More than a Puncher’s Chance

Sometimes fishing can feel so random. One day you feel like you’re on top of the world. The next day you can’t buy a fish. Don’t get me wrong, it’s often “nice to just get out”, though I still want to catch fish and I measure my success based on that catching. I do grade myself on a curve however and I adjust expectations and “success” based on conditions as I see them. I’m not going to let a tough day of fishing ruin my week, but I admit to feeling a bit defeated some days on the water and I start to calculate how much guitar money I could get if I sold all my fishing and fly tying gear.

I recently got obsessed with the Slaid Cleaves song Puncher’s Chance from his album Together through the Dark. I’d never heard the term “puncher’s chance” before. But as soon as I heard it, it resonated with me. Briefly it’s just a way of saying that if you hang in there long enough, despite your failings you’ve got a chance of success. You might get lucky and land that one big punch. That idea just stuck with me for the last few months. It seemed quite apt to fishing when you consider the common greeting that we use when we come across another angler, “Any luck today?”

“And when it came to throwing hands, how that whiskey made me dance, but I never had any more than a puncher’s chance.”

― Slaid Cleaves, Puncher’s Chance from Together through the Dark

How Can We Have More than a Puncher’s Chance?

Well, it’s like that old joke “How do I get to Carnegie Hall?” … “Practice, practice, practice.” There it is … end of story. Good Luck!

Seriously though there is no substitute for time on the water. But it’s not just time on the water. It’s focused time on the water with investigation and experimentation. If you want to make the most of your stream time you’ll need to accept that things happen for a reason. You may not always be able to figure that reason out, but if you’re observant you may sometimes reckon it.

Yeah, but that’s a lot of vague words about nothing very concrete and actionable you might say. What about something that I can actually do?

5 Ways to Instant Tenkara Success!

Please don’t roast me for that heading. Joking of course. But I do think the following ideas can offer a little guidance, especially to newer anglers if they feel overwhelmed by the world of tenkara and fixed-line fly angling.

Author’s note: As I come back to the writing of this article after some delay of a month or so, I am in fact suffering from the after effects of a “bad day” on the water. The easy days of spring here in the eastern U.S. when hatches are prolific and trout are quick to rise to a fly can inflate the angler’s ego and so the tough days of summer when water is low and clear and good hatches are few can just as quickly destroy it. So I offer the advice below as a fellow sojourner along the road rather than any sort of master and I write to remind myself as much as to help my fellow anglers.

1.  Pay attention in general and in particular to “flukes”

We’ve all done it. We catch those “accidental” fish when the line’s dangling downstream and you hook one, or you accidentally skate a fly across the surface and get an explosive strike. Pay attention to those things. That’s the fish sliding into your DMs telling you what it wants. Conditions change constantly and fish can be fickle creatures. What worked yesterday or this morning, or in that pocket water may not work here and now. So if you pick up an “accidental” fish, or any fish for that matter, that’s a big clue to more success.

Pay attention to what you were doing when that fish hit. Was the fly shallow or deep? In the shade or sun? Moving slow or fast or not at all? In slow water or fast water? I have had many trips when the fish were not playing by my rules, and it was only when I picked up a fish in an unexpected way, or in an unexpected place, and then repeated that “accident” that I started catching fish.

Here’s a concrete example. I was fishing in the Wisconsin Driftless and not having much luck. All the “fishiest” water was coming up empty. I was wading up stream and just doing this thing that I do sometimes where I keep the line in the air as I walk, by doing some lazy aerial ovals and I let the fly fall in a riffle that was inches deep. Fish on. And that was the key. I fished the shallow riffles with great success. Why were the fish were hanging in shallow riffles. I could speculate, but it would be guessing. At any rate small flies fished in the riffles got it done.

2. Cast again … and again ….

In the tenkara world we are blessed with an inherently stealthy system. Those light lines and delicate presentations that they make possible are a godsend, making repeated casts to an area more feasible without spooking fish compared with the heavier lines of conventional rod and reel fishing. You can take advantage of this.

I can go a little overboard, but I will cast, and re-cast, and cast again until I get just the cast and drift that I want. For one thing it’s good casting practice and for another it often yields results.

