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By Anthony Naples, on November 15th, 2011
This past Sunday my father and I hit Yellow Creek in Bedford County Pennsylvania for some trout fishing. We considered a trip for Lake Erie steelhead but I was anxious to try out the new AMAGO tenkara rod from Tenkara USA. Also, wanted to give the new Tenkara USA 13-ft traditional line a workout, try out the new L.L. Bean Gray Ghost Studded, Rubber-Soled wading boots, and fish a new (to me) fly pattern. I had a full slate of tasks – oh and I wanted to relax and enjoy some fishing too.
Tenkara USA Amago: The Amago is a 13.5 ft rod. It’s the second longest rod offered by Tenkara USA, only the Ito is longer. The Amago is rated as a 6:4 action (a “medium” action rating on the Tenkara Action Index) – I don’t have enough experience with enough rods to comment on the relative action too much – but I’ll say that I found the Amago to have plenty of backbone. Unfortunately I didn’t hook into any huge fish, but it handled some 14-inchers with no problem at all, bringing them in quickly.  I found that it cast both the new heavier, Tenkara USA Traditional furled line and a fluorocarbon level line with ease (more on lines later). The Amago is a beautiful rod. The unadulterated black matte finish is perfect – all rods should be matte black in my opinion. When I unpacked the rod at home for the first time and extended it to its 13.5-ft length I had to laugh – that’s a long rod. However, on the stream I was glad for the extra length. I have to agree with those that say to choose the longest rod that you can use on any particular stream. However, if the streams that you fish have a lot of over-hanging trees, then a 13.5-ft rod will likely be too long. Yellow Creek, in the area that I fished, is a medium sized stream, maybe 40 feet across on average, with mature trees lining the banks, with very few low-hanging branches over the stream. It’s a perfect tenkara stream and the 13.5-ft Amago matched the stream very nicely.
I do have one complaint about the Amago though – the grip design. The Amago is a long rod, and I found that the grip design did not work for me as well as I’d like. The Amago has a relatively small grip diameter, and except for the end, it is pretty much an un-contoured design.  Maybe other anglers will have a different experience, but I found that the small diameter and flat profile did not fit my hand well and by the end of the day I was suffering from some hand fatigue. I couldn’t seem to find a hand position that allowed my index finger to rest along the grip (see pic to right), and the result was that I had to squeeze the grip more tightly. I believe that the Amago would benefit from a larger diameter, more contoured grip, like a reverse half-wells grip, similar to the Iwana II series.
In conclusion, the Amago makes a nice addition to my tenkara rod quiver. Because of it’s length, I would call the Amago a “specialist”, not as versatile as a 12-ft rod. Unless you fish larger, mostly wide-open streams I’m not sure I’d recommend the Amago as your sole tenkara rod. If you’re looking to expand your selection to a big-fish, big-stream rod then I would surely recommend the Amago. That said, I’m in the process of investigated ways to modify the grip to fit my hand better. I’m thinking of wrapping with leather or neoprene to create a larger diameter contoured grip.
Tenkara USA Traditonal Line (new version): Recently Tenkara USA changed up the design on their traditional tenkara lines. They are made of a new material (kevlar I believe – don’t quote me though). The new line is supple and very visible (which can be a good thing when tenkara fishing). On this day I fished the Amago with the 13-ft line (it comes in a 10.5-ft version too). So how does it perform? Well, this was only my second outing with the line – but I think my decision is in. First the good. The line is highly visible, and casts very easily with little effort. I had a little wind and it handled it well (I still haven’t fished it in very windy conditions though). As a major plus it does not get all hinky and uncoiled when snagged. If you’ve fished the older Tenkara USA lines or other furled leaders or lines you know what I mean. The new line doesn’t have any problems like that.  Now the bad. The line is heavy. In tenkara fishing it is desirable to be able to keep the entire line off of the water at a distance. Light lines are easier to keep off the water at longer distances. But light lines are harder to cast, especially with wind. Achieving a perfect line design is a is a balancing between these two opposing goals. This line is tilted a little to far to the heavy end for me. I found it very difficult to fish at a distance. I would cast out, lift my arm high to keep the line off of the water and the line would tend to drag back toward me. I just couldn’t fish at a distance. Secondly, the line sinks pretty rapidly. In some circumstances, such as with overhanging trees, you may not be able to keep the rod high enough to keep the line off of the water. In these cases I find that I like a line that floats (like nylon level line or a floating furled line) or doesn’t sink too quickly (fluoro isn’t too bad). This new line sinks pretty rapidly. And that combined with it’s high visibilty makes for fish spooking in my opinion. So for my fishing preferences and fishing locales this line is just not ideal. And on this day my fishing success was much greater with a fluorocarbon level line. This line’s going into the pack to be reserved for windy days.
