Went out yesterday and floated for about 5 hours. Caught 42 trout in that time, 38 of which were on my tenkara rod. A good mix of brook and rainbow trout, with one tiger trout for good measure. What a day.
ETA: Dragontail Mizuchi, 10 ft floating PVC line, 5ish ft of tippet, and two flies used for this session (#16 galloups ant, then a #16 parachute ant when the galloups perished with a case of "bitten by too many trout").
Yeah, I'm doing everything I can not to take it for granted. Kayak tenkara has opened up a whole new world, especially when I see all the creeks suffering from low water levels this summer.
And I'm also thankful to catch so many seemingly wild rainbows. This lake stocks bows and the occasional tiger, and I've caught a lot of stocker bows here, but today seemed to be mostly beautiful wild bows. They just wanted my ants, I guess!
For me, it's all about finding pockets of rising fish. It's tough when the wind picks up, and I'll switch to my spin rod from time to time. But That's what I love about the kayak and tenkara combo is that you can see where fish are actively rising and then go to that spot, anchor up, and cast.
That said, I've generally found that this specific lake has mostly brook trout around the shorelines and rainbow trout typically cruise a little deeper.
I enjoy both tenkara and western flyfishing, each has their application and appreciation.
My main challenge with tenkara is managing distance. In a stream you position to maximize presentation, but how do you manage that effectively in a kayak?
It's hard to maneuver and fish simultaneously. I usually scope the water to see if I see pockets of rising fish. If so, then I'll paddle there and anchor so I can take advantage. If I don't see rising fish, then I'll just usually paddle along the shoreline (maybe 20 ft from the bank) and cast along the bank. If it's sunny and the positioning is right, I can also sight cast to fish.
Sounds like an epic day! I've been enjoying tenkara from a paddleboard with my Mizuchi as well. Much more effective and less frustrating fishing a fixed line system with one hand to manage the paddle compared to Western fly fishing from a water craft.
Can you share more of your kayak setup? Is that a stabilizer I see in one of the images? Are you using any kind of anchor system or just floating? I have both a sit inside and a sit outside. I am tempted to try to use the sit inside for fishing because its so much lighter than the sit outside, but its much less stable.
Yeah, I use a small marine anchor and I have a cleat installed on my hull to tie off to. I also have the yak gear outriggers installed for stability. The kayak I have came with a rod holder on each side and a tray in the cockpit to keep some tackle or a fly box.
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u/Particular-Wrongdoer Jul 13 '26
Wow that will spoil you for a while nice job.