Firehole Outdoors Sticks Kickstarter Project

For the past many years I have been using competition hooks exclusively. They have been a great addition to my fishing and I am convinced that they play a large part in my fishing success. In competition fishing you are given a section of stream to fish, a length of time to fish it with the number, length, girth of the trout being recorded. It's the opposite of fishing for relaxation. You must know what you are doing, how to read the water and be very efficient in hooking and netting fish. That's where the hook come in.

Nothing against traditional hook designs but I prefer competition designs. They are usually aggressive in the gauge of wire, the profile of the bend and especially in the hook point. Of course, they are all barbless.  Since I switched over to competition hooks in 2013 my hookup rate has gone up.

So it comes as no surprise that I am always on the lookout for high quality competition hooks. I've pretty much used all the available brands: Hends, Hanak, Dohiku, Gamakatsu, Fulling Mill, Tiemco, Umpqua, Orvis, Partridge, and a few others. But one thing that is a turn off, their price. Competition hooks tend to be more expensive.

Looking for good hooks at a good price is a passion of mine. Moonlit Fly Fishing has theirs and they are pretty good especially for the price, but I would like to see some innovative designs and more aggressive points. I'd also like to get rid of the standard 25 hooks per package -- I say, give us more per package. Here's where Kickstarter comes in.  There is a Kickstarter project for an American company, Firehole Outdoors, to design new competition hooks. They call them Firehole Outdoors Sticks and I like what I see so far. Innovative profiles, excellent wire gauge, and aggressive upturned points. All to my liking. And they'll cost $10 USD for a package of 50 hooks, I like that too -- both the cost and the hook count.

I would encourage you to take a look at competition hooks in general as the next step in your tenkara journey, and to look at Firehole Outdoors. If you too like what you see why don't you throw a little money their way and support their project. It should benefit us all!

Disclosure: I have no affiliation, formal or otherwise, with Firehole Outdoors. I just want to get some more good hooks!

Part II of my Sept 19, 2016 outing. Further Upstream.

Here is the video of further upstream when I fished September 19, 2016; the post entitled "Autumn Colors". I had never fished this reach before so I wasn't sure what to expect. Downstream I caught rainbows, cutthroats and brook trout. But on this section I caught mainly brook trout with a couple cutthroats.

Here's the video:

Tenkara Rod Hack -- Two rods from one

If you've got one tenkara rod, you've got two. No, really. You've got two. Most tenkara rods that are available in different lengths have interchangeable parts. What I mean is that you could swap the tip sections of a Nissin Royal Stage 360 7:3 with the tip section of a Nissin Royal Stage 400 7:3 without changing the rod at all. They are the same part.

So it makes (some) sense that if you have a 360 cm tenkara rod and want a 270 cm tenkara rod, all you have to do is take out the upper sections of the 360 and fish with them. I know, I know, the new  "handle" section would be hard to hold, I get it. But what if you could put a handle on that shorter rod? Let me show you how.

First, some disclaimers. Not all tenkara rods are the same. Many rods have a smooth or simple curve under load. These are the best to do this hack with. If your rod has a complex load distribution curve, like a stiff lower and mid section and a very flexible tip section (Gamakatsu Multiflex Suimu 40), then I wouldn't recommend doing this hack with it. It might not be able the distribute the force of a fish properly and break. But if you have a unsophisticated load curve or a "simple" curve then you should be fine. The best rods for this hack are inexpensive entry level rods. Think Tenkara Rod Co. , some of Dragontails rods, etc. Don't get offended by the word inexpensive, they are functional rods but they aren't premium rods.

In this example we'll make a 270 cm rod. You could make a 240 cm or a 310 cm rod , but for now we'll talk about a 270 cm one. OK, take your original rod and remove enough top sections to equal, when extended, 270 cm or there abouts. Now go to MudHole.com and order a 6" EVA Foam Grips (Tapered) (SKU : #TGV-6-1/4 EVA Grip Size: 6" x 1/4"). Also order a Rubber Butt Plug (SKU : #FP-0 Rubber Butt Plugs: 1/4" I.D. x 7/8" O.D.).  These will cost you $2.68 USD (at the time of this writing). Add a little shipping and you have your handle parts.

$3.95 for shipping

The hole of the handle will be a little too small to accept the lower section of the "new" 270 cm rod. You will need to enlarge it. The easiest way to do this is with a rod handle reamer. They are cheap and they will save you a lot of headache. Get the small and medium sizes, that should be enough for this project.