  L.L.Bean Gray Ghost Wading Boots: The Gray Ghost wading boot by L.L.Bean is a rubber-soled boot. I have the studded version ($139), but you can get it without studs too($119). I don’t have too much to say except that I love these boots. I have no complaints. They are comfortable, light and most importantly I didn’t slip once even on mossy rocks and other slick substrates. The look well made – but only time will tell how they hold up.
Purple flies and my “One-fly”: That’s right purple. I’m not sure where I first heard tale of purple wet flies, probably it was with the Snipe and Purple traditional soft-hackle. Here’s a good video from Davie McPhail on tying this. With respect to tenkara flies the first time I heard it mentioned was probably by ERiK Ostrander of TenkaraGuides. ERiK ties a fly that he calls the Purple Haze Kebari (watch him tie it). This is where I got the inspiration for my purple kebari, which is essentially the same thing except that I used purple Pearsall’s Gossamer silk thread instead of sewing thread as ERiK does.  So does it work? Well, all day long there was a sparse hatch of tiny (maybe size 26) BWO’s coming off and in one big pool (see the pic at the top of the post), there were some fish taking emergers (they were pretty much ignoring the floating duns). I took a few on tiny emerger patterns and then figured I’d give the purple kebari a try. In short order I brought two more sippers to hand on a size 16 purple kebari, even during BWO hatch activity – make of it what you will. 
However, the real winner of the day, and I’d have to say, the year was the good old brown-hackle peacock wetfly. My version is basically a classic wetfly pattern – however most other dressings have a tag of red wool or red hackle tips – I use a brown hackle-tip tail in mine. I’ve been using this simple pattern as my go-to tenkara “one-fly” for the past two seasons and it has been very productive for me. I generally use them in size 12 through 16. Many tenkara fishers in Japan have a signature fly pattern that they fish almost exclusively – I am officially declaring my signature fly the brown-hackle peacock.
The pattern is simply:
- brown rooster hackle tail
- peacock body
- gold wire rib
- brown hen-hackle collar
- tied on a heavy wet-fly hook.
Disclosure: I bought the Tenkara USA Amago and Traditional lines at a slight discount from retail. I purchased the L.L. Bean wading boots at full retail.
By Anthony Naples, on October 21st, 2011
A little while ago I headed to a small stream in my little corner of the world (Southwestern Pennsylvania). This brook is a vassal stream of the mighty Youghiogheny River. The Youghiogheny or Yough (pronounced Yock) begins in West Virgina then flows north through western Maryland and continues northwesterly to join the Monongahela River southwest of Pittsburgh. It is generally believed that the Yough got its name from a native American term meaning “A Stream which flows in a contrary direction”. I think that’s a great name for a river – and I can relate to it, as I often feel like I’m traveling in a contrary direction compared to those around me.
So I parked in the lot, grabbed my stuff, 11-ft Tenkara USA Iwana, small fishing waist pack, larger pack for lunch and coffee thermos, and headed off down the trail full of expectations. The air was filled with the scent of pine and fallen leaves, so different than the suburbs. Often I exit my house to be confronted by a smell like burning brakes. I think this is from the steel plant over the hill – but I can’t be positive. Smells are so integral to our experience and so evocative and yet so often overlooked when we consider our experiences. When I think of the time that I lived in Maine I think of two smells – the sweet, astringent aroma of balsam and the slightly corrupted smell of ocean aerosols and lowtides. Other smells evoke other times and places.
