Post by daves on Jul 20, 2013 17:39:03 GMT
Some areas of my home river, the Yorkshire Derwent near Scarborough, are very narrow & overgrown, particularly Forge Valley which is rarely fished by club members due to this fact.
A couple of days ago I introduced a young lad (an aspiring England Youth Team fly fisher) to Tenkara in Forge Valley. It was baking hot (27 degrees) & bright sun, but a few fish were rising. He was quite amazed at how effective the method was in such 'tight' situations. In places the overhanging vegetation from one bank meets that from the other bank. Furthermore much of the river bank is heavily treed. We rod-shared, fishing alternate fish & landed about 40 wild brown trout up to about 13", plus a 15" stockie rainbow, in our 4 hour session, mostly on dry flies. Needless to say he has become a convert & wants a Tenkara rod for Christmas/Birthday!
Yesterday evening I had an hour & a half on the same section of river. Again it was hot (20 degrees) despite cloud cover & an easterly breeze off the North Sea. There were no risers so I opted to fish with a Silver Bead-head Partridge & Hare's Ear Spider. Most of the water is semi-canalised & fairly slow so I fished the fly upstream, 'on the drop', followed by a twitched/sink & draw retrieve to induce takes. The 12' Tenkara rod was ideal for reaching over the high bank side vegetation & for achieving the subtle movements I was using. Furthermore with very low, clear water there was no heavy fly line splashing & scaring the fish, whilst the heavy bank side growth allowed me to get very close to the fish (I used a line plus tippet the same length as the rod). The result? 20 wild brown trout to 11".
I'm sure that many Tenkara anglers tend to avoid fishing overgrown waters thinking that their rods will be too long, but as long as you are 'tree aware' the length can be a real advantage.
A couple of days ago I introduced a young lad (an aspiring England Youth Team fly fisher) to Tenkara in Forge Valley. It was baking hot (27 degrees) & bright sun, but a few fish were rising. He was quite amazed at how effective the method was in such 'tight' situations. In places the overhanging vegetation from one bank meets that from the other bank. Furthermore much of the river bank is heavily treed. We rod-shared, fishing alternate fish & landed about 40 wild brown trout up to about 13", plus a 15" stockie rainbow, in our 4 hour session, mostly on dry flies. Needless to say he has become a convert & wants a Tenkara rod for Christmas/Birthday!
Yesterday evening I had an hour & a half on the same section of river. Again it was hot (20 degrees) despite cloud cover & an easterly breeze off the North Sea. There were no risers so I opted to fish with a Silver Bead-head Partridge & Hare's Ear Spider. Most of the water is semi-canalised & fairly slow so I fished the fly upstream, 'on the drop', followed by a twitched/sink & draw retrieve to induce takes. The 12' Tenkara rod was ideal for reaching over the high bank side vegetation & for achieving the subtle movements I was using. Furthermore with very low, clear water there was no heavy fly line splashing & scaring the fish, whilst the heavy bank side growth allowed me to get very close to the fish (I used a line plus tippet the same length as the rod). The result? 20 wild brown trout to 11".
I'm sure that many Tenkara anglers tend to avoid fishing overgrown waters thinking that their rods will be too long, but as long as you are 'tree aware' the length can be a real advantage.
