With all the local trout streams low and clear, this was a good weekend for some tenkara bass fishing. In the late morning, I hit the ponds at South Platte Park, where I had caught by first tenkara bass just a couple of weeks ago and it didn’t let me down!
I explored some of the smaller ponds this time and landed some nice smallmouth and largemouth bass, though not as big as the last time I was there.
Ironically, I started the day fishing my 9 wt. and a Clouser minnow to try and hit the deeper water (plus, I wanted to play with my new Tibor reel). Nada. It wasn’t until after I bumped into Karel from Tenkara on the Fly (who made me feel guilty for fishing with a reel) that I switched to my tenkara rod and started catching fish. Like last time, I fished my Tenkara USA Yamame with a kevlar furled line and 4X tippet with a black bead head wooly bugger. This is becoming my go-to warmwater outfit.
It was a great day at South Platte Park. I’m glad to have such good warmwater fishing close to home! After lunch, a member of my Colorado Tenkara Anglers Facebook group told me about some good fishing even closer (literally about 2 miles from my house) so I just had to check it out. The pond is near an equestrian park and while it isn’t the most scenic place, there were tons of bass. I fished the same black wooly bugger and literally had a fish on every other cast. There was only one problem…they were all this size:
Within half an hour, I had already caught a bunch of these little guys so I decided to try some topwater flies. I noticed a lot of fish feeding on the surface so I tied on a foam hopper pattern, and soon, I was catching fish left and right on the surface. What a blast!
I lost track of how many fish I caught and none of them were lunkers but it was a great day and reminded me of how much fun warmwater fishing can be. I’m sure I did a lot better than I would have if I had gone trout fishing. My only regret is that I wasn’t able to add bluegill to my tenkara species list, but now that I know I’ve got such good fishing right around the corner, I’m sure that will happen soon enough (especially if the flows in the trout streams stay the way they are).
This is incredible! I just finally ordered up the Diawa soyokaze I’ve had my eye for a while now. I went with the 9 foot rod thinking it’ll be strong enough for some warm water bass but will be just soft enough for the small creeks near me. I had my 9 foot 5 weight fly rod out there and it was just overkill for the small fish, can’t wait to see what that rod can really do up against some bass!
It will certainly be strong enough (and loads of fun) for bass the size of the two small ones in Jason’s photos. I’m sure there are quite a few people who will be interested in your reports if (when) you hook fish the size of Jason’s bigger ones (myself included).
I’ve been doing really well chasing bluegill with Tenkara rods this spring. I’ve even landed some bass, pickeral, and some nice crappie this spring. I was getting cocky until my seven year old son kicked my butt this morning with worms and a bobber.
Jason,
Great trip. How do you move the bugger through the water with your Tenkara rod?
Hi Tom. It depends on the water conditions. In the first place I fished the bass were in warm shallow water and were in protection mode. So I put it right in front of them, let it sink to the bottom, and twitched it slowly (about one short twitch per second) like an egg stealing crayfish. They took it out of aggression to protect their nests. I tried other retrieves but they wouldn’t respond to anything fast. In the other pond the retrieve didn’t matter. They took the fly no matter what I did probably because that pond doesn’t have a huge food supply.
Jason
You’ve got my interest piqued for some warm water action when I have less time to drive. Sure looks like a good day you had there, but dont be too dismissive on the low\clear flows right now that we have….had one of my best days this season on Saturday.
A Yamame + wooly bugger = lots of fun with bass…you can’t go wrong.
It is interesting that you started with your 9 wt. and then caught more fish with your Tenkara rod. I have done the same with a spinning rod. I thought the spinning rod would be a better choice for the conditions, but ended up catching more fish with my Amago.
Harold, I was shocked too. I thought more casting distance would help me catch more fish for sure but in this case, it was the opposite. Tenkara never ceases to surprise me.
Looks like a lot of fun Jason. I wish we had some good warm water close by. The closest thing is some small reservoirs that have very tiny catfish….like about 4-6 inches long cats. Might have to give it a try any way some evening.
Cheers,
Paul
Jason,
Do you weight the Buggers you fish with your Yamame?
