Gear thoughts after a Sierra trip

[Pete Staehling]

I had planned to take my Tenkara (11' Fountainhead Caddis) on my JMT hike, but…

On the way out to California, I picked up a 4 wt flyrod (Cabelas Wind River) on sale. On the spur of the moment I decided to use it instead of the Tenkara. It was an OK choice that I did not regret. Base weight remained at about 14 pounds or a bit more despite having a fair amount of extra stuff along.

On hind sight there were some place where a Tenkara rod might have worked better and some where the Wind River was an advantage.

What would have been better? I suspect that my first choice for the creeks I was fishing would be a shorter version of one or the other. So either one of the shortest lightest Tenkara rods available or a short ultralight regular fly rod. I think I would have the most fun and do the best with the regular ultralight fly rod and the weight penalty is really not all that much. Even with the 4 wt rod and reel I still was packed lighter than everyone I met except some guys going for a speed record.

As far as fly selection… The fish didn't seem to care much. I mostly just used an elk hair caddis. I tried a little black ant and the fish may have liked it slightly better, but I had trouble seeing it so I went back to the elk hair caddis.

I caught scores of trout on the trip (maybe 100 or so?). Most were small, a few were decent sized, and a few were tiny. Some places I could take one on every cast for a while.

Fly fishing was new to me so obviously the fishing is good there.

[Greg Mihalik]

What was the length of the Wind River?

How short is a "shorter version"?

"…I think I would have the most fun and do the best with the regular ultralight fly rod…"

For line management, or for other reasons?

Thanks.

[Pete Staehling]

First, bear in mind that I am a complete novice fly fishermen, so take my comments with that in mind. This was my first fly fishing trip and I had a blast catching lots of small trout.

>"What was the length of the Wind River?"
The one I have is the 8'6" 4 wt.

>"How short is a "shorter version?"
For the Wind River they make a 7'6" 4 wt that sound like it would be nice. I might consider a 5' 2 wt rod for the fish and conditions where i was fishing.

>>"…I think I would have the most fun and do the best with the regular ultralight fly rod…"

>"For line management, or for other reasons?"
Yes and also for the ease of making really short casts and even longer ones in really tight conditions. Some of the creeks were really tiny and overgrown.

In actuality I am likely to just continue using the same rod at least for now, but for that one trip if doing it over, picking gear for just that trip, and if I didn't already have the 8'6" 4 wt; I might have gone with a shorter and lighter weight rod.

In any case fly fishing has been great fun so far.

[Greg Mihalik]

Pete –
Thanks for the details and insights.

[Erik Basil]

A Hundred or so? You, are the man! That's killer.

[Pete Staehling]

It was great fun.

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