Just bought my 1st tankara rod.

[Bob9863]

I went down to a local tackle shop to get some some line to try a bit of tankara fishing out, had flys and the other stuff already. 

I mentioned it to the bloke and had to explain what it was and he said I think I know what your talking about and reached behind the counter and pulls out two tenkara rods. 

There was no price on them so he calls the owner up to ask, I figured if they were around $100-$150 I'd grab one. 

Well apparently the owners son ordered them a few years ago and nobody had a clue what to put on them so he said $50.

So I bought both.

I have a mate that wants one too and that seemed like a bargain deal, a bit of searching online and the cheapest I found them for was $130. So two for less then the price of one. They had tenkara lines on the shelf to that must have been ordered at the same time as nobody had ever bought one, so I grabbed a couple. 

I picked up a new little fly box and then noticed a a container with a bunch of mixed flys in it and asked about them. He said they were mixed left over flys and were only $1 each, so I grabbed a dozen of then too. 

Now I'm all set. 

 

[Hweebe]

Bargain! Now tell me what a Tankara rod is?

[Bob9863]

It's a fly rod, but you don't use a reel. 

You attach fly line to a rope tip section and then your leader. 

This rod is 12ft so I use a 12ft fly line and 6ft of tippet. You cast one handed and when you get a fish you high stick it and either lift it by the line or net it. 

It's great for creeks, or rivers that aren't to wide, it's a very direct form of fishing. 

Here's a very rough video on it. The Americans don't do it nearly as good as the Japanese, in Japan it's almost a religion. 

 

[ellicat]

Good score. Hope you get onto a few with it. I'll be interested to hear how you go.

[Bob9863]

The season opens up on the 2nd of September, so still a few months off. 

It should be perfect for my area as down the bottom where I am near where it joins the lake there aren't too many big fish. 

There's a 5 fish limit, no minimum size and you can only keep 2 of 35cm.

That protects the breeding stock and most fish are only this sort of size anyway. 

[AUS-BNE-FISHO]

Looks like fun! Good luck. 

[Angry51]

2nd September is only 30 days away.

[Bob9863]

12 minutes ago, Angry51 said:

2nd September is only 30 days away.

Bugger your right, this year is getting away from me, but brilliant news. 

The NSW season starts a month later and that's usually what I go off, that's the good thing about living on the border I guess. 

[Hweebe]

Looks like a very cool way of fishing and as you say very direct 

[Bob9863]

I finally got a chance to try it out today, it took a bit to get the casting right as you have to be fairly gentle about it. 

Spent over 2 hours working things out without any bites and then found a school in a deep rocky corner near a bridge and pulled out a dozen in about 15-20min.

So I'm feeling a bit more optimistic for trout season. 

[Old Scaley]

Looks like it works! 

[ellicat]

Well, it works. That's the main thing. How did you find it,  e.g. relaxing or frustrating ?

[Bob9863]

Both, until I figured out what casting technique works with a fly rod leader. 

It's a bit different and likes a long drop where as traditionally the cast stops  at 45°

Landing is the tricky bit, I lost a couple until I got the hang of it. 

I also started casting better when I switched to left hand. I learnt to cast left handed when I started finesse fishing, and it seems to carry over. But it's, also very accurate casting, very direct. I just cast and sort of point where i want it to go with the rod. 

[AUS-BNE-FISHO]

Good work Bob.

[Bob9863]

One thing I found out that made it harder for me was that I used too long a tippet. 

With conventional fly fishing you might have 10ft of leader and 3-4ft of tippet. But with tenkara there's no leader so I was using 6ft of tippet, but I should only use 3-4ft, even 2ft can be fine at times. 

I'm really looking forward to trout season, ultralight finesse lure and plastics on the spin and this new weapon. 

That's a, deadly combo I hope. 

[ellicat]

When does trout season start ?