The fly fishing club I belong to in the Bay Area http://www.trivalleyflyfishers.org had an outing to the Sonora Pass area this weekend. I specifially bought my 12' Iwana for this trip and gave it its first run on the Middle Fork (MF) and Clark Fork (CF) of the Stanislaus.

I fished the MF in Kennedy Meadow for a couple of hours on Thursday. I used both my Iwana and my conventional 3 wt with dries. I had no success with the dries, but I hooked and landed four nice fish on the Iwana. Most were smallish resident trout about 6-8 inches, but one was a stocky 12" planter, which was pretty exciting on the Iwana. Later in the day I fished both rigs on the CF and had just the opposite result. The resident fish on the CF just crushed my elk hair caddis on the 3 wt, but I got no response to the tenkara flies. I just need to keep working on it.

It was a great trip. Excellent weather except for the smoke from the Yosemite fire. I posted a report in our club newsletter http://www.tri-valleyflyfishers.org/newsltr/SEP2011_Newsletter.pdf and more pictures on the the Clubhouse page of our club web site http://www.tri-valleyflyfishers.org/club_house.htm.

I learned a lot about working with the tenkara gear. Still more to learn. The CF required a lot of bushwacking, so I was retracting and deploying the Iwana between holes. Wrapping the line around the spool was little bit of a drag. I'd like to find some small brackets or hook keepers that i can attach to the first section of the rod to wrap up the line. I also think a belt or shoulder holster/holder for the retracted rod would be nice.

Tight lines!

Bob

My first Tenkara trout:

Sounds like a nice trip Bob. We've all got so much to learn about Tenkara. I'm just not getting out enough lately so thanks for the report. That's a pretty little trout you took the photo off too.

_________________
Rick

テンカラ。小さなストリームのシンプルさ。
My Tenkara Rods:
13' Ayu, 12' Yamame, 11' with a conversion handle, and an Ito.

My Wife's Tenkara Rods:
12' Ebisu and 13.5' Amago, 12' Iwana with a conversion handle, and an Ito.

TND, I'm fairly new with tenkara myself but you need a couple of things to make things easier for your next outing. Trust me on this one, I've done the very same thing at some point comparing tenkara to my western fly rod and reel. I just wanted to make sure I got everything covered. I first thought of the limitation of not having the extra line to play a fish, thinking tenkara can't possibly compensate well enough for that. So, I brought both on some of my outings.

First thing you need is to get one of them quiver or you can make one yourself. Make sure its much longer than your tenkara stick, you'll see what I mean. Second, I agree that a hook keeper rig is a must to hold your line. As you get more usage with your tenkara, you'll notice that you don't necessarily need to have a kebari fly to catch fish tenkara style. Use your standard western fly patterns and you'll see that you'll catch more with it using your tenkara rod. Maybe someday I'll be using more of the kebari type flies but for now its hard to match the prowess of my western fly patterns, matching the hatch. For example, its hopper season right now in my neck of the woods, I'd be silly to choose a kebari fly over a simple hopper pattern if hoppers are what the fish are keying on. I just want to catch fish and tenkara makes it much easier to catch fish with flies, especially with dries. The long tenkara stick just makes it so much easier to get a drag free presentation and anybody who has fly fished long enough knows that is one of the most if not the most important key to catching more (trout)fish.

Here is my quiver. You can see that its too short for my western fly rod while my tenkara is being used . You'll do this a couple of times and then you'll just be taking your tenkara stick. That's what I predict.

Horn:
So have you rigged up some type of line keepers on your rod butt to wrap the line when bushwacking?

There are removable keepers available, which my buddy just told me about. He attached two to the tenkara butt section. He seems to like it. I'm going to order some and see how they work out. http://www.cabelas.com/product/Fuji-EZ-Keeper-II-Hook-Keeper/711011.uts?Ntk=AllProducts&searchPath=%2Fcatalog%2Fsearch.cmd%3Fform_state%3DsearchForm%26N%3D0%26fsch%3Dtrue%26Ntk%3DAllProducts%26Ntt%3Dhook%2Bkeeper%26WTz_l%3DHeader%253BSearch-All%2BProducts&Ntt=hook+keeper&WTz_l=Header%3BSearch-All+Products

A pair of folding hook keeps might might also work, but they'd have to be wrapped on. Not sue I want a permanent modification. http://www.jsflyfishing.com/cgi-bin/item/OR-001030-0000/45500/J.-Stockard-Folding-Style-Hook-Keeper.html

I'll look into the quiver - interesting idea. Your pic looks like it shows your convetional rig dissassembled. Do you have a specific quiver set up for your tenkara rod? I'm not sure I understand your comment about making sure the quiver is much longer than the tenkara.

At 7' 8" my converntional 3 wt. is pretty easy to move through the brush, you just point the tip where you want to go and follow it. The 12' Iwana needs to be collapsed to move through brush, which requires spooling the line, or wrapping it around keepers as discussed above.

I appreciate you enthusiasm for tenkara, but I think my experience this weekend tells me there is a place for both conventional and tenkara. It's nice to have a second rod rigged with dries, allowing me to easily switch. Also, my reading of Daniel's "How to Tenkara" articles indicates that it's more than just dapping or swinging western (or tenkara) flies. We'll see as I gain more experience with it.

Tight lines,

Bob

I got those Fuji EZ hook keepers on all my tenkara rods. The long quiver bag is for your conventional rod and reel because that's where they'll end up staying for the most part during your outing while you use your tenkara rod. You'll find that out soon enough.

Have fun with your tenkara.