Iwana on the River Calder

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Iwana on the River Calder

by Ian Robertson
(Newton-Le-Willows England)

I took my Iwana on it's first visit to the River Calder, which flows of the Penines in Lancashire, England. The river was out of sorts and as I haven't used the Iwana much I was struggling at first but I got into the hang of it and caught a few fish, up to 3/4lb but all on nymphs as the fish were not rising and not coming to the Tenkara type flies I had tied. But the presentation that I could achieved was far superior than with my 8ft cane rod I usually used.

As our season ends this week on Friday 30th I will only have one other chance to fish for Trout, but I can fish for Grayling until next March. So I hope to improve my technique and work out the best length of leader to use. I have a problem as to the best length of tippet to use as I had difficulty landing my fish. Has anybody any advice for me?
Ian.R

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Iwana on the River Calder

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Sep 26, 2011
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Line/tippet length.
by: TenkaraBum

I would start with a line length equal to the length of the rod, plus a tippet of about 3.5 feet (from one outstretched hand to the opposite shoulder). You will need to grab the line to bring the fish in close enough to net it. If you fish with a line/tippet short enough to net the fish directly, you will have to be extremely stealthy.

Sep 27, 2011
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Line length
by: Anonymous

Hi Ian,
I've fished tenkara a lot over the last 10 months.

I like a total line + tippet length of about the same as the rod or even slightly shorter. For overgrown streams I use a 12' Iwana. For Czech nymphing I set this up with a 7' line of 12lb copolymer attached to a 1' length of bright yellow or orange braid (backing line) & a 4' tippet of 4 or 5x Stroft. For dry fly I prefer a 9' #3 parallel fluoro orange fluorocarbon line (as supplied by Tenkarabum) with 3' of 7, 6 or 5x tippet depending on fly size & fish size.

On big rivers & on a recent trip to Austria's alpine streams I use a 13.5' Amago & use a 10' #3 fluorocarbon parallel line plus 3' of tippet. With a total length of 13' I can hold all the line & virtually all the tippet off the water when dry fly fishing. In Austria I had well over 400 fish on the tenkara, all on dry flies (mostly size 10 Klinkhamers).

A line slightly shorter than the rod makes it much easier to land fish without too much messing about hand lining & also aids control when playing a lively fish which runs towards you.

Hope this is of help.
Dave Southall

Sep 27, 2011
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Lenngth of tippet
by: Ian.R

Thanks for the information about tippet length and line it is very helpful, that sounded like a terrific trip to Austria.

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Iwana on the River Calder

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Iwana on the River Calder