Next steps...

My partner in this, Steven Denault, fishes a Hera style Rod in the Tenkara tradition using Sakasa Kebari flies. I'll let Steven explain what all these Japanese terms mean in a separate post. A number of influences have me housebound, the main being an unseasonal heat wave coupled with flood stages on my home river, the Assiniboine. Anyway, this tenkara has piqued my interest and the result is several days of research. I had read that someone  used a 4wt rod as a sustitute for an actual tenkara rod so on went the lightbulb... I've got a  9' 4wt rod.

Three size 12 Tenkara flies of the sakasa kebari type (Reverse hackle fly)

 I tied a few of those flies in size 12, made up a fly line of 10 lb test line with a 2 lb Tippet,attached it to my 4 wt fly rod tip and walked down to the river to try it out. Something was wrong; the "fly line" blew around in the slight breeze, making it difficult to place the fly where I wished. Back to the drawing board. I was encouraged though; I had seen 1/2 dozen larger minnows in the shallows and a large carp cruised by only a few feet away. A bit of further research revealed the problem. My leader was too thin. More searching revealed a whole new world of Tenkara fly lines, level lines and furled lines. Next step is to build a proper fly line. I found a number of helpful forum and blog posts which I'll share next.