Eventually I could hear the stream off to my right and down in a small valley. I could hear it but it was totally obscured by hopelessly, monstrously tangled rhododendron – the kind of rhododendron thicket that has you crawling on your hands and knees, praying that the snakes and bears are indeed more scared of you than you are of them. It was going to be tough fishing. The first bridge crossing that I came to revealed two anglers wading midstream – well that’s one way to tackle the brush I guess – but I hate to wade these types of streams at any time and especially in the fall, you know spawning trout and all. I don’t want to sound too judgemental and high-minded on this point though as some may question whether I should have been fishing at all at this time of the year – well that is a fair question, and frankly I have mixed feelings. I don’t do it so very often and I figure my impact is pretty small in the grand scheme – but nonetheless…at least I was not trampling all through the stream (maybe just a rationalization on my part). So with this section of the stream accounted for I moved on upstream to give the others some room.
Finally I found a few openings that I could navigate a bit easier. Now came the challenge – casting an 11-ft rod in tight brush. Easier said than done. Approaching the stream close enough to cast was a clumsy, crawling, scrambling over things, affair. Finally getting to the stream side I had no confidence that I didn’t spook every fish within 50 feet. So I would sort of weave the rod out over the stream and using a bow-and-arrow cast send the fly to the water (hopefully). Success was not forthcoming. I’m pretty sure that snagging the low-hanging branches and the subsequent shaking to free the fly was not helping in the stealth department. As expected this was tough going but fun anyway.
A little further on I finally found a spot where the stream spilled into a “large” pool and the canopy opened enough to allow a short-stroked side-arm cast of sorts. Still not easy but better. Crawling up to the stream and casting I finally found success on a size 14 Parachute Adams – a beautiful resplendent male brookie in full fall array. That’s what it’s all about. Certainly not the largest trout I’ve caught – but ranking right up there on the satisfaction scale.
The celebration didn’t last long. Somewhere in the landing of the fish I managed to snap the second segment of the tenkara rod. Kneeling down I had laid the rod across my thighs and, I think, my elbow came down on the rod to break it. Total user error – I want to make clear – not equipment failure. So that was the little bit of fishing that I was allowed that day, oh well it was a nice spot to sit for lunch anyway. As a footnote Tenkara USA has an easy system for getting the rod repaired. You can order the replacement parts online (for a very small fee), and so within a few days I was back in business for a lot less $$ and time than many other rod warranty deals, which usually require you to send the rod back.
By Anthony Naples, on May 13th, 2011
 Prior to the trip two days ago it had been a few weeks since I was last on the water. Things have finally settled down weather-wise a little bit. I know rain is a good thing for the most part, but the rain has made spring fishing a bit difficult here in PA (a small inconvenience in the grand scheme of things). Streams have been flowing high – while spirits may have been sagging. Nature has a way of doing her own thing, in spite of our wishes. Most likely With the perspective afforded by time and space, in the late summer, we will look back longingly at this weather and then fold our hands and pray for rain. I have been reminded this spring that if you are a person who stakes his happiness on the whims of weather and bugs and of fish then you are indeed bound to be disappointed a great deal of the time. For these things take no notice of men and if they do occasionally consent to align themselves just so, and provide a sublime day of perfect fishing, do not confuse this with obeisance or even acknowledgement.
The weather was beautiful however, and the stream, Yellow Creek in Bedford County, Pennsylvania was in good shape. Perhaps it was flowing higher and faster than I would have it, but eminently fishable. I’m reminded of a story that I heard. A man was in a diner eating breakfast and he liked to have ample sugar in his morning coffee. Glancing at the sugar shaker he saw that level was getting low. So rather than risk running out he waved the waitress over and asked for more sugar. The waitress looked at the sugar and then said “Honey, before I bring you more sugar you got to stir the sugar that you got.” And so looking at the stream, which was not perfect, I decided to stir the sugar that I had.