Ream out the handle as needed

My old handle reamers from my rod building days

Now, use the reamers to enlarge the central hole of the handle. Protect your hands with gloves or a cloth. Make the central hole just a little smaller than the diameter of the rod segment. Now slip the handle over the tip of the "bottom" rod segment and slide it down into place. You want there to be some resistance, but not too much. After all, this rod is only temporary. When you want to use your rod at its original full length you will need to remove the handle by sliding it back off.

Make sure when the handle is in place there is a little room in the end to accept the butt cap. Now, as for the butt cap, since you enlarged the hole in the handle the butt cap post will be too small to hold by friction. I used self-fusing silicone tape to make the post larger. Wrap enough of the tape around the post to make it fit with slight resistance into the butt of the handle. The tape is very robust and will not fall off, even if it gets wet, yet you will be able to remove the butt cap when you want to remove your handle. Insert the butt cap into the butt of the handle.

That's it! Now you have a second rod for around $6 USD! I made my Dragontail Shadowfire 360 rod (a great entry level rod, BTW) into a 270 cm small stream rod. It works perfectly. The 270 cm Shadowfire is non-glare and has a great action for fighting fish in tight quarters. I also made a 270 cm from my Allfishingbuy Hirame-ML-3909. This little rod is too soft of action, in my opinion, for most of my small trout streams, but it would make a dandy micro-rod (micro as in fishing for micro fish).

270 cm Hirame

240 cm Shadowfire

So like I said, if you have one rod you have two! I won't use this hack on my Japanese rods, as they are too expensive to risk, but for Chinese made entry level rods this technique is great! Have fun fishing smaller streams!

Autumn Colors

I was able to fish the other day in an area of stunning beauty. The aspen were rich gold, the maples were blazing red and conifers were deep green. To top it off, the sky was deep blue. It was such a beautiful day. As I walked upstream I couldn't help but be struck by the wonder of the place.

I fished two section of the same stream. First I fished lower down, where I normally fish. I caught cutthroats, rainbows and a few brook trout. After about an hour and a half, and after catching enough fish to feel content, I decided to go way upstream to a section I've never fished before. Up there the rainbows were gone but the brook trout and cutthroats still cooperated.

I hope you are able to get out among the autumn splendor where ever you live. Life is too short to miss it!

Here is a video of the lower section. I'll put together the upper section video soon.

Exploring New Waters

I had the chance to get out on the stream yesterday, but I decided I'd go explore a new creek. I found some information regarding this creek a few years ago but I never yet visited it. It's small, and it takes a drive for me to get there, but I wanted to fish it because of the reports of native cutthroats being in the water.

I got to the trailhead a little after 11 AM. The gate was locked but it allowed access for fishing. I was the only one there. I walked up the dirt road for a bit watching the creek and trying to size it up. I had brought with me my Nissin Pro Spec 360 7:3, which is my goto rod for smaller creeks that I'm unfamiliar with. I could see that it might be a little long in spots, but not long enough in others. The typical issue.

After passing a few beaver ponds (I don't usually fish beaver ponds except for the head of the pond where the water is still moving) I came to a picnic area, now closed for the season. I started there.

The creek was small, 6-8 feet wide mostly. I was pleased with the water flows for this time of year. I readily caught 3-4 small cutthroats and one small brown. That's about what I suspected would be in this water.

But minutes later I took a 12 inch brown out of very shallow water. Nice fish! I then took a 13 inch cutthroat. What a beauty! And finally, just upstream from the last fish, I took a 14 inch cutthroat! Really nice fish! On that last fish I couldn't see my line, but I could see the fish come out of the shadows towards the place where the fly should have been. I timed the set to when the fish stopped its forward motion. Got him!

I did bring my camera, so here's the video of the creek and a few of the fish.

I Have Finally Arrived!

I can't believe it, but I have (apparently) finally arrived. I have never considered myself a "traditional tenkarist" or, as some would say, a purist, but I guess I am. You don't believe me? Well, I've got it in writing, on the Internet, so it has to be true!

As some of you know, Zen Fly Fishing has started the journey of making the first designed and made in America tenkara rod. Zen has Paul Vertrees with them and as I have said before, I respect him for his skill, experience, and judgement. He is one of the team who is working on this exciting new project.

