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.
