Today’s guest post comes to us from Larry Chandler. Larry is going to give us an introduction to the Tenkara method of fly fishing.

People of the orient have often been depicted as calm, focused individuals in their pursuit of greatness.  Movies, books and legends often describe a man on a mission who has the utmost respect for himself and his adversary as he pushes on his struggle with honor and integrity.  The Tenkara method of fly fishing brings these same qualities to the streams and rivers known to hold beautiful trout, salmon and steelhead.

Rod, Line and  . . . . Hey, where is the reel?

One of the first things that a fly fishing angler will notice about the Tenkara method is the absence of a reel.  Back in the 8^th century Japanese anglers introduced the method of using a rod and line with flies, but no reel.  That tradition is still used among Tenkara enthusiasts to this day.

The rods are normally between 11 and 13 feet long.  A unique kind of braided line is attached right on to the rod’s tip.  The line usually measures the same length as the rod and then a leader of 3 or 4 feet will be attached to the line.

Great for Mountain Streams

If you are the kind of angler that likes to go after trout in small streams and mountain streams then you may really enjoy the Tenkara method.  The same kind of trout flies used by fly fishing enthusiasts can also be used with a Tenkara rod and line.

People that have tried this style of fishing claim that they love the simplicity of the technique.  The long rod allows the angler to keep the line from touching the water.  In addition, with a little practice, you can begin to precisely land your fly in the exact spot where fish are likely to be holding.  The motion used to cast the tippet leader is similar to fly fishing methods, making it easy for experienced anglers to pick up this new style.

Light Rod + Light Line = GREAT Action!

The use of the light rods (about 4 oz.) and the light line means the angler can feel everything.  The slightest movement of the fly can be felt almost instantly.  A strike by almost any sized fish will lead to a fight that you may not have encountered before.

And don’t be afraid that the light tackle is designed only for smaller fish. With the proper amount of play anglers can land brown trout that measure 20” or more.

Since Tenkara rods are telescopic they are perfect for taking along a backpack or hiking trip.  The portability, along with small amount of line and no reel, makes it perfect for the angler that wants to try their hand at any stream which might be holding a trout.  If you want to try something a little more simplistic that involves more of your technique as opposed to the gear, get your hands on a Tenkara setup!

Larry Chandler is a content marketer and writer that is currently working with Salmon River Fishing Guide Kurt Schultz.  When he is not working on the latest project he is out playing with his kids

Description:

Simple, quick and unbelievably productive.  At first, I tied up this pattern using several materials but as time went on, I realized I could leave most of those materials out, helping me tie up more patterns in less time.

Components:

Name: Redd October
Alt Names:  Bloodworm
Hook: Mustad Signature C49S
Thread: Black 8/O
Body: Red Holographic Tinsel
Rib: Gold Wire
Thorax: Black 8/O Thread
Weight: Gold Bead

Tying Instructions:

1. Using a Mustad C49S hook, pinch the barb and place on the gold bead.
2. Tie in your 8/O thread just behind the bead.
3. Place the tip of the gold wire into the head of the bead and tie in down the side of the hook to the bend.
4. Making sure the tag of your red tinsel is the the length of the shaft, tie in the holographic tinsel and bring the thread up behind the bead.
5. Wrap the tinsel using close wrapping turns and tie off behind the bead making sure your wraps are taut.
6. Now wrap the gold wire forward and tie off just behind the bead. Using a twisting motion, break off the wire so there’s no tag left.
7. Using the black thread, form a small tapered thorax behind the bead head and whip finish.
8. Apply Sally Hanson’s Hard As Nails to add more shine and durability.

Fishing Methods:

Keeping your bloodworm pattern within a foot or two off any bottom structure is good strategy as bloodworms will not stray to far from home. Because midge larvae get around by squirming through the water, anglers should give good animation when retrieving their flies. An excellent retrieve when hung under an indicator is two very short but quick strips, then leaving the fly alone to settle back down for a period. This action seems to draw the attention of nearby feeding trout and will often result in hook-ups once the fly is either dropping back down or has settled back to a resting state. With that said, at times no movement is required at all and just leaving your presentation catatonic can produce well. Used as your point fly when nymphing streams has also produced well.

Species Targeted: Trout

Fly Creator: www.albertastillwaters.com, http://www.flyfishingtechniques.co

Submitted By: Mike (Doc) Monteith

Double Shamus Chironomid Fly

The Double Shamus was created by Dan the Irishman’s son, a school teacher from Kamloops, named Shamus Connely. This chironomid pattern is tied using a double tungsten bead. This particular chironomid can be tied in virtually any combination of popular body and ribbing materials. As you will see, this is more of a “style” of chironomid than a “pattern” or “recipe”.