Zen has the mandrels now, after much experimentation, and soon they should be getting blanks to test. They will be making the rods to their own specifications, and with Paul on board, I'm sure this rod (or rods) should be really good.

Anyway, back to my coming of age. In their news article about the new made in America rod, Zen mentions me -- well not exactly, but I feel their love. Here is what they say: Our Baichi Rod was also scoffed at. The rod was stiff, short and many “traditional tenkarist” said “Boo” and scrunched up their noses at it. That's me, scrunching up my nose!! I've been labeled a “traditional tenkarist”!! WOW!

I'll be signing autographs later. Peace out!



via GIPHY

In all seriousness, I am excited to see their new rod. Can a startup tenkara company from Colorado outdo the Japanese? We'll see!

One of my favorite blogs

I really like Small Stream Reflections blog. I've never met the author, but I admire how he does his blog. He keeps the blog simple -- no long rantings about this or that. He's prolific -- a new blog post every few days. He's informative -- presenting fly patterns that are sometimes classic and sometimes new. He's not showy -- he seems quite humble and doesn't go for "see how big a fish I caught". And most of all, he fishes streams and creeks that I'd like to fish! It makes no difference that he fishes with traditional equipment; he's obviously very skilled and I admire that.

Most of the fish he catches are brook trout. He lives in New England, where brook trout are natives and wild. Brook trout to me are an invasive species and they are my least favorite fish to catch, but I must admit, they are pretty.

So, following the theme of his blog, here's one of my recent outings:

I ventured out off my usual path and caught a few brook trout in a beautiful small stream. It was a headwater portion of a mountain stream that I frequently fish. This reach of the stream is tough to fish because all the downed trees and the crystal clear water. Most of the fish lie in plunge pools which in turn are under these fallen trees. Getting a fly into these lies and to the fish is very difficult.

I used the Pro Spec 360 7:3 in both length configurations, depending on the need. The water was a cold 44° F, but it felt refreshing.

The redtwig dogwoods were starting to change to their autumn red, but the aspens were still holding on to the green of summer glory.

The fish I caught were all small brook trout, although I have taken cutthroats in this water on previous outings. The brookies fought nobly, but they couldn't resist the pull of the rod. They were starting to change to their autumn colors; bright and colorful. Most were taken under logs and fallen trees. They succumbed to an Oxford wool kebari.

I likely will not be able to fish this reach of the stream again this year, but I'll be back next year. It's tough water, but too fun not to visit on occasion.

Browns and Grandpa

Recently my son got married, moved into a new apartment, and started school for his senior year. I went to visit him and help him do a few chores around the new place, like replace a few electrical receptacles. Afterwards, while he and my new daughter-in-law were in afternoon classes I went fishing.

Since I had only a few hours I drove to the nearest river, got my wet wading gear on and walked downstream. For a weekday afternoon the river was pretty busy. I ran into one guy upstream of where I wanted to fish and two others downstream. They were all fishing western and were fully geared out with waders, vests packed to the hilt, rod/reel and nets. They looked at me as I passed them like I was from another planet -- me with my little chest pack, tenkara rod (nested), collapsible net and wading staff. I looked pretty spartan.

I watched them for a few minutes and didn't see them catch anything, so I found a spot between the two parties and slipped into the water, rigged up in seconds and started casting. On my fifth cast I was into a nice fish. After playing him into the net he turned out to be a 14 inch brown.

One of the flies I fished. 

I worked my way upstream from there and every few minutes I'd be into another fish. Most were in the 12-14 inch range, but a few were 8-10 inches, and one was 16 inches. All were nice healthy browns.

I'm not sure what it is about browns but I really like catching them. Maybe it's because my grandfather used to talk about how hard they are to catch -- how smart they are. He'd talk about catching "german" browns in the same river I was fishing. I love my grandfather; he's been gone for over 30 years now. He was a accomplished fly angler, but he wasn't to proud to fish a "rock roller" when it seemed more appropriate than a fly. He was with me when I caught my first unassisted trout. I inherited all his fly gear and fly tying equipment when he passed.

After a few hours and over a dozen and a half browns I got out and went back to the car. I'm not sure how the other guys fishing the river did, but it was a great outing for me catching browns and thinking about my grandfather.

Thanks Grandpa, I love you!

