I haven't tried long lining it yet so I'm still using about 13-14 feet of total line and then the 13 feet rod so I'm dead maxed at 26-27 feet with a perfect cast that maxes out every inch of reach.
 
i usually tie on whatever length tippet i want to use, depends on the situation. i generally carry a couple 7.5 foot tapered leaders. so i have the 10 foot furled line, then a 7.5 foot tapered leader (which i sometimes just use.) or if i want even more length, i carry a spool of 7x tippet, and sometimes add 4 or 5 more feet on, which makes it roughly 20 feet or so of line. (the rod tip stays at like a 60 degree angle, i try to keep all of the furled line off the water.) so yes, it is limited in distance comparitively, but it is easier for plenty other situations.

because i use such light tippet, i tend to snap it every so often, probably from the fish's teeth nicking the line, or other nicks from fishing in moving water. in that case, i just tie a blood knot and reset it to whatever length i'm looking at.

you don't have to have a tapered leader though. you can go straight to tippet. i just find i can cast easier with tapered leader, especially in wind.

honestly, i prefer fishing streams usually, as it is a lot more fun to me. lakes seem boring as hell, just plop a fly out there and wait for a fish to slap at it. i typically only fish lakes at inlets or outlets, or if i'm bored, when i can see the fish anyways and there is some moving water. i like seeing the entire scenario play out. the blind heave it and leave it campaign bores me. but if you are intent on fishing the lakes, and distance to the fish is a concern, you should just take the sage. or better yet, just take powerbait. :thumbsup:
 
btw, my guess is your setup isn't very effective, because the furled line is so bright and hard to keep off the water at that length. if you cast that anywhere on to water, the furled line will spook the target fish. if you are only going to have 14 feet of line, you should probably try a level line or maybe just a tapered leader straight from the rod tip...

but i'm not totally sure, there's still a lot i'm trying to learn on that thing. i'm not sure i like the furled line, but it certainly helps the casting. i've tried level lines, but i can't get through the wind with them, and they are very hard to see your fly with. i rarely use the furled line on a stream though, and i'm usually much shorter overall line length - about the length of the rod.
 
Dan Ransom said:
so do you not carry your sage in a protective tube? that's one of the things about the tenkara that is appealing, it is it's own tube. that's an expensive rod to have unprotected... i break rods way too easily, especially ones that stick out above my pack. yikes. i hear people use those flourescent light tubes you can get at home depot, cheap and very light, instead of the heavy PVC tubes.
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Sometimes but not for something like the highline. It came with a very heavy Sage case and I have a flimsy lightweight tube that weighs 11 ounces that I've used for backpacking in the past. I've found that carrying it in a soft case with the sections bound together keeps it safe enough. And if it doesn't, it has a lifetime warranty which I have already utilized on that pole once before when I fell down with it in my hand. Not totally free to get it fixed but $40 to replace a pole like that ain't bad. It does suck that it's longer than the tenkara packed down though. That's probably my biggest complaint over the tk.

Dan Ransom said:
if you are comparing it to a normal fly rod - i think it's about sixes. simply because of how hard it is to cast a fly rod in many locations on lakes anyways (unless there is clean shoreline.)
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Depends on how skilled you are with a regular fly rod. I can roll cast my sage with trees right up to my back and get out there pretty far. Way farther than I have been able to get with the tenkara on an open shoreline. Haven't figured out how to cast the tenkara with trees on my back yet. Is it even possible to get a full cast with it that way?

Dan Ransom said:
anyways, it's far more important to have the right fly. get the right fly - you'll smash 'em either way.
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Disagree. Catching fish along a shoreline is tough if there are no fish at the shore. When I'm really into it, I walk the shore and cast into them as I see action. When I can get within 6 feet of one, I can usually catch it, but otherwise, I can cast for hours and get nothing. Yeah, fly selection is important but you can have the best fly on but if you can't get it to the fish, it's not going to help much. I don't fish a lot lately but there were several years where I was fly fishing 5-6 nights per week. At one point in my life, fishing was the main reason I would backpack into alpine lakes.
 
And as for lake vs. stream, I agree, the streams tend to be more fun but I never get into any sizable fish in them up in the Uintas. The lakes meanwhile...

