Tenkara vs Golden Trout

I, too, have just decided that I want to start fishing with about zero real fishing experience. I just rec'd a 14' rod (Wetfly Tenkara Package from Backcountry.com) I'm leaving at noon to backpack the Bogachiel River in WA. I have this really wimpy, colorless level line. I read/saw Ryan Jordan say something about strike indicators. How far up from the fly does one tie those? I'm thinking I tie a little yarn to a butterfly knot on the tippet about 2' from the fly? I've already tied my tippet to the line which I have threaded on slots cut on a yogurt lid.

Going to learn the hard way, by myself, this trip.

I have 12 flies that came with the pkg. plus I tied a few caddis flies and a killer bugger (TenkaraBum.com)

Thanks.
Jeff

PS
Planning a bent paper clip with ring washers for the line keeper.

Strike idicators will generally be at the tippit/line knot. I use a 2'-6' tippit for most fishing. Orvis made some sticky dots a number of years ago, not sure if they are still available. Hmmmm…Yup: http://www.orvis.com/p/stick-on-oval-indicators/25ac

These ae good for nymphs and really small (like size 22-24) flies. You can stick these over the line, just about anywhere, you don't need the snubbing knot. With Tenkara rods, I doubt you will ever get that small, even a 7" fish can get off without giving him slack.

There are three basic types, plastic/vinyl "bobber" style, foam stickies (velcro or glue) and wool. Wool works best with deeper nymphs. Generall you have three regions to fish: Under water, surface, and surface film. Surface is for dries. The film(about an inch to 2 inches below the surface) is for nymphs/emergers and terrestrials(ants, beetles, etc.) The strike indicator will govern, to a large degree, how deep you fish your fly.

There are no rules to fly fishing. Whatever works is how it is done. Tenkara fishing is Japanese style, simple, no frills, basic. Generally a fly pattern is just something that looks like food to a trout. Few close imitatons work as well as a general atractor. You really have to hunt for larger, more wary trout. They "spook" easily. The head of riffs, at the edge of dropoffs, are good spots. Follow the foam in streams, it will often tell you where feeding lanes are.

I suggest using a tenkara line that is about the length of your rod, before you add the tippet. This seems to be a great "standard" that you can use with most rods. Everything is different because some are stiffer than others. If you're on a big lake, get the longest line you can handle so you have better range.

I use just a couple of flies… mostly dry. I can't reveal my "winner" on the forum because its just so damn successful, but I will tell you that you should get in touch with Chris "kiwi" who ties flies and sells some on Tenkarabum. His flies are excellent quality and tend to yield me the most fish, so far…

In terms of fishing the kebari fly and what to choose for line, I suggest watching the videos on tenkara usa, and reading a lot of the tenkarabum blog. You will get all sorts of info from how to fish the flies to the types of lines. There are many different opinions, but its good to see it all yourself.

The one direct piece of info I can provide that SHOULD be useful to the community is this great site for buying hand made tapered lines/leaders. I personally don't like the ultra light weight of the level lines, especially the thin ones that tenkarabum uses. I only use them in the northeast on very small streams. These are limited to success in very tree-protected streams where you don't have as much wind, or on days when there is literally not even a breeze. They are not easy to cast with anything but the lightest of rods. More like for tanago fishing.

If you're trying to throw a dry fly on an "average" tenkara rod, with a lot of wind resistance on a breezy day, that fine floro level line just won't cut it. I also don't like using traditional thick "western" level lines. They don't cast as well and they seem to spook the fish more, not sure why.

I find that the best lines are furled tapered lines that give the rod a little bit of something to throw. ESPECIALLY when you use a bigger rod, or a smaller stiffer rod like the kiyotaki rods.

Check out this guy's site, I'm sure you'll be impressed. Custom everything, he makes some good lines and they can be made as small as 7 feet long:

http://streamsideleaders.com/

We were high in the Sierra Nevada along the headwaters of the Middle Fork San Joaquin River. One person had the pole, dropped in the line, and had a trout on a salmon egg in six minutes. We aren't sure, but we think that it was a Brook Trout, about nine inches long (because our pan was 7.5 inches in diameter) before gutting. When the pan was hot with olive oil, the frying commenced. The fish never seemed to fry right. The skin never separated from the flesh. After a long while, the flesh seemed to turn into a big orange blob.

What did we do wrong?

–B.G.–

Hard to say Bob.
The skin doesn't necessarily need to separate from the flesh.
Did you try taking a bite to see how well it was cooked?

No, we didn't. The orange blob kind of threw us off.

–B.G.–

I've eaten quite a few 9" brook trout in the high sierra. We just fry them up in a pan (sans head and guts) just like you describe. We tend to have difficulty getting them to cook evenly. They usually curl over and then they don't contact the bottom of the pan evenly. A bit of wrangling with the pan and using a fork to squish the fish down as much as possible seems to do the trick. The uncooked parts tend to be a translucent orange. We use lots of oil and take the pan off the flame frequently to control heat.

Was none of the flesh flakey? or was the orange blob on the indie curl of the fish and just not cooked?

No flakey texture in the flesh.

I don't know what an indie curl is.

The pan had been sizzling hot, but not smoking hot.

–B.G.–

That should had read inside curl. As the spine of the fish curls one way or another, it is hard to get the inside part of the curled fish to contact the pan.

Maybe I should have suggested this. I thought that it would have been better to cut off the head and tail, which would have made it fit the pan better. The fish catcher thought that the skin would have separated away after it got hot enough. It didn't.

Does that mean that, overall, the pan was not hot enough?

–B.G.–

The skin won't come off by itself even when fully cooked. For frying in a pan, it's best to cut the fish into chunks to keep it from curling up from the heat. A little olive oil and 3-4 minutes per side will do the trick.

I've had the skin bubble up a bit, but never had it come off. These are pretty small fish with pretty thin skin. The good news is that the skin is so thin and the scales so small that you can just eat it. I like the idea of chopping the fish into chunks to make it easier to cook.

You should try leaving the head on. You can tell when the meat is done by looking at the fish's eyes. There's also bits of good cheek meat in the fish head (which taste a lot of different since they have strong mouths).

The skin may or may not come off. It depends on how much fat on the fish; they store it in the skin, mostly.

For smaller 7-10" fish, I remove the head and tail, not enough meat to worry about. When frying the fish, I usually cover it with a paper plate. This holds enough steam to cook it. Frying fresh fish is difficult because of the curl. (Caused by muscles contracting.)
Cooking evenly, with frequent flipping (like every 10 seconds) can remove a lot of the curl.Pressing down will break the curl, also. It helps to hold it down to start with.

Generally fish should be well cooked. There is several species of tape worms that live in trout.

Scoring the meat can help with the curling issue also. Just not too deep.

Bob, I can vaguely remember frying up some fish and having an orange blob form on their skin. I don't think I thought much of it at the time and just ate it.
Maybe you could buy a trout from your local grocery store and practice cooking it over your stove and backpacking pan.

If I bought a trout from a local store, it would probably be farm-raised in China.

–B.G.–