Thursday, January 22, 2015

Listen to the Music

There recently was a seemingly endless conversation on one of the fly fishing forums regarding what’s more important to catch fish - fly or presentation.

The consensus results can be summarized:

- develop a repertoire of many different presentations - or - always use the same one (dead drift (it’s the perfect presentation for dead caddis flies))

- shake the bushes and be prepared with a vest full of fly patterns for whatever you see - or – one generic fly properly presented will almost always work

- all the possible combinations and permutations of the above

What I find most interesting, the exact same conversations take place in the other forum topic I follow.

I want to start playing guitar, what should I do?

- learn to play scales - or - never study scales, just play songs

- start out playing classical, pop, jazz, bluegrass, finger style, with a pick, the blues

- buy a Martin/Gibson/Custom built - or – buy a $100 Epiphone/Yamaha

And at the end, the exact same answer results for both -

Go out and fish / listen to the music that is inside you.

Monday, January 12, 2015

Tenkara using a Crappie Pole

One fairly common question - Can I fish tenkara style with a telescoping crappie pole? Up until now, I’ve been answering - Yes.
It’s how I got started. When I first heard about fly fishing with a fixed length line system several years ago, I decided I wanted to give it a try. I started with a South Bend Black Beauty composite rod/pole I bought at Wal-Mart for $12. Other than being heavier in weight than might be ideal (I could only fish with it for a couple of hours before I got too tired), it cast and fished without problems, I caught a ton of fish using this set up. I will always have a soft spot for this set up, it's what got me started having a great time fly fishing with a then new technique to me.
As I think about it, a truer answer would be – Yes, with the right line. And that might be easier said than done for some folks. I found you needed to use a line that was considerable heavier than a line you might use on an actual tenkara rod. Since I furl my own lines, other than a bit of trial and error, once I find the right combination, the set up was certainly more than capable of delivering and fishing a fly.I found that a permanent connection to the rod tip worked best for me -
I think the question actually being asked is – Is using a crappie pole the cheapest way to fish a fixed length line system? If it requires the purchase of a custom tapered line, which may or may not work, maybe it’s actually cheaper to buy a $50 - $60 true tenkara rod. Coupled with a couple dollars worth of single strand fluorocarbon line, a real tenkara rod may be just as economical. It’s definitely a demonstrably better solution at close to the same price.