Components:

Hook: Mustad C49S size 8 – 10 or Mustad C53S size 10 – 14

Thread: 8/0 body color.

Rib: Tyers choice. Fine wire or holographic flashabou.

Body: Tyers choice. Red to emulate a blood worm, silver flashabou if you’re tying a “Chromie”, black flashabou, etc… Other popular body colors include olive or lime green, shades of brown, or even grey.

Gills: (optional) White midge gill or antron yarn.

Thorax: Tyers choice. Tying thread or peacock herl.

Head: Two black tungsten beads.

Fishing Methods:

Fish this pattern as you would any other chironomid pattern. Under an indicator, with a floating line or fish vertically with the use of a sinking line. Use a static presentation or a very slow hand-twist retrieve when fishing this pattern. Suspend the pattern one-to-two feet off the bottom and experiment by moving the fly up a foot at a time until you find the “zone”. The chironomid can be fished throughout the open water season.

Comments:

This pattern was introduced to me by Garry Elgear of Riverside Fly & Tackle. The first one that Garry twisted up for me had a holographic black body, peacock herl thorax and a fine red-wire rib and butt. Although usually tied with two black tungsten beads, I have experimented with combining different colors of bead. When tying a “Chromie” I combine a black and white bead. The white bead represents the “gills”. As always, I suggest tying this (or any) chironomid pattern as slim as possible and create a smooth, tapered body. The “key” to this pattern is the double tungsten bead head. Have fun with this pattern and experiment with it. We’d enjoy hearing what you come up with and how it worked for you! (We’ll be sure to pass your fish-tales on to Garry also).

Species Targeted: Rainbow trout

Creator: Shamus Connely, son of Dan the Irishman

Submitted by: Jeff Woods

The Pumpkin Head was created by John Kent originally for fishing in Tunkwa Lake in BC, a highly productive but frequently low visibility lake. Originated as a damsel imitation this fly is a killer all around attractor pattern for searching a new lake or fishing when there is no specific hatch.

Components:

Hook: Size 10-12 Tiemco 2312 or 200R

Thread: 8/0 Olive

Tail: Medium Olive Marabou

Body: Hareline’s Krystal Dub Olive

Hackle: Burnt Orange Grizzly Hackle

Bead: #8 Orange Silver-lined Ceramic

Rib (Optional): 0.010″ Red or Orange Wire

Option #1: tie this fly using orange zebra legs for that extra buggy look

Option #2: add weight to the under body for use in moving water

Fishing Methods:           

The pumpkinhead can be fished in the same way as a traditional wooly bugger or a damsel nymph pattern. It can be cast and retrieved on the end of an intermediate sink tip over drop-offs or on shoals. It can be equally as effective fished under an indicator, especially if there is a light riffle on the water. When fishing under an indicator a slow or quick hand twist retrieve will work. I’ve personally found it to be equally successful trolled as you would a leech pattern.

Comments:       

I was skeptical when my brother brought out this pattern on my very first fly fishing trip. I was a newbie to fly fishing and always assumed that flies needed to emulate an insect. This thing was green with a shiny orange head, certainly not like anything in nature. We were trolling in mid-May in a gin clear lake in the interior of BC. My first rainbow ever on a fly rod was taken with a Pumpkin Head fly pattern. It was an 18” silver bullet which ran on me at least a dozen times (I was fishing an old style click-pawl reel with almost no drag). Needless to say I was hooked and the Pumpkin Head has been a staple in my fly box ever since.

Tie this fly on a heavy hook as takes can be very aggressive!

I know a place where coho salmon love taking olive leeches. I may just need to try the Pumpkin Head and see what happens!

Species Targeted: Rainbow Trout, Brook Trout, Bull Trout, Bass

Creator:  John Kent (Variation on Denny Rickards Stillwater Nymph)

Submitted By:  Rob Woods

My companion had good success swinging the fly, letting it reach full tension in the line and making a big swing into shore. The guy up the beach was using a similar swing using an indicator to watch for strikes. I had the best success casting quartered upstream, mending upstream once or twice and letting the fly drift naturally. I used the end of the fly line as an indicator, setting the hook firmly but not too hard as soon as the tip seemed to do something not quite right. Sometimes it just stopped drifting with the rest of the line, sometimes it just sank a little too quick.

