Very windy day, traditional tenkara casting is impossible except for very brief moments. You'd probably have 5 seconds out of every 100 in which you could make a cast. And once you get the flies in the water, it wasnt uncommon to have my ~10' of 4x tippet blown completely out of the water. Wind was blowing directly downstream.

Very large river (avg of ~50?ft wide up to ~100'?), fast currents, very very deep pockets that hold the fish (avg of ~8' but probably as deep as 20'), gin clear water. Fish are wise, but i was stealthy enough not to visibly spook many fish. They kept feeding on the bottom. The fish I spotted in shallower water, were generally not feeding or just being very selective. This stretch of water is somewhat notorious for being a difficult/technical place to fish for the very large trout there. (any guesses!?!? )

Generally speaking, I'd probably not have fished there that day, but I spent the time to camp overnight to get an early start next to this river thats a good ways from home and a reasonable hike in.


The only thing I could figure out that would "work", and allowed me to cast ~30% of the time, was rigging up czech style, with 2 of my heaviest flies. But I still had tremendous difficulty casting/chucking it upstream. My flies just never got deep enough with the currents, depth, and relatively short czech rig (~3ft indicator section ~10ft 4x fluro 2 weighted flies)

I managed one fish that day I worked very very hard for but still didnt feel like I was using the right approach. It has me thinking about tying something even heavier on point for those days. Basically a set of lead dumbell eyes on a ~#10 hook wrapped with lead and a thread or a UKB yarn body. Then possibly a longer rig length.

Thoughts from our experts out here?

I tried Daniel's method of "jigging" directly downstream to try to get the flies deeper, but between the quick current and depth, i couldnt seem to get them deeper than I could then with a dead drift.

the western guys seemed to have as much trouble, though I did run into one or two guys out there doing better than I was fishing GIANT indicators. Like the red\white ones you used as a kid fishing in the pond.

edit!
I guess its only fitting of me to include photo of said single fish that day!

Though some may cringe at my impure statements, try adding split shot to get your flies down. True Czech nymphing doesn't use split shot, but that's only because competition rules do not allow it. I'll often use split to get down, and when I start catching fish my anti-split-shot buddy will often ask for some

Also, try using a ridiculously heavy streamer as your point fly. I use a fly tied with a strip of bunny and a sculpin head if I really need to get down.

Additionally, if you're having trouble getting to the strike zone and have already added as much weight as you can handle, try casting far upstream, allow the line to sink with a loose line while walking down stream. Once you get to where you think the fish are, tighten the line for strike detection and hold on.

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Tenkara Guides

erik, thanks for all the tips.

I have no idea why i didnt think to add split shot. I carried it all the way in there.

And on your last point, talk about being an "active angler"!
I like it, but in general, I dont think it would work too well at this location. Steep rocky banks in general or just lots of areas you cant wade safely (or at all) to do this.

to take some of the cringing away from you , I was thinking that times like yesterday I sorta wish I had a stiff 15' rod with guides running down to my tippet spool or other minimalist reel so I could add a bunch of weight, chuck out the flies relatively far, and strip line in as it drifts back to me. Though at that point, sorta sounds like a centerpin rod.