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Czech nymphing with a tenkara rod

5K views 19 replies 15 participants last post by  longputt 
#1 ·
Just wondering if anyone has tried this? Pros and cons?
 
#5 ·
Hickory stick, plus kite string is recommended for czech nymphing. If you add a cork float you can do "regular" nymphing as well. Of course, it is always better to do it while not wearing shoes, but wearing a straw hat, bib overalls, and chewing a piece of hay
 
#6 ·
Multiple weighted nymphs don't cast well with a tenkara rod. I mean, casting a mono-rig with multiple nymphs isn't the greatest either. But it's better than with the floppy tenkara.

That said, I'm no tenkara expert (or for that matter, a czech nymph expert). I just ended up with a Tenkara rod and use it from time to time for a change of pace.
 
#7 ·
You can try it if you want, but the tenkara action is not suited or designed for any kind of euro-style nymphing. It is designed to throw a light limp leader and an unweighted fly. You also don't need a nymphing fly line at all. The competition fly lines are solely designed to stay legal in competition (you have to have a fly line of a certain thickness on your reel).

If you are euro-curious, and want to get into "czech" nymphing, just use the mono rig on your 9' 5wt until you decide on if you like it or not. Then you can buy a rod more suited to throwing weighted flies with a long-ass leader. A super long mono leader with weigted nymphs on a 5wt is a better approximation of euro nymphing than using a tenkara rod. It's not as ideal as a purpose built euro-stick, but it definitely gets the job done.

https://troutbitten.com/2016/02/03/the-mono-rig-and-why-fly-line-sucks/
 
#8 ·
It seems to make sense, when I read the book "Dynamic Nymphing" by George Daniel, there were many parts about casting just leader, where it seemed to be Tenkara fishing with a line and reel in the way. Actually most Tenkara rods are too soft and floppy to handle tungsten beads and hook sets in deep water. It is a good way to break a rod.

That said, there are some rods out there which are terrific. Fortunately, one of the best is also one of the cheapest and most compact, the Diawa Keiru-X series (formerly Kiyose sf series). Here is a write -up on them

https://www.tenkarabum.com/daiwa-keiryu-x.html

I keep one in my pack, rigged with a striped sighter and a couple of tungsten nymphs. When I'm working a stream with my usual dry-dropper set up and come to a really deep pool, I pull it out and drift the bottom. It takes just seconds to telescope out and has caught a zillion fish. Then I continue on, without having had to change flies.

A few years ago I tried the Euro-nymph game, bought an 11' 3wt, and took a class. That rod was a club and I couldn't use it very long. Plus the aesthetics of fishing were lacking. I have since sold that rod, and just use my Diawa when it really is the best way to go.
 
#9 ·
When I fish mountain streams I will occasionally rig up a double beadhead nymph rig and high-stick it. My tenkara leaders are 10-12' braided that terminate in a tippet ring. I just add 3-4' of 4 fluoro - works like a charm. You don't really need a sighter with this setup because the braided leader is colored and you can see where it ends. The takes are usually felt and not seen.
 
#12 ·
That is a nice rod, Skip, the kind of rod which makes small streams with little wild trout a lot of fun. However, that is also the type of rod which won't work for Czech nymphing. Far too soft and delicate. There are some of the Daiwa Kiyose SF's on ebay at the moment for $78. You need both rods, one for drys and little fish, one for weighted nymphs!
 
#13 ·
In my mind, the pros are you get a super long light rod that and can get some terrific drifts with it. The downside is that casting large tungesten flies will be a pain, but like Swimy said, it's not that fun casting with a euro rod either, but you can haul the line so that gives you a bit more control over your cast if you need that extra punch. Another downside is dealing with wind. Generally, if you have an upstream wind you can shorten the line (reel it up), keep your rod low to the water, and put a generous downstream angle on it to combat the wind. (Upstream wind I just put an indicator on) With a tenkara rod it's a bit more of a pain to adjust the line and length of everything. Extreme is having to cut back the level line or throw a shorter line on. Not the end of the world, but a bit more of a pain.

Here are some good articles on it:

http://www.tenkaratimes.com/tenkara...-techniques/euro-nymph-hybrids/czech-nymphing

https://www.tenkarabum.com/american-tenkara-techniques.html
 
#14 · (Edited)
The British guys who created the Discover Tenkara video and printed tutorials show how similar Tenkara is to French nymphing. I've fished weighted nymphs quite a bit with my 13 foot moderate/mid-flex (6:4) DRAGONTail Hydra 390Z rod. On my first Tenkara outing last spring I landed the largest fish I've ever caught on the Deschutes with a bead head Antron sakasa sow bug Kebari and a downstream manipulation/pulsing against the current (Gyaku-biki). For weighted dual nymph rigs, a better choice might be a Keiryu rod that is designed for use with split shot and live bait.
 
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#17 ·
I get nymphing. But why put a name on it. Czech, Euro, French. Shit, it 's just Nymphing . We are in America. Lets call it all American Nymphing. Isn't Czech nymphing with a rod and a reel. Tenkara is with a long ass rod with a short piece of fly line with a short piece of tippet and a fly. Hell you can do this all with a willow stick. Maybe I'll just go hide under a log someplace and rethink fly fishing.
 
#20 ·
This thread is one of the reasons I'm not fan of "fly-fishing" only regulations. This all sounds like an effective and productive way to fish but mono-lines and drop-shot style weighting seems like the line between fly-fishing and gear fishing is pretty blurry, to me.

As a kid in the 1960s we used to jerk bull-trout (we called them Dollies) out from behind rocks using a fly-rod, less than 8 feet of mono-line, a split shot and an unweighted salmon fly nymph. We had a reel but normally we just stumbled downstream to land the fish because any more line would have gotten caught on something.

I guess we were Czech-Euro-French-nymphing and didn't know it. We did not call it fly-fishing back then.
 
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