Care to Tanago? The Devolution of Fishing

Fishermen and women go through stages in their lifetime; an evolution map charting their delving into the sport. Most are very similar.

You work at catching any fish you can. Then you target specific fish. Trout. Bass. Tarpon. Carp. Then the biggest versions of said chosen fish you can get your greedy little hooks into.

Some will then deviate via the gear. Ultralight. Only fiberglass. Only Dry flies. Shall I shudder and say tandem rigs? Like monkeys into man we walk the span that most fly fishers already have and will tomorrow. It's evolution.

But it looks like there's a growing number of anglers that are devolving.

I've heard whispers around the Internet and read forbidden texts about a style of fishing where it's not the biggest and the baddest but the smallest and humblest that are the quarry.

Tanago.

I first heard of it on a blog post talking about a Daiwa rod that, to my naivety, I thought was a new Tenkara rod. In a way I was right. But then again I couldn't have been more wrong.

This post linked to one by Tenkarabum(TB). After reading that one I was both shocked and befuddled. Did someone really land a blacknosed dace?? 

TB referred to them as minnow rods and I think that is a very apt description. Very soft rods to feel the power of very small fish.

I can see the appeal. Sort of.

The appeal is that these rods open up those waters small enough to step over; with an environment that is just barely friendlier to life than the surface of Mars. Or those waters that you know get stocker trout but have been overfished and only the fingerlings are left.

Waters you wouldn't have given the time of day to you could now court, romance, maybe even love.

But I would worry about getting that one fish on that is to powerful for these petite rods. A fish that can't be controlled could easily be played to the point of a fatality. And I feel that would be the irresponsibility of the fisherman.

But on waters you know couldn't support fish over the certified size of a dink: oh, the fun to be had!

I don't know if I personally am read to dive into this subspecies of Tenkara quite yet. And as for the bait casting version of this; all I can ask is what kind of bait do you use to catch slightly bigger bait?

But I do look forward to seeing if this mentality of fishing works its way out of the shadows and more anglers embrace devolving.

Billy Bass and my Charlton Heston Impressions

As many of you know, I've been working at putting Tenkara and my 2wt through their paces to determine with one comes out to be the Ultimate in Lightweight Fly Fishing.

This isn't about that. Sort of.

Gee, Scobby, don't look like
fish are in there!

I was out on my local stream last night hitting it with the 2wt. I was here the other week with the Tenkara and figured that the 2wt should have a shot at these waters too. Fair is fair.

I'm not getting into what I did, where I did it and who it was with. That would ruin the surprise. This story starts on the way back from the testing.

A horrible day fishing but a great night on the water

I live in SE PA and we have had almost no rain all summer. The last two days it rained all day and put the water levels up a little bit. I thought I'd go out and swing some streamers. I was hoping that the extra-murky water might get some catfish cruising around. I grabbed my 8 wt (which I wanted to dust off before my steelhead trip next month anyway) my reel with sink tip on it, and hand full of streamers and nymphs and went out the door.

Protect your weapon... on the cheap.

I was getting things ready for my Lake Erie steelie trip at the end of next month and realized that I don't have a tube for my rod, just the sock. It's a 4 pc, 9' 8wt from a big-box store.

So I did what I did for a few of my other rods that are shield-less. I made one from PVC!