3. Close isn’t good enough

This one goes with the previous one about casting. Close doesn’t cut it. Okay, sometimes, or a lot of times it cuts it. But not always. Sometimes fish are willing to move to a fly and sometimes they are not. Sometimes the cast needs to be within an inch of the bank, or rock or other structure. Inches really can matter. I’ve seen this over and over. So if you’re casting to a nice bankside feeding lie say, or a log-jam, don’t be happy with a fly that lands 5-inches from the suspected fish lie, but get it right there. I see this on meadow streams all the time. The fish will be tucked under some overhanging grass, or a slight undercut bank and until the cast is basically riding the bank the fish will hold tight.

4. Stop moving and maybe even re-rig

This one can be controversial in the tenkara community. But sometimes it pays off both the in the long and short term to stop and fish a good spot until you catch fish. And that might mean re-rigging and/or switching flies. In western fly fishing it’s pretty standard to do this. But in the tenkara world I know there is some resistance to the idea. If you’re moving along and catching a good number of fish maybe it’s too much trouble, but if you’re having a slow day, maybe take the time.

I’ll admit that this is my natural inclination anyway. When I see a great spot, maybe its a deeper run or hole that I’m not rigged to fish, I usually have no hesitation to switch to a heavier fly and/or longer tippet to get down a little more. Legendary Pennsylvania fly angler Joe Humphreys is famous for saying something like (I’m paraphrasing here): “The difference between catching fish and not catching fish is one split shot.” I’m not suggesting using split shot (even I have my limits), but maybe a bead-head fly if you’ve been using unweighted flies, or maybe just lengthening your tippet will do the trick.

Maybe you don’t re-rig or change flies, but you just spend more time in that sweet-looking spot trying every type of fly presentation and trick that you know. Maybe this approach isn’t for everyone, I can only speak for myself, but when I stop and fish one of these places for a while, and I have to sort through my entire bag of tricks, I find it very rewarding when I finally figure it out.

The other advantage is that if you’re fishing with one of those speedy anglers, they’ll probably get so far ahead of you that by the time you start moving again the water they’ve fished through is probably rested long enough to fish again.

5. Get more sneaky

Sure this seems obvious, and you experienced anglers know all about it. But perhaps some of you newer anglers haven’t thought about it much. But it’s easy to spook trout. At times I’m certainly guilty of getting lazy or complacent when it comes to stealth. Higher spring flows and cloudy skies, not to mention trout focused on feeding on a good hatch can mask our lack of stealth. As I write this, here in the east we’ve been experiencing some low-ish flows and clear blue skies. Under these conditions trout are much harder to sneak up on. My more easy going fishing of the higher spring flows with their touch of color and riffled water surfaces is suddenly not adequate. I feel like I have to re-learn this lesson every year when spring turns to summer. Of course stealth isn’t merely relegated to summer, spring conditions can require it and often autumn can be quite demanding.

This topic could certainly warrant an entire article. I won’t go into everything here, but I’ll touch on a few things. Move slowly, wade carefully when you have to wade and use available cover, keep your profile broken up by a background, keep low when needed, all these things can help.

When I’m fishing streams with a lot of meanders, I’ll use the bend in the creek to my advantage and cast “blind” around the bend so to speak. If you’re fishing streams with lots of large boulders you can do the same by casting to the blind side of the rocks before moving around them.

You may consider re-rigging with a longer line or at least a longer tippet. As far as line color goes, I’m not sure, but I do sometimes feel that a bright color line can spook fish in certain low-water, bright-sun conditions (but this is just based on anecdotal evidence – and I’m not sure I’m convinced). I’d love to know what you all think of the line color issue – leave some comments. I’ve been using the White Fujino Tapered Line from DRAGONtail tenkara at times (it’s more clear than white) and pretty stealthy. It’s not as easy to see as a hi-viz line but not too bad.

Another big thing to think about are shadows. I did actually write a little article about that —>Tenkara Tips: Beware the Shadows

When fishing on streams with high banks such as you often find in the Driftless region you may not be able to get away with staying up on the bank. I know that I’ve spooked plenty of trout far ahead of me while walking along on those high banks.

Anyway, you get the idea. If you’re fishing a stream unsuccessfully that you know holds fish, and you’ve had success earlier in the year, maybe you just need to get sneakier.

---

In conclusion…

This article was written with newer anglers in mind, but I’m certainly always in need of reminders, so perhaps even a few of you experienced folks have been reminded of a thing or two. I always prefer to give folks jumping-off points to self education rather than off-the-shelf recipes, I hope I’ve achieved that here.

As we drive further along that backcountry gravel road of fishing we hope to have more days when things seem to fall into place. More success. And fewer days where we are left completely dumbfounded. