Is Tenkara fly fishing?

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terryhillman
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Is Tenkara fly fishing?

Post by terryhillman »

Hi,

The other day I was fishing in southwest Virginia swining soft hackle flies with my Ito and was catching a fair number of fish and suddenly a game warden appeared and asked for my fishing liscence, which I gave him. Then the interesting part to this story, he informed me that this area was a fly fishing only area, which I told him I was aware of, and he asked me to please leave the area because I was in violoation of the fly fishing only regulation. I tried to explain the Tenkara rod, etc. but was getting no where with him and packed up and left. Has anyone else had an experience similar to this?

Please help.
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howl
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Re: Is Tenkara fly fishing?

Post by howl »

They ain't got Bream Busters in VA?
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Re: Is Tenkara fly fishing?

Post by tracker 6 »

I'd call fish & game and have someone explain why it isn't .
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coconut
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Re: Is Tenkara fly fishing?

Post by coconut »

I had never heard of that kind of rod. Watched video on it and definitely looks like a fly rod to me.
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GLS
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Re: Is Tenkara fly fishing?

Post by GLS »

Yes,it's fly fishing.No point in arguing with the gw. Fly fishing is defined as a fishing sport with a fly on one end of a line cast by a rod held by a snob. I'd report the incident up the chain of command so that no one else will have the issue. While not fishing, a buddy got escorted off a military reservation by a federal warden for hunting turkeys with a .410. The head of the department was miffed and got the issue straightened out with the warden who was wrong. .410 was expressly permitted in the regs but my buddy didn't have a copy available at the time to show the warden. Gil
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CamoMan4025
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Re: Is Tenkara fly fishing?

Post by CamoMan4025 »

Well, it looks like a fly rod to me also!
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Re: Is Tenkara fly fishing?

Post by guesswho »

Just sounds like a fancy name for a fly rod to me. I’d have never known the difference, still don’t.
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Re: Is Tenkara fly fishing?

Post by Hognutz »

Is fly fishing determined by the rod or the bait?
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decoykrvr
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Re: Is Tenkara fly fishing?

Post by decoykrvr »

The Game Warden is an idiot!!! As a little kid, my dad started me"fly fishing" w/ a 10' cane pole, 16' of attached fly line,no reel and 6' of monofilament and a few wet hackle flies with which I pocket fished and around rocks. I was Tenkara fishing before Tenkara existed, but so did a lot of other folks in the Southern Appalachian Mountains. One of the best, most successful fly fisherman I ever knew used a fly rod, but usually a slight variation of my original rig, especially in the high mountain streams. When I asked Eddy George, a fly fishing legend who had developed and tied a number of famous patterns ie. George's Nymph, about the older gentleman's success w/ his cane pole and handful of nymphs, Eddy said, "Have you ever seen anyone have their fly in the water more than him. That's where the fish are!" Which is why a Tenkara style of fly fishing is so effective.
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Southern Sportsman
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Re: Is Tenkara fly fishing?

Post by Southern Sportsman »

I assume you were fishing in southern West Virginia? Or southwest Virginia? I’d never heard of that type of rod either so I looked it up. I also looked up the regulations. I only found “fly fishing only” regulations for West Virginia. They state that, for fly fishing only areas, “Only conventional fly fishing tackle may be used.” Problem is, they don’t define “conventional fly fishing tackle” anywhere. Which leaves too much room for interpretation and debate.

It’s a similar rod and basically the same concept as a normal fly rod setup (at least to my ignorant understanding) - so I’m with you. But if I wanted to play devil’s advocate, I’d say it’s not a traditional fly rod. It’s collapsable, doesn’t have a reel system, and is advertised as being an easier alternative to traditional fly fishing - so, it’s not “conventional fly fishing tackle.” But I also think that would be equivalent to telling a recurve bow hunter he’s not using “traditional archery equipment” because long bows pre-date recurves.

Interesting to note, this is apparently a hot debate in some circles.

https://www.tenkarausa.com/forum/viewto ... =21&t=2596

https://dailygazette.com/article/2012/0 ... FlyFishing

https://www.tenkarabum.com/fly-fishing-only.html

https://www.tenkaratalk.com/2013/02/why ... ly-waters/

https://www.washingtonflyfishing.com/fo ... ds/104031/
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Re: Is Tenkara fly fishing?

Post by GLS »

What's a "conventional" flyrod? Split Tonkin Cane or fiberglass and graphite? 8' -9' but not 10" as are are being made today? Lee Wulff once caught an Atlantic Salmon on film caught without a rod, but on a fly cast with the line in his hand and reel in his pocket.
Last edited by GLS on August 4th, 2020, 6:21 pm, edited 2 times in total.
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Re: Is Tenkara fly fishing?

Post by GLS »

x
coconut
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Re: Is Tenkara fly fishing?

Post by coconut »

Now I want one of them fancy Cane poles.
decoykrvr
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Re: Is Tenkara fly fishing?

Post by decoykrvr »

About 60 years ago, I was approached by a Game Warden on a "fly only stream" in a National Forest while using my cane pole rig to check on my "bait" and creel. I proudly showed him my box of flies which I had hand-tied as a nine-year-old over the winter with my Knoll's Fly Tying Kit which I had gotten for Christmas. The Game Warden commented on my "original" cane rod and followed me up the stream watching me catch and release several small trout. In the 60's, we had an opening day for trout season, and I can still remember the anticipation for the opener and the pride of catching trout on my first flies, primarily brown or black hackled, green chenille, w/ a red or yellow mallard quill tail. Thousands of tied flies later, I still have the box w/ my original flies, and I'll guarantee that they will still catch fish. The "fly only tackle" regs were implemented to preclude the use of spinning tackle w/ a bubble/fly combo which is not fly fishing. As I said in my earlier post, the Tenkara style of fly fishing has been used since the advent of the sport and can be so effective that the use of non-dry flies, ie. nymphs and soft-hackled flies are banned on some streams. While fly fishing on a chalk stream in England, I had a Stream-Keeper check my boxes and point out the flies in my possession, primarily emergers, which were "not legal" and I had to assure him that they would remain in my boxes to preclude confiscation.
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