Fish cards, Tenkara fishing

From Lexi:

and

I started looking for fishing gear thinking that I would fish a little bit when hiking in the backcountry.  Spinning gear & fly fishing gear sit in the house gathering dust.  Unable to find the fly rod I'd bought 20 years ago, I began to shop for a new one--maybe a $20 rod from Big5Sporting Goods.  Then I remembered seeing something about Tenkara fishing on backpackinglight.com .  I read about it online and before I could hold myself back, I had ordered a Wetfly Tenkara Backcountry Package with rod, lines, flies.  I opened that package today.  I'm ready to go fishing.

I went fishing.  Here's my review of that fishing package:
Tenkara fishing is:
1. Japanese fly fishing: a rod, a line, a tippet and a fly. Simple and lightweight.
2. fly fishing without a reel and without the dozens of yards of fly line that would go on reel.
3. fly fishing with a fixed length line which one can quickly change out for different distances and different conditions.
4. fly fishing with a very long, light, telescoping rod with the line attached to the end segment.

5. intimate fishing from 10-30' away.  

6. not magic, it's just fishing.

The good: Wetfly put together a nice outfit.  The package included:

1. A lightweight rod at 3.7 oz.  with a thin nylon sleeve with a tie-down flap closure 
2. A very sturdy rod tube for transporting the rod in a suitcase or duffel bag.  I'd leave it at home or in the car, when going fishing.
3. a level line and a furled line--these are the casting lines, intended to carry the tippet (also included) and the fly forward to land on water. 
4. A pretty bamboo fly box, if a bit heavy at 5.5 oz. with a dozen handsome flies. The included tippet, level line and furled line are wound on spools that can be used to hold different length lines. 
5. You can go fish with what the package contains. 

The not so good:

1. No instructions whatsoever, not even a note indicating where on the Internet to find instructions--it loses a star for that. Simple things such as rod assembly, rod disassembly, rod care, which line attaches to what line, what knots to use and how to cast. I found good information at tenkara websites among them, tenkaratalk, tenkarabum, tenkaratimes, tenkarausa, badgertenkara.  The other Tenkara sites offered information as well as the merchandise at competitive prices.

2. The included "level line" was so insubstantial that it didn't carry a fly very far. The included level line is a nylon monofilament line that is about the same weight as 4-6 lb. test--the included tippet is almost the same weight. The line is also colorless, so one could miss seeing the subtle tugs that indicate a strike. Luckily, the "furled leader" in the kit saved the day, as had enough mass to propel the fly forward. Wetfly calls this furled line a "leader"--they shouldn't. The tippet a thin fishing line that connects the fly to the casting line. The furled line is 10-12 strands of thin nylon monofilament braided to a thickness of about 1/16". I'd take away half a star for the wimpy level line.

I didn't know that much about using a Tenkara rod and didn't know anyone who had one, either.  I put together the kit as detailed on various websites & went fishing, i.e. rod>line>tippet>fly.  The rod was light, but it felt stiff.  Having never cast with another Tenkara road I don't mean stiff compared to other rods, but stiff.  After a couple dozen casts, it felt heavy and I switched hands.  With 11' of level line, a 6' tippet and a wet fly (caddis) I had hoped the fly would hit the water at least 10' past the rod tip.  After multiple casts, the fly landed not 2' beyond the rod tip.  After another 30 min practice, I could cast the fly up to 10' beyond the rod tip, but against the wind the fly might land 1' past the rod tip.  To do that, it took an amazing effort:  an almost violent backcast to 12 o'clock (vertical) and a forceful thrust forward to 2 o'clock.

Next, I paddled my canoe on a local lake, connected the ~12' furled line to the lillian (the lillian is a short ~2" line attached to the rod tip), a tippet and a fly from the package. Casting with this line, I could, with little practice, drop the fly 10-14' away and almost as far into the wind. I could cast using overhead or sidearm techniques, the latter when trees threatened to snag my fly--I could often make the fly hit the water with a splash, attracting fish attention or land lightly on the water to keep from spooking them. I still had a few knotted lines from poor technique, but overall thoroughly enjoyed the fishing. Pikeminnows aggressively struck the fly, once I found the most favorable area to fish.

I discovered on tenkarabum the Common Cents System of measuring and comparing rod flex with other rods. The Wetfly at 41 pennies ranked among the stiffer of the rods in the Common Cents Database which explains the mismatch between the level line and the rod.

Recently, I received a Nissin Pro Square 360, which rates average (17 pennies) in flexibility and can cast a level line. I discovered that the new rod at 2.5 oz did not make my arm sore after 5 minutes as did the 3.7 oz. Wetfly rod.