Thursday, July 25, 2019

Fort Collins Fly Fishing: Tenkara and Tight Line Nymphing

Today's Blog Post


Largest fish of the day




















On July 6, 2019, I assisted team Zen Tenkara at 5280 Angler Fly Fishing Festivus event, held at Boxwood Gulch  This is an annual event and more information is at 5280 Angler Festivus

It was my very first time at Boxwood Gulch, which is private land-water.  My job was assisting 5280 Angler clients, who wished to try Zen Tenkara rods 

Prior to the start, there was some pre-game chatter about fast-high-dirty water, rigging, and which flies to use.  When I fish new water, I utilize the K.I.S.S. principle (i.e., Keep It Simple Stupid).  This translates to fish the conditions and think the following:  
  1. Velocity (CFS) and depth of water
  2.  Length of leader-tippet and weight
Notice how hatch, flies, or other were not part of my pre-game thinking.  With such fast-high-dirty water, the game plan was nothing more than: 

How to get 'meat flies' down as quickly as possible, into their face!

As seen in the above photo, the game plan paid off.  With the Suimenka rod, I set up a non-indicator two fly nymph rig using:  


Anchor Fly: Fast Water Prince Jig
Top Fly: Non-bead pheasant tail

With this very simple rigging and the Suimenka rod, I was happy to see clients catching plenty of big healthy fish.   

Tenkara Lessons?

If you would like to learn how to blend traditional or tight-line nymph fishing with tenkara rod fishing, we offer a 100% customized class, called E.I. Fly 5X

With the 5X class, you tell me what you want to learn and I'll teach you! 

PS.  I had a great experience -- thank you to Zen Tenkara, 5280 Angler, and Boxwood Gulch.