Fountainhead Tenkara Fly Fishing

Granted, large fish (and small) present a challenge, but I personally think the challenge is what makes fishing fun. The one thing I like about Tenkara, I think it will make you a better fisher person. This is particularly true in the process of trying to control (and hopefully land) larger fish. THhe challenge is certainly there, but I do think in most cases, all the odds aren't on the side of the fish.

There are alot of real nice conventional fly reels on the market today, and that has become a mixed blessing. It allows the conventional fly angler let the disk drag reel do the work in subduing larger fish. The angler strikes the "orvis pose" (rod high over head) and hangs on. When the fish runs, the reel supplies resistance (and about a mile of line), when the fish gets tired, the angler derricks in the prize.

The one thing to remember when fighting fish, the fish always follows his/her head. The fish can only go where it's head is pointing. A fish's head does not move up and down, so when you apply overhead pressure, it needs to be sufficient to lift the fish out of the water column, if not, it doesn't do much good. The fish feels pressure and responds by heading in the opposite direction. That's exactly what you don't want to happen in Tenkara. (It isn't all that great with conventional fly gear either, but that's where our old friend, Mr Fly reel comes in with several hundred yards of line and a disk drag that can slow down a Buick Park Avenue.)

A fish's head is made to move side to side. When a fish's head is side loaded, it has one of two choices, either follow the direction it's head is being pulled, or expend alot of energy trying to pull it's head in the opposite direction. Of course, things can get even more complicated for poor old Mr./Mrs. fish when that direction of pull suddenly changes from one side to the other. Once the fish starts getting turned, he/she must now also fight any current, which will tend to try to further spin the fish. (When pulling straight up and back on the fish, it takes off straight downsteam, so the current is working in the fishes favor).

Tenkara equipment is great for providing side pressure to the fish, and with the mere flip of the angler's wrist, suddenly that point of pressure moves 24' in the opposite direction from where it was just a second ago. Bottom line, in my opinion, Tenkara equipment can be a very effective fish fighting tool.

Of course, everything sounds easy in principle, and things don't always go exactly as planned. But that's the challenge and what makes it fun.

For the past 15 or so years, I have been using a single fly pattern for 98%of my time spent trout fishing. Perhaps not surprisingly, it is a simple, impressionistic dry/damp fly pattern . On rare occasions,when the mood strikes, I will use an equally simplistic bead head pattern which I can fish slightly deeper.

Although I never heard of Tenkara until a year and a half back, I have fished Tenkara like for along time. By that I mean I've fished a very short line, in order to have optimal control of my fly. In my mind, the active (or passive) manipulation of your fly is what makes fishing, fishing.

I'm not sure I agree with some folk's contention that fish have poor eyesight, and will hit anything that comes by. Of course, particularly in fast water conditions, the fish never does get a clear, long view at anything passing by on the conveyor belt. I think they at best get a fleeting partial glimpse of the food item, and have to quickly decide to take or pass. That at least is my assumption, and based on that assumption, I think fishing a very impressionistic fly makes sense. Let the fish see something somewhat vague, and let the fish figure out exactly what he/she thinks it is.

The one thing I will add, I think in order to be optimally successful, and angler must be actively engaged in "fishing" their fly. Over the years, a dead drift presentation has accounted for about 25% of my catch. The other fish have all been caught while the fly was moving some way other than dead drift.

Again, this is where a simple, generic impressionistic pattern excels. It can be effectively fished in a variety of presentations cast to cast, sometimes varying the presentation in the same cast. Being able to seamlessly fish the same fly in a variety of ways provides me much more variety than fishing a number of different flies in the exact same manner. I know it works for me.

I should add that I spend the majority of my time fishing my home river, the Muskegon River in Michigan. It is a big, fast river, with a wide variety of food items. It is very rare on my river that the fish will selectively feeding on one particular blanket hatch. I'm not sure how well the one fly approach would work in other situations, particularly slower moving bodies of water, or environments which have a less diverse forage base. I certain can see situations where an exact pattern would be more effective.