I was going tenkara for this trip – which is now my go to small stream mode these days. The rod of choice was the new Iwana Series II 11-ft from Tenkara USA. This is a sweet rod, light and easy to cast. I miss the reach of a 12-ft rod a little, but when fishing under overhanging trees, the 11-ft rod is a little easier to keep out of the branches. Speaking of which, I started fishing tenkara with furled lines but have since switched to level lines. I couldn’t stand the way the furled lines became all hinky after being pulled from an over hanging branch. The line that I had on during this trip was Tenkara USA #3.5 level line. According the T-USA website the #3.5 line is a fluorocarbon line approximately equivalent to 12-lb line. I will say that the clear line can be difficult to get used to. There are two problems with the clear line: 1) it’s hard to see where the line ends and the tippet begins. Therefore it’s hard to know exactly how much tippet is subsurface; 2) it’s just plain hard to see the line. This leads to problems with casting accuracy (if you can’t see your line very well then you don’t know where your cast is hitting the water) and strike detection. I like to watch the portion of my leader where it enters the water for any hesitation that indicates a strike, if I can’t see it i can’t do that. The solution that I used on this trip was to attach an 18″ section of hi-vis yellow mono to the end of my line before the tippet. This solution worked out pretty well. I could see my casts a little better and when I cast I could lift the rod until I saw the yellow and I knew exactly where the tippet began and I could also watch the yellow section for strikes. Well enough of the technical detail…
Bugs were fluttering around the stream – little black stones, black caddis, orange craneflies – but the fish were not in evidence. There were only a few surface rises that I saw. So I went subsurface with a tandem of a soft-hackle dropper and size 16 shop-vac point fly. The shop-vac was the winner. I began picking up fish on the shop-vac right away. I don’t prefer the tenkara set-up for dredging the bottoms of deep pools and runs so I concentrated on the heads of the pools and on the pocket water above. Nice fish came to hand from water that many folks walk past or walk through or stand in to cast to the pools.
I am a pocket water addict. Fishing pocket water is what heaven might be like. The rushing sound of it creates a cozy nest of white noise to compete with the static and rush of the world. Moving along step by step, each step a challenge in the current and the ankle breaking rocks, each step a tactical decision and a small victory. Pocket water is full of possibilities, the fish can be anywhere. The water is so full of soft-spots where a fish can sit and wait and then tilt a fin, move a few inches and suck a bug in. And the depth is nice too – not too deep, not too shallow. A well-fished size 16 bead head sinks nicely and doesn’t snag up too often, but gets deep enough to matter. Add to the pocket water a tenkara rod and now you’ve got it made.
The shop-vac has been a good producer for me this spring. I’ve used it here on Yellow Creek and on Spring Creek with good results. It makes a nice tenkara fly in my opinion. It is not too heavy, but just heavy enough and the slim profile sinks quickly (especially when powered in with a nice tuck cast). The white antron tuft is, I believe, a great attraction to the fish. I like to tie them both with and without tails. I believe the shop-vac was created by the folks at Blue Ribbon Flies in West Yellowstone.
The shop-vac was my magic fly. The problem with magic flies is that they always run out, especially if they’re nymphs. Magic is fleeting and hard to contain. Sometimes we are the aerial that attracts the magic and for a brief time we are the king of the stream, catching fish when nobody else is (no that that matters to us high-brow fly anglers), but then we lose the last magic fly…and then what? The problem for me when a fly is working so well is that when I have run out of that fly I can’t decide what to put on next. I put on this then that then another thing, then panic sets in and I lose all confidence and just go through the motions casting with no heart and no conviction, telling myself that I need to go home and tie more size 16 shop-vacs! And then…finally a fish takes pity and eats another fly, in this case it’s a fly I call the big-fat caddis. I tied them up to match a hideously fat and juicy looking caddis larva that I found on the Yampa at Stagecoach.
I think it looks pretty realistic when wet and a couple of fish thought so too. It’s basically just bunny fur with gold ribbing and a head of dark brown dyed bunny with some hares mask mixed in for legginess. After ribbing with the tinsel rough it up a little.