Fish bass with foam frogs. The only problem is that they tend to hit them harder than 4X tippet likes to handle. 3 1/2 pounds it the largest I’ve been able to land so far.
Hi Bruce, that’s a decent size. Especially on tenkara!
great post.
i, myself, went out yesterday evening for a couple hours and threw a white size 12 popperish fly for so many boils i lost count. i landed 10 or so, mostly bluegill in the palm size range, though i did land a black crappie – which was rad ‘cuz i had no idea they lived in my creek. sadly, the bicketmouths were shy. i used a 400cm rod (which was softer than my yamame…a 6:4 maybe), tenakra usa 13′ furl, and 2’ of 6x. this was my first experience with a rod other than the yamame. the softer and longer rod with the furled line was a whole new level. once i realized i didn’t need to muscle it, i became some sortof meastro and it my baton. tenkara is neat-o, and i cannot wait to get up into the hills with these rods.
a couple questions, aside from buggers and poppers, is there such thing as a traditional warm water tenkara fly? also, do you have a kevlar furled line you recommend or did you furl it yourself?
Hi Mike, sounds like a blast! I typically use the Tenkara USA Kevlar 13 ft curled line but I wish they made them longer.
As far as I know, there is no warmwater Tenkara fly because in Japan, Tenkara anglers only fish for trout. I’ve asked several Japanese anglers about it and all of the said Tenkara is only used for trout (though one admitted that some people might to “goof off”. But that doesn’t mean you can’t or shouldn’t.
Any sakasa kebari will work great for panfish. As you know, woolly buggers work great for bass but you could probably also tie some really big sakasa kebari for bass too.
thanks jason. somehow i missed that the tenkara usa line was kevlar. as for the flies, i have a brand new regal and tools, i’ve taken a couple lessons from a local shop (american fly fishing company), and i’ve purchased a few one fly kits from mr. stewart, but i keep ending up grabbing the rods after work and working on my one-the-water skills. i know i just need to sit down and do it. on the bright side, i’ll be throwing some of your flies soonly.
update: tied my first takayama sakasa kebari (and a mist killer bug) last night. gonna hit the creek this evening and see what happens…
Good luck Mike and let us know how it goes!
well…i got out late and spilled my rubicon red ale all over my pack and since my eyes don’t work so go no more, i used far to much tippet trying to tie up and i only had one boil before i rerigged with a longer tippet and threw a hundred more casts and made the mistake of thinking “just one more” and lost my only takayama sakasa kebari to an underwater stick.
thanks goodness i came home to dale’s pale ale and this:
http://jayesel.net/2011/11/10/recipe-buffalo-chicken-ring/
when i think about life, i think of the immortal words of the great sven hoek, “yah, it’s really good.”
i mean fun, yah it’s really fun…i reckon it’s both…i’ll stop now.
dude, stop lipping your fish that way. it injures them. this has been known for decades. please be more careful. Also, laying them on dry substrates, not good…
Hi Ben,
The only fish I lip are bass, snook, and tarpon (their jaws can handle their own weight). This technique has been proven to actually be better for the fish since it reduces the amount of protective slime removed by handling their bodies and I still think it’s the best practice. I would never lip or (worse) hold fish like trout or char by the gills.
Having said that, I’ll admit that laying a bass on the ground as I did isn’t the best practice since it also removes the slime. To be fair, these were bass from a wastewater treatment facility, so, not exactly the most pristine environment to begin with. I’m not making an excuse, just providing context.
Anyway, the main point is that for certain fish, lipping actually causes less injury than holding their bodies and vice versa. There are a lot of factors to consider too–temperature, length of time, species, etc. So I don’t think it’s a black & white issue. But thanks for your opinion.
Ya’ll have me hooked and I haven’t even ordered my rod yet. Two more weeks and I place my order. My pond is full of big bluegill to the point I’ll cull some this year (1st time) and many bass from 8″ up to more than a few in the 3lb range. I’ve been watching them explode on the dragonflies. My real concern is with a Tenkara rod that there are quite a few big catfish in the pond upwards of 5-7lbs, hopefully the tippet will break quick and save my much dreamed about rod.