Thread: New Tenkara rod

I received my 10’ Goture Red Fox Tenkara rod yesterday and thought I’d give it a try this morning. It’s an inexpensive rod off Amazon.
I’ve read the most popular Tenkara rod length is 12’ .
I fished around the dock and ramp of a close by water reservoir. The fish are usually pretty small around there , but I was wanting to get the feel of the new rod and compare it to my 6’ telescopic rod .
With the six footer , I used a six foot length of main line . I used the running end of a floating fly line . I added about three feet 20# test p-line and three feet of 4# test P-line for a tippet .
Giving me about 18 feet casting distance
I tried the similar thing with the 10 footer and found the ten feet of mono wasn’t easily controlled like with the six footer .
So, a longer rod doesn’t give you as much distance as you would think .
Even with shortening the mono leader and tippet to around six feet , I still didn’t feel like I had the control I do with the shorter rod .
I caught four fish on the ten footer and switched to the six footer .
I guess I’m just a short rod fan . It’s just more fun . It’s like an extension of my arm and accuracy is a lot better .
I caught five on the shorter rod before having to leave .
The way I see it , I only gained about 6-7 feet distance in casting by going to a four foot longer rod . Should have been 12 .

Something interesting happened at the lake today .
There’s four white ducks that hang around the dock .
I noticed every time I caught a little gill , the ducks would swim over quacking like I was going to feed them .
I’ve always been told ducks didn’t eat fish . But have been suspicious.
After having these approach me several times , I tossed a small gill on the shore a few feet from me and those four ducks were all over the gill with one scooping it up and went off to itself to eat it .
I guess they will eat fish . Somebody’s been feeding them small fish or they wouldn’t have been wanting them from me .
Learn something new all the time .

I’ve watched a little video of a guy fishing a very light rod in a creek about 18” wide and catching brookies no more than 6” long, but most shorter. The short tenkara would fit that job well. That’s what came to mind when you began this trip.