I don’t really like snakes all that much. This little fellow can swimming down the current in a hair-raising way that snakes have. He hit the bank and immediately climbed a tree. Creepy. So now I need to watch out for snakes, on the bank, in the water and in the trees. Great. It was just a black rat snake – so, not dangerous. But if that thing had come down the stream toward me while I was in the water…well it wouldn’t have been pretty.
I ended the day in the same spot that I started and picked up another on a size 18 black midge pupa. All in all a fun day on the stream. Conditions were not good for traditional tenkara flies – but the western flies stepped in and saved the day. East and west working together.
By Anthony Naples, on October 26th, 2010
If you find yourself in the Cache la Poudre canyon area and you want to do something a little different, check out Joe Wright Creek and Joe Wright Reservoir for some grayling fishing. This past August I was fortunate enough to be in the area and I did just that. It was actually a big surprise. My fishing buddy and I had hiked into a back country lake to do some fishing for native Greenback Cuts (the bite was not on). I didn’t see a single fish, my friend managed one nice specimen though. However the trip yielded some fruit when another fisherman asked whether we had tried Joe Wright Creek and Joe Wright Reservoir for grayling yet. Well, we hadn’t. Needless to say we hiked it on down to Joe Wright Creek and, jackpot.
It was some fast and furious fishing. The grayling in the small stream rose to dries readily and you could pretty much expect a hit from every fish that you cast over. It was a lot of fun – and the novelty of catching grayling (which I had never done before) made it all that much more fun. We worked our way downstream to the reservoir and hooked up with some more fish at the inlet. There was even an occasional cut thrown in for good measure.
Joe Wright Creek flows into and out of Joe Wright Reservoir which is about 33 miles east of Walden, Colorado on CO-14. The stretch of the creek where we caught grayling is above the reservoir and it’s not very long. I wouldn’t go out of my way for the grayling, but if you’re in the area to fish the Poudre. It makes a nice little diversion.
By Anthony Naples, on September 16th, 2010
 Elk River This past August on a trip to Colorado I fished the Elk River, a tributary to the Yampa. I was impressed with the river. Colorado just seems to be a place where the trout fishing is endless. Sure, you hear about the big name rivers, but they can get crowded, however if you head a little off the beaten path you can fish alone. I’m not even talking about, hiking it in, just head to some of those places that you don’t read about in all the magazines. The Elk is a clear and beautiful freestone river. It tumbles along over cobbles and boulders with a nice gradient, creating beautiful pools and pockets on the way. But be aware – the wading is tough, don’t forget the wading staff. Those smooth, round rocks can be tough to navigate.
The fishing was outstanding. Brooks, browns and cuts (and even some huge whitefish) were much in evidence. And best of all, there was no reason to fish underneath, fish rose readily to big stimulators. On this trip to Colorado I fished almost exclusively dries – not because I’m a dry-fly snob, but just because there’s nothing like it. When there’s enough room to roam a little, hiking along, casting big attractors is just too much fun. Would you catch more fishing deep? Maybe, but I just don’t enjoy that as much these days (of course I will if I have to).
I fished a new tenkara rod that my buddy brought all the way from Japan (it’s a Kenpo SE 360). It served me well on the Elk, landing fish on a Tenkara rod is much easier than you would imagine. The limber rod protects light tippets very well. I fished a 12-ft line with about 4-ft of tippet on the 12-ft rod. This made it just a little tricky to net the fish, ideally a long handled net would make it a bit easier, but all of the long handled nets I’ve found so far are just way too big. If you have any net suggestions send them my way.
 Elk River
By Anthony Naples, on January 3rd, 2010
Well – reading Trout Fishing in America by Richard Brautigan has inspired me (see review in previous post Here). The hard thing about any creative pursuit is the idea that you must press forward, onward into new territory. If you want to be taken seriously then you need to come up with something of your own – to merely be a good writer, painter, photographer, etc. is not good enough – you need to find a new way to express the human condition.