I like to tie on a nymph or a streamer and drag it in in spurts, that makes for a lot more fun than letting a fly sit on the surface.
 
you can cast the tenkara with a concrete wall on your back - just use the slingshot technique.
 
nick said:
And as for lake vs. stream, I agree, the streams tend to be more fun but I never get into any sizable fish in them up in the Uintas. The lakes meanwhile...

I like to tie on a nymph or a streamer and drag it in in spurts, that makes for a lot more fun than letting a fly sit on the surface.
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ah, i see. in that case, you definitely should take the sage. streamers are impossible with the tenkara. nymphing is possible, but i find it very difficult to detect a strike, though lots of other guys seem to say they can feel it with proper tension. i'm not that good though.

but if you are talking about carrying streamers and nymphing setups, and the like, you are adding a lot more bulk and complexity to that 12 ounce figure you quoted earlier. instead of carrying 40 dry flies, you are probably carrying a large assortment of stuff - strike indicators, splitshots, streamers, flyboxes, etc... what do you carry all that stuff in? what do you carry it in after you setup camp? just in your backpack?

maybe it's not much more weight, but that's why i like the tenkara - i have one tiny foam box for about 40 dry flies, one spool for my line, floatant, and the tiny rod. it comes to just about 6 ounces, with absolutely everything. and maybe takes up almost zero space in the pack - which is an even bigger bonus for me. for the 1 or 2 hours a day i'll fish, it provides everything i need.
 
Dan Ransom said:
ah, i see. in that case, you definitely should take the sage. streamers are impossible with the tenkara. nymphing is possible, but i find it very difficult to detect a strike, though lots of other guys seem to say they can feel it with proper tension. i'm not that good though.

but if you are talking about carrying streamers and nymphing setups, and the like, you are adding a lot more bulk and complexity to that 12 ounce figure you quoted earlier. instead of carrying 40 dry flies, you are probably carrying a large assortment of stuff - strike indicators, splitshots, streamers, flyboxes, etc... what do you carry all that stuff in? what do you carry it in after you setup camp? just in your backpack?

maybe it's not much more weight, but that's why i like the tenkara - i have one tiny foam box for about 40 dry flies, one spool for my line, floatant, and the tiny rod. it comes to just about 6 ounces, with absolutely everything. and maybe takes up almost zero space in the pack - which is an even bigger bonus for me. for the 1 or 2 hours a day i'll fish, it provides everything i need.
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I won't bother with streamers for this trip and I already have the nymphs in my tenkara box so no added weight. I also use just one tiny foam box that weighs about the same. I don't use strike detectors or splitshots. I feel the hits.
 
yeah, i've done a lot of droppers off dry flies with nymphs, and that can work. i caught 5 or 6 tigers that weren't rising in red castle using that setup - obviously, you only have about a 10 or 15 foot window where you can do that with a fixed line though, since you can't strip it.

i'm not really all that worried about the size of fish i'm catching either. hell - it's the uintas, they are tiny pretty much everywhere. if i wanted to catch big fish, i wouldn't be there...

although, i'll take you to the lake with the biggest fish i know of in the uintas on this trip if you want. it's a mile off trail - but i've caught some pretty solid fish in there, especially by uinta standards. big rainbows.
 
Man, you make way too many assumptions. Who said anything about a dropper off a dry?

Here's my definition of big in the Uintas. >=14"

The fish in streams up there, especially in the meadows are retardedly easy to catch and always tiny, IME. I'm really curious where you caught rainbows though. I've never seen a bow at high elevation in the Uintas. Brookies, cutts, tigers, grayling and that's about it.
 
assumptions about what? i said that's how I HAVE done it when i used nymphs on a tenkara. is that ok?
 
i tend to avoid the meadows too. i prefer where the streams are moving, and you can try to spot small pockets.

i actually caught a decent rainbow on the tenkara in the outlet of red castle two weeks ago. i'll see if i can find a photo. but yes, the lake with the decent fish was all rainbows when i was there last - probably 8 years ago now.

although, admittedly, i haven't fished much in the uintas in years. the tenkara is finally getting me interested again in carrying a rod. seems like pretty much every lake is stocked with tigers now, is that true? is it to control the brookies or something?
 
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