By Aaron Motley
Recently, I had a day to go fishing and jogging in Pisgah National Forest. With my supplies packed in a 30-liter pack, I set off on my run. After 45 minutes, I stopped at the confluence of two small streams. I was rewarded with three rainbow trout, the biggest of which was maybe 7 inches. I continued with my jog after packing things up. After another 45 minutes, I stopped at the last place before a step-climb in the trail started. I fished for about two hours, then packed my gear up, and jogged out to my vehicle.
In 4 hours, I had caught 8 fish, missed a few strikes, and jogged 10 miles. One primary reason I could accomplish this was because I was using my Tenkara rod and had two leader options pre-rigged with flies. Using your time efficiently and emphasizing the presentation with a dry fly and dropper, makes for a great wild water set up. Using my pre-rigged leaders, I was able to move up the stream, fishing all the pool and runs that I came upon.
Tenkara can be used in many places, but is most at home on streams that are small to medium in sized with a medium to high stream gradient. Most western North Carolina creeks fall into this category. With the many Tenkara rods out there, there are many good ones, and bad ones. The lengths of the rods vary and based on where you might want to fish, there is a rod best suited for you needs. The way an angler constructs his leader can be dependent on the stream they want to fish, and the rod they are using.
In really tight places, I use 2-3 feet of braided leader or 20 lb Dacron with a tippet ring. Off the tippet ring, run 5x to your dry fly or dry fly with a dropper. As you head up the stream, you will dab the set up in various places that look fishy. In this leader set up, I don’t use more than 6-7 feet of total setup. I also use a 72 inch braided leader with tippet to a dry fly and dropper. This leader is commonly 10-12 feet in length. 5x and 6X are the tippet sizes I use for each leader.
If you have each leader set up on a spool, then these pre-rigged systems make you efficient from start to finish. Dry flies with nymph are the best set up for wild trout fishing in western North Carolina.
Stop in to Hunter Banks fly shop in Asheville or Waynesville to let us help answer your Tenkara questions. You can also look into a guide trip too.
Aaron Motley is Operations Manager at the Waynesville location of Hunter Banks. His waterfowl hunting addictions supports his fly tying addiction. He learned his fly-fishing craft from “fishy” people and pursues large trout, bass, and musky on a daily basis. He teaches others to do the same.