Luckily for me I don’t need to be taken seriously – so I can unabashedly emulate (without even being ironic). Richard Brautigan invented a perfectly good wheel – and I’m going to use attempt to use it to get where I want to go (maybe not very successfully). So please indulge me with a flight of fancy as I explore my inner Trout Fishing in America with a Brautiganesque Fishing Report from this past summer (2009).
The Dream Stream: South Platte River below Spinney Reservoir, Colorado
August 14, 2009
We arrive at the parking lot. We are two men full of trout. Skulls like aquariums – fish looking out onto dry land through our eyes. There are some other anglers there in the parking lot. They squint and lean on their trucks like empty beer cans. I don’t ask how the fishing is because beer cans don’t usually talk – and when they do it’s garbage that you don’t want to hear.
We put on our waders, sort through fly-boxes and string up the rods. More anglers appear in the parking lot like weeds pushing through the gravel – some are coming, some are going. But nobody’s talking. The sky is blue but with the whispered promise of bad weather. Birds of prey circle and occasionally dive. The mountains in the distance remain judgmental. Maybe it’s just me but I get the feeling that they can tell that I’m not from these parts.
I learned to fly fish in central Pennsylvania. The streams there like to hide themselves discreetly in narrow wooded valleys. This stream was not so shy, she lay among the dry grass out where everyone could see her for miles around, twisting in restless dreams.
Thinking about the way that stream looked now, months later, I reach into my pocket, pull out a bit of string and toss it onto the table top. In memories the streams that I have fished are made up of these bits and pieces from my pockets.
We finally leave the parking lot and walk to the stream. This moment before fishing is the best part. When I come to a new stream – it is not yet written in my book. Everything is possible – the bends, the riffles, the pools are all pregnant mothers. I am an expectant, anxious father full of hope.
As we walk to the stream the sky decides it will rain on us. I don’t have a raincoat with me – so I unfurl the thin plastic rain poncho that I stashed earlier (hoping that I wouldn’t need it). Hopefully nobody will notice that I’m wearing a plastic bag. Maybe it will be good for fishing, maybe the fish will think that I’m just a plastic bag rolling by in the wind.
We stop at the first good looking stretch that we come to. Here the stream curls out of an oxbow, hurries though a shallow riffle and into a deep run. Pretty as a picture, like a trout stream in a catalog. You know the fish are there.
One tiny fish and several hours later we walk back to the car. It turns out that the moment just before fishing was the best part of the trip.
By Anthony Naples, on December 1st, 2009
Well, a while back I ordered a Tenkara Fly Rod from TenkaraUSA . I went with the Ebisu 12-ft rod. The Ebisu is a medium weight rod with a unique Pine Wood grip.
I’m sure most everyone has learned about the Tenkara fly fishing style by now – I published a post previuosly with a nice Tenkara write-up done by Chris Stewart. The post was called Tenkara Fly Fishing?. Chris does a great job of describing and explaining Tenkara. So I won’t attempt to repeat it all here. The TenkaraUSA website is also a great resource with articles, videos and an active forum.
Briefly though; a Tenkara rod is a telescoping fly rod, (usually longer than a typical fly rod) and it uses no reel. The line is simply attached to the end of the rod. And yes – you do cast, you don’t just dap.
I decided to go to a small northwest PA wild trout stream. This particular little stream tumbles along at the bottom of it’s own steep-sided valley, forming a series of shallow runs and occasional deep pools.
The steep hill-sides, boulders and deadfalls make traveling a little treacherous. There are trout here – but on this day the water is low, the terrain makes stealth difficult and I’m trying to use a 12-ft fly rod. This was perhaps not the best place to try the new Tenkara rod. If you ever want to remember what it felt like when you first started fly fishing then take a 12-ft fly rod out on a small brushy stream.