The strikes were anything but exciting. In fact I think I pulled the fly out of a lot of fish mouths early in the day thinking I had a snag. With a bit of experience I set the hook, then held tension on the line for 15 or 20 seconds. Usually my “snag” would wait, wait, then give a few head shakes. The pink salmon didn’t take huge runs or make spectacular jumps. Usually they’d just get in the current and bury their heads like a bull dog. I was glad at that point that my mentor suggested I bring my 8 wt (insert part number). These pinks were mostly males and BIG for pinks. We rarely caught anything under 5 pounds and most were in the 7-8 lb. range. We each landed 6-10 pinks (all but one catch and release) and probably lost as many. This was my first time fishing salmon on the fly and it was a great day.

I’ll always be a trout guy first but I think I’m now a salmon convert as well! Overall it was a great day. We brought my Jeff’s family and their family friends and though not all were fly fishing everyone got into at least one fish. I loved seeing kids hook fish, especially the ones that were new to fishing.As far as gear I was using a Fenwick HMX 8 wt 9’ fly rod with floating line, one to three split shots and I generally stuck entirely to a bright pink Crazy Charlie fly. The other fly fisher, Tom, was also using a Crazy Charlie, with a type 6 sinking line but he was using a little lighter rod, a 9’ 6 wt. Dragonfly fly rod.Stay tuned for the tying recipe for the Crazy Charlie, and gear reviews of the Fenwick HMX and the Dragonfly fly rod. Have fly fishing stories of your own? We’d love to hear from you here, especially if you want to share what gear and flies were working for you.

5 y.o. Jenna Fighting a Pink Salmon on the Fly

Some of the Kids Fishing for Pinks

It's Slimy

Having said all that, I love the Fenwick HMX 8 wt fly rod! I bought this rod on a bit of a “deal” (more on that later) to use primarly for pacific salmon. I’m a west coast guy and even in the interior of BC there aren’t many rainbows that need an 8 weight rod. This rod is for pink salmon, coho, and hopefully the occasional chinook or steelhead taken from a local river.

First, the specs. This particular rod is the HMXF 908-2E , a 9′ / 2 piece 8 weight rod.  This is a fast-tapered, fast-actioned cross-scrim IM7 (stiff, moderatly fast action) graphite rod. It has chrome plated stainless steel guides paired with the DPL frame guide with TiCH insert. For me the only downside to the specs is that the HMX line of fly rods comes with a 5 year warranty while rods of comparible price can frequently be found with lifetime warranties.

I found the rod extremely easy to cast both for distance and for the short roll casts we were using when targeting pinks. The line flows nicely through the guides and strips nice and smooth. I’m a novice caster but when I gave it to an experienced friend to try ii actually took him a while to get used to how easy the rod is to cast. He kept overpowered his casts until he got used to how much less effort it took to cast even a moderate quality floating line. I know that I was able to cast for pretty much 6 hours with few breaks and while I was tired, my arm certainly wasn’t ready to fall off at the end of the day.

The first trip out we were targeting pinks, which may seem like overkill but the pink salmon running on the Mamquam River (near Sqaumish, BC) in 2011 were monsters a far as pinks go. Pinks may average 2 – 5 lbs but these were all easily 5 – 8 lbs and running in farily fast water. I was lucky to be running a 12 lb salmon leader as fishing buddies running 8 lb kept getting broken off. The pinks would take lightly, and then bulldog down to the bottom in fast current and stick hard. I’m glad I had the 8 wt as some of them really needed to be horsed in. The rod that was crisp when casting still gave me plenty of spring when hauling on those stubborn pinks.

The next trip out was on the famed Vedder River targeting Coho. Again, the sensitivity of the rod was great for sensing hook ups and still forgiving enough that when an excited newbie like me sets the hook with a bit too much enthusism it doesn’t rip the hook out of the fish’s mouth.

I mentioned price above. While Fenwick’s MSRP on this rod is around $185 I’ve seen it anywhere from $120 online to $174 in retail stores. I’ve seen it compared favorably to $400 to $500 rods. It’s generally sold complete with a really nice (though a bit heavy) brown cordura case embroidered with the Fenwick logo and HMX name. As far as what I paid for it, eat your hearts out… I got super lucky to win an auction on eBay for a brand new rod, for $28.51!

I’d recommend this rod to anyone from a beginner to an experienced fly angler who’s looking for a rod to target fish in the 5 – 20 lb range.

The fly in fly-fishing is ‘copies of insects’ as Mary Orvis Marbury put it over a hundred years ago. It is an artificial lure to tempt the fish. Lure differs from the bait; bait is natural insects or aquatic animals, usually eaten by the fish. Typically, if you are using artificial lure, you are fly fishing. It is a favorite technique of sports fishing; you can catch largemouth bass, smallmouth bass, salmon, trout, and most other fish types, with this method.

