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Although my ambitions are to keep me west to complete the WNTC, I do hope to someday go out east to catch native Brook Trout. I really enjoyed hearing about the experience. The pass that Anthony is referring to is called Teton Pass in Wyoming. Good luck on your trip to Yellowstone Matt. Fortunately, there are plenty of places to stay semi public in the eyes of safety, regardless of bears. I fished Yellowstone once. One of my all-time favorite experiences. I’m hoping to go back this year myself to complete the cutt slam. there’s no better place to catch the Yellowstone cutthroat!
I can see that in nymping to set the hook at every end of the drift. I set the hook on what I thought was a snag on a branch and it was a large rainbow. I lost it because I was thinking it was a snag and lost tension. Sad to lose the fish! Though it was a great lesson in learning.
I would have enjoyed hearing a bit more about why small mouth are his first love. I also would be interested in technique for landing larger and stronger fish with tenkara. I appreciated the info on line, and the persistence of a white wooly bugger as an effective fly.
unwritten rules of humanity dont walk behind someones ass when they are fishing give everyone space in a big ass forest .... people are npc zombies in general nowadays.
Whenever someone talks about "unwritten rules" I remember the reason why they are unwritten: they are not rules, they are shit people make up in their head. (Apart from the picking up trash, I'm with you on that one)
When I have these encounters (similar to the one you described), I must admit, it can be difficult to exercise patience. Thus far, I haven't had any interactions go south. It's almost always the case that the offending person/people are clueless, very casual, novice fishermen who view fishing as a purely social activity and don't care if they catch fish. I have to remind myself that most people don't take fishing as seriously as I do, and that's ok. I also remind myself that these people could be at home getting drunk or high, but instead, they're outside doing something healthy. When my spot is invaded by these "newbies", I choose to look at it as a chance to challenge myself and explore new territory. I have found some of my best spots and made some of my best catches by simply moving away from the encroachers 🙂
Anyone who hates on a squirmy wormy ends up owning a few 😂😂. To be completely honest, I’ve never even thought about fishing one, but I hear everybody hate on them 😂. Great episode. Slowly chipping away at it. Anthony, coincidentally I just fished a hopper dropper rig (next weeks video) for the first time via tenkara. Some of that resonated with me. Mike you may have the perfect radio/podcast voice. Great work guys. Can’t wait for my road trip this weekend to finish the episode.
Had a similar experience to Anthony this weekend. Last weekend it was colder, but there were bugs everywhere. Cutcliffe dibbing was working. This weekend, it was warmer, but the fishing had regressed back to March, Small BWO's and Midges. So who the heck knows why, but well...nature is a fickle thing.
Regarding Anthony’s initial monologue, I always use the golf game analogy. Some days you have “it” and some days you don’t. You use the same set of knowledge and skills and seemingly can’t hit the broad side of a barn, even though the day prior you were throwing darts. Now throw in the facts of a creek system being far more complex than a golf course and the holes not having independent brains and subject to feeding urges, spooking, etc. It’s a great conceptual help in managing expectations.
So, true it's such a complex system with so many moving parts. Sometimes I'm amazed I ever catch a fish ! Since we recorded this I've continued to experience the inexplicable daily changes. I've definitely greatly reduced my expectations as to accurately predicting successful conditions.
A curiosity question, please: how does one end up with penny ratings that come out to half-a penny? And, asking out of curiosity again: why does the U.S. Tenkara community use metric system for describing rods? Oh, and a compliment. I finally understand what RFI means in terms of my evaluating rod action. Thank you.
Good questions! I don't want to speak for Tom, but I'd guess there's a certain point the rod is supposed to flex to to be exactly 1/3 the length. Remove one penny and it doesn't flex enough, add one penny and it flexes past the point. 0.5 pennies rating is born... Adoption of metric is probably a carry over from the way Japanese rods are rated. Plus, 300cm sounds nicer than 9.8 feet. Personally, I think smart US companies should use both to maximize the marketability into Canada or beyond. personally, I appreciate it when companies print both measurements on their rods like Tenkara USA does. (~Mike)
This episode underscores the benefit of carrying along both a Tenkara and Keiryu rod on an outing. Attention given to Keiryu techniques was also highlighted and appreciated, as it certainly paid off for Mr.Montejano. Admiration of his personal best catch. Thank you .
Many thanks, as this thrilling Alaskan Tenkara adventure was very rewarding to the listening viewer. The experience was well crafted and so exciting to follow along side one mans Alaskan Tenkara fishing journey!!! A wonderful episode, well appreciated.
good question ! I haven't seen any on-stream demos on this particular style - but haven't looked real hard. If you find any good ones let us know. Jonathan needs to make us some!
My question is about setting the hook. Which direction do you set the hook? Do you pull the tip of the rod straight up- to the side etc.? What is your techniques? Of course what you usually hear out there is that you are pulling the hook out of the fish's mouth as opposed to an upstream presentation. What is your experience?
When fishing downstream I definitely miss fish especially the further downstream I’m angled (and they definitely miss the fly completely sometimes too). But I feel a surprising number do a pretty good job of hooking themselves without much effort on my part. I guess when setting hooks I do a fairly gently sideways lift in the direction the fly was swinging , as much as that’s possible. If that makes sense. Maybe Jonathan will chime in with some advice too.
Nice podcast thank you. Swinging flies is a fun way to fish, love the aggressive strikes. Unless I missed it, which rods do you guys prefer for swinging wets?
Jonathan mentions that he likes rods in the 395-400 cm range. Specifically he mentions the Nissin ONI Honryu 395, TBUM 400, Dragontail Ragnarok 400 and Gamakatsu Suimu 4.0. I'd add that for me in generally when I've gone out with wet-fly swinging on my mind I am not all that picky except to say that I don't want a rod that is too soft, if I'm expecting to get fish downstream of my casting position , I want a rod that has decent fish handling capability.
Can it handle tropical saltwater species? Like the milkfish, ladyfish, tarpon, mangrove snapper? And also as well as tropical freshwater species like the snakehead, giant gourami, knife fish, peacock bass, pacu? I'm very interested on the Satoki,and i'm planningvto buy it for a trip to Malaysia & the Philippines. Looks promising as its packable, perfect to pair with my Dragontail Foxfire. But i dunno if its beefy enough to handle them tropical species.
To be perfectly honest, not sure on all the species you mentioned. Tenkara rods aren't really designed for that style of fishing, and anglers that do use them outside of their intended purpose do need to have a good understanding of how to fight a fish using the rod's power curve. That said, you'll see articles of people using them to catch baby tarpon, reasonable size peacock bass, and other species. All we'd say is proceed at your own risk, and reach out to Tenkara USA for more info on the rod for your intended uses. Their customer service is quite responsive. I will say the Satoki is a stout rod, but not the largest, "burliest" tenkara rod out there. There are other options that are significantly "overbuilt" and can probably withstand a bit more non-tenkara abuse than the Satoki.
Great podcast! Last year, I used furled or pvc lines about 50% of the time. I did so because the older I've gotten, the more difficult level line is to see. If I am tight line nymphing, then I am using level line. Bucket list trips would have to be going to the Swiss Alps. The because my father was born there. I've been to Switzerland but never got to fish. A go-to fly would be the Pink Squirrel in 14 or 16.