So how was the Tenkara? Well…it was the first trip so I can’t say too much. Here are a few thoughts though. Firstly, When you have the space, you can cast wonderfully with a Tenkara rod. The casting stroke is different than regular fly rod – and I haven’t perfected it – but after a bit, I was doing okay and casting with a some accuracy. Secondly, and contrary to what I had thought, the Tenkara rod is not great for dapping – in fact a regular fly rod is better for this. The reason is that with a Tenkara rod you cannot reel in the line to change its length. To really dap effectively you would have to change the line from the 10-ft line to something more like 4-ft or so. This could be done, but I wouldn’t want to have to change back and forth between the long line and the dapping line as I moved along the stream. As a fly-fisherman, you need to be aware of your surroundings. As a Tenkara fly-fisherman you need to be even more aware. Casting a 12-ft rod, in a wooded environment can be tricky – you really need to look above and behind you to avoid constant hang-ups. Hook-sets can be tricky too – a flick of the wrist, with a 12-ft rod, can send you rod tip into the overhanging branches pretty fast.
So what about the fish catching? I’d love to report on all the trout that I caught, but as fate would have it…But I did catch a beautiful Creek Chub. I never thought I’d post a picture of a chub on my fly fishing blog. But it was my first fish on a Tenkara rod. So here it is.
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I found that it cast both the new heavier, Tenkara USA Traditional furled line and a fluorocarbon level line with ease (more on lines later). The Amago is a beautiful rod. The unadulterated black matte finish is perfect – all rods should be matte black in my opinion. When I unpacked the rod at home for the first time and extended it to its 13.5-ft length I had to laugh – that’s a long rod. However, on the stream I was glad for the extra length. I have to agree with those that say to choose the longest rod that you can use on any particular stream. However, if the streams that you fish have a lot of over-hanging trees, then a 13.5-ft rod will likely be too long. Yellow Creek, in the area that I fished, is a medium sized stream, maybe 40 feet across on average, with mature trees lining the banks, with very few low-hanging branches over the stream. It’s a perfect tenkara stream and the 13.5-ft Amago matched the stream very nicely.
Maybe other anglers will have a different experience, but I found that the small diameter and flat profile did not fit my hand well and by the end of the day I was suffering from some hand fatigue. I couldn’t seem to find a hand position that allowed my index finger to rest along the grip (see pic to right), and the result was that I had to squeeze the grip more tightly. I believe that the Amago would benefit from a larger diameter, more contoured grip, like a reverse half-wells grip, similar to the Iwana II series.
Now the bad. The line is heavy. In tenkara fishing it is desirable to be able to keep the entire line off of the water at a distance. Light lines are easier to keep off the water at longer distances. But light lines are harder to cast, especially with wind. Achieving a perfect line design is a is a balancing between these two opposing goals. This line is tilted a little to far to the heavy end for me. I found it very difficult to fish at a distance. I would cast out, lift my arm high to keep the line off of the water and the line would tend to drag back toward me. I just couldn’t fish at a distance. Secondly, the line sinks pretty rapidly. In some circumstances, such as with overhanging trees, you may not be able to keep the rod high enough to keep the line off of the water. In these cases I find that I like a line that floats (like nylon level line or a floating furled line) or doesn’t sink too quickly (fluoro isn’t too bad). This new line sinks pretty rapidly. And that combined with it’s high visibilty makes for fish spooking in my opinion. So for my fishing preferences and fishing locales this line is just not ideal. And on this day my fishing success was much greater with a fluorocarbon level line. This line’s going into the pack to be reserved for windy days.
L.L.Bean Gray Ghost Wading Boots: The Gray Ghost wading boot by L.L.Bean is a rubber-soled boot. I have the studded version ($139), but you can get it without studs too($119). I don’t have too much to say except that I love these boots. I have no complaints. They are comfortable, light and most importantly I didn’t slip once even on mossy rocks and other slick substrates. The look well made – but only time will tell how they hold up.
So does it work? Well, all day long there was a sparse hatch of tiny (maybe size 26) BWO’s coming off and in one big pool (see the pic at the top of the post), there were some fish taking emergers (they were pretty much ignoring the floating duns). I took a few on tiny emerger patterns and then figured I’d give the purple kebari a try. In short order I brought two more sippers to hand on a size 16 purple kebari, even during BWO hatch activity – make of it what you will. 