In the earlier days, lure was made of tinsel, mohair or just a bit of silk. Nowadays, lures are made out of soft plastic, shiny metal or similar material. Why does the fish bother to swallow the lure? Because it thinks, that lure is food; and therefore, the lure must very effectively mimic the natural prey: in size, color and shape. ‘Best lure catches the most fish’ is the fly-fishing mantra.

Choose the appropriate size and shape based on where you are going to fish. In managed fishing ponds, smaller flies suffice since the fish too are smaller and lazier. The wild ones, in rivers and the sea, will ‘bite’ only if the fly is big enough. Online fly-fishing websites fly fishing stores, and clubs are good sources of information on fly types.

Fly fishing techniques and tackle have evolved into a kind of ‘flow chart. Each of the steps, each item of the gear is interdependent. It is a classic case of saying ‘the fly chooses the rod, the rod chooses the fly.’

Fly rods are classified by weight of the fly line that can be cast properly with the particular rod. Lightweight rods are 2-3 wt, medium fly-fishing rods are 4 to 5 wt and 6 to 14 wt are the heavy ones. The 5- 6-wt range rod is the most versatile of the lot, as it can be used to catch anything bigger than the smallest and smaller than the largest of the trout. Once you graduate to be a pro, 9-14 wt is helpful to fight the steelhead and salmon.

Learn the various techniques of tying the lure to the hook; clinch, nail, Albright, barrel, and surgeon’s knots are a few types. Then again, each fly fishing angler has his or her own favorite. Superior binding threads help to bind the ‘bass worm’ or lure securely.

Get good quality gaffs, glow beads, fish scales, fishing clothing and hats, jig heads, and the other tackle. Quality of each of these items contributes its own effective technique for success in Fly Fishing. If you consider these tips fly fishing will be fun.

Today’s guest post comes to us from David Jose. David is a vastly experienced writer. He often writes about Fly Fishing. He has a great understanding about Trout Fishing and deep sea fishing. He writes frequently for sites and magazines including Trout Unlimited. 

Originated by Gordon Fraser, a UK fly tier in the early 1980s The Booby fly pattern has rapidly gained popularity worldwide. It’s certainly a non-traditional pattern and has an amazing bobbing and weaving action in the water. The pattern presented here is an attractor type patterns but any number of natural patterns can be tied with the bulbous eyes that give this fly its name. For those who are wondering, yes, the name Booby originated from the slightly childish comparison to a well-endowed woman.

Components:

Hook: Mustad R-50-94480

Thread: 6/0 Hot Orange

Tail: Hot Orange Marabou

Body: Hot Orange Crystal Chenille

Eyes: Medium While Booby Eye Foam or other closed cell white foam

Wing case: Hot Orange Marabou with Gold SuperFlash or Flashabou

Fishing Methods:           

Fish the Booby with a full sink line with a short 3-4′ leader. Let the fly line settle on the bottom and the buoyant fly will suspend several inches above the bottom. You can either wait for a cruising trout to come near the fly or just start your retrieve as soon as the line settles. Either strip the fly in with short 4-6″ pulls or use a 8-12″ strip, pause, strip pause motion. As an alternative this can be fished with a clear intermediate or even floating line as a surface pattern either on its own or as the lead fly on a hopper / dropper set up.  You can also try this fly in a variety of colors whether a bright attractor color like orange or chartreuse or natural colors as a bait fish (white) or damselfly or dragon pattern. Avoid the temptation to tie this on a long hook due to the length of the pattern. The hook length should be 1/3 to 1/2 the overall length. I haven’t tried it yet but this fall I’m going to try some Booby-ized dragon patterns with natural colored eyes. Brown or black permanent felt pens work well and going with a smaller eye pattern should make for a “buggy” look while helping keep the fly up off the bottom a few inches. While this fly has been rarely known to catch fish on slow streams and rivers it is virtually exclusively a cast and retrieve stillwater fly pattern.

Comments:       

Avoid the temptation to tie this on a long hook due to the length of the pattern. The hook length should be 1/3 to 1/2 the overall length. I haven’t tried it yet but this fall I’m going to try some Booby-ized dragon patterns with natural colored eyes. Brown or black permanent felt pens work well and going with a smaller eye pattern should make for a “buggy” look while helping keep the fly up off the bottom a few inches.

Species Targeted: Trout, Bass, Carp

Creator:  Gordon Fraser

Submitted By:  Rob Woods