Daiwa Expert Tenkara L LL36 -- dry review

I recently got my hands on a new Daiwa Expert Tenkara L LL36 tenkara rod. I have been curious about this rod ever since it was released but I haven't been able to test one out. I have a Daiwa Enshou LL36 SF and I love that rod. But I've got so many rods I've decided to sell it (I might regret that someday). I wanted to compare the two tenkara rods and see what is new and what is not.

I'm not sure what it is, but I love Daiwa rods (except the Diawa Tenkara RT, that rod is a dog). I've got tenkara rods from Shimano, Nissin, Tenryu, Sakura, Shimotsuke, Gamakatsu, Oni, and Suntech and they are all very nice, but I really like Daiwa's high end rods. So I was excited to get this rod and test it out. I borrowed the Daiwa Expert Tenkara L LL36, so out of respect for the owner I did not fish it. It's not mine; I didn't want to risk damaging someone else's property.

The Daiwa Expert Tenkara L LL36 is a beautifully simplistic looking rod. No fancy paint colors. No fancy ornamentation, except in one small spot. Even it's rod designation lettering is simple. It's just beautiful in design, balance and action. It doesn't need all the other fluff.

(Left) Enshou LL36 SF.  (Right) Expert L LL36

The finish is glossy and although at first it looks black, it isn't. The coloration is a very subtle brown. This is best seen in bright sunlight. The rod does have a simple silver paint ring on the tipward ends of the lower sections but as far as ornamentation that's about it. The handle section does have a carbon fiber cross hatch section that offsets the simple design of the rod. Also, next to the winding check there is a aquamarine metallic flecked section that has Daiwa's "D" insignia. It's really nicely done!

Outside under the sun.

Blank color: Expert L LL36 (top), Enshou LL36 SF (bottom)

The handle is very good quality cork, is 31 cm long, and is the classic gourd or camel shape. The shape is smooth and refined, without being too extreme in its curves. It's just a little longer than the Enshou LL36 SF handle -- 2 cm longer.

The tip plug is wood with a fluted rubber insert. It, like the rest of the rod, is simple in design but perfect in appearance and function. It fits snugly into the handle section. The butt cap is gold anodized metal, has a coin slot, and rubber bumper. There's no air hole. It too is simple in design. It's rim is a little thicker than the one on the Enshou LL36 SF, but the winding check is thinner.

The lilian is thick brown and much shorter than most tenkara rods. It is attached to the tip section via a micro swivel, which I think is a mistake. I'm not a fan of micro swivels unless they are the ones from Suntech or Gamakatsu. Those company's micro swivels are perfect -- small, don't rattle and just plan perfect. I'm sad to say that although the Daiwa swivel is executed nicely, it's not as perfect as I'd like. Still, the glue joint is very well done and the tip section can be removed through the second section for complete disassembly of the rod.

Measurements and Specifications:

Extended length: 360 cm (on the nose, I might add)
Nested length (with tip plug): 72 cm
Weight (with plastic on the handle but tip plug removed): 79.9 g
CCS/RFI: 14.5 pennies / 4
Maximum tippet: unclear, but likely 4X.

RFI comparison chart

Here is the part I'm going to have trouble with -- describing the action. Let's see what adjectives I can use. How about --  this rod's action is slow, rich, full bodied with an excellent finish. There is no oscillation of the tip, no bounce of the graphite blank.  It does not moan or gripe! It is so pleasing to hold, and its balance it just perfect. In other words, this rod sings!

It casts a #3 fluorocarbon level line flawlessly in a dead calm, but it does fight a little if there is a head wind. This is not a rod for a windy day, IMO. Still, it's casting accuracy is a treat to behold.

So how does it compare to the Enshou LL36 SF? They'er pretty close. The Expert L LL36 is 10.5 cm longer when fully nested, and the handle is a smidge longer as previously explained. They are both wonderful in the hand and a joy to cast. But I must admit, the Expert L LL36 does dampen a little better than the Enshou LL36. Is it enough? You would have to be the judge of that yourself. But this I can say, both are absolute gems of the tenkara rod world. If you fish with either of these rods you would be spoiled!

Conclusion: I really like this rod. I told you, I like Daiwa tenkara rods. Even though it's not manufactured in Japan, it might as well be. It is nearly perfect for tenkara, Japanese tenkara on freestone mountain streams. I don't care for the micro swivel but it's really not much of an issue. This is a great rod!

Want one? You can get one from Chris at TenkaraBum.