This is not a post for the guys who fly into a backcountry strip and pile out of a plane with big camp chairs, tables, coolers, cases of bottled water, badminton sets.....or maybe it is.

If you are in the mode of ultralight backcountry flying or conversely go big and have no space left in your plane for that fishing rod and reel, I wanted to give a quick review of a setup I recently used on a trip. My friend Pierre bought me a Tenkara rod for Christmas, and I have carried it tucked away in the plane since. He and I have both caught fish with these rods and they are perfect for minimizing weight and/or storage profile. Pierre and I ran into David, a Tenkara aficionado, in Eagle this weekend who has more Tenkara rods than reside the country of Japan. One of his was a 9’ rod that weighed less than one ounce. Yes....0.9 ounces. That is unrigged of course. But add 9’ of monofilament line and tippet plus a fly and you will come in at just over 1 ounce for an entire setup for small stream fishing.

I caught a nice grayling on my 12’ rod this weekend and it felt like my regular 5 weight 9’ medium flex rod. I think I could have caught these 10-12” grayling on the 9’ rod.

Safe and fun adventuring.

I really like Tenkara fishing...it's so simple that it's about I do anymore.

I've found it to be about half as effective as traditional fly gear, but about four times easier to manage, and the smaller the creek, the better it works. I particularly like that the Tenkara poles telescope and you don't have to untie the fly to stow the rod...so much easier than de-rigging a fly rod. For packrafting it's the best way to fish throughout the day without eating up a bunch of time rigging and striking a fly pole.

The only real big downside is you can't net a fish while holding onto the pole...the line is too long to bring the fish to you, and there's no reel to shorten it. Without someone else to help net, it's inordinately difficult to land a large fish.

I can't handle it. I like reels. I can't figure out whether I like the fish or the playing with reels more.

I have been looking at a tenkara for backpacking and Backcountry hunting also. Sounds like I need to pick one up!

Watched a friend, experience fly guy, try his new Tenkara last weekend on the Big Wood. He really liked it and had a pretty successful day. That's seems about the right size river. Of course, the ease of using, packing, etc is nice. Would work great in a Supercub type plane. I too get tired of rigging and un-rigging.

Next day on the larger Main Salmon between Stanely and Challis, back to traditional reels. And that was a REALLY successful day. Spruce moths are a favorite trout treat at the moment!

Andrew

Zzz wrote:I can't handle it. I like reels. I can't figure out whether I like the fish or the playing with reels more.

At least someone finally admitted it...

Honestly, a proper fly fishing rig is, in many ways, more enjoyable. It's just that the set-up and break-down takes so much time that you pretty much have to be there to fish. I'm generally there for something else, and fishing is just a bonus. Thus my enjoyment of Tenkara.

The tenkara setups looks cool but I don't think my traditional fly fishing rig is too hard to setup and I can fish small & large streams with it

I agree that setting up a traditional fly rod and reel is easy and usually more desirable for most anglers. The lack of setup isn’t really a reason to fish tenkara unless you only have five minutes to fish somewhere. The point of my post is that if you are super space or weight challenged, tenkara style fishing could make the difference between having an ability to fish or not. This post may have been more appropriate on a backpacking forum, but I know there are times when a plane is jammed full of stuff and the traditional fishing gear doesn’t make the cut. At 1 ounce, the smallest of these rods are technological marvels. Will you be catching 15# silvers? Of course not. But little brook trout or grayling would be fun.

Squash wrote:I agree that setting up a traditional fly rod and reel is easy and usually more desirable for most anglers. The lack of setup isn’t really a reason to fish tenkara unless you only have five minutes to fish somewhere. The point of my post is that if you are super space or weight challenged, tenkara style fishing could make the difference between having an ability to fish or not. This post may have been more appropriate on a backpacking forum, but I know there are times when a plane is jammed full of stuff and the traditional fishing gear doesn’t make the cut. At 1 ounce, the smallest of these rods are technological marvels. Will you be catching 15# silvers? Of course not. But little brook trout or grayling would be fun.

Sounds like a great thing to add to a survival kit actually. Thanks for sharing. I didnt know about this type of fishing until now, and theres a good chance a rod will find a permanent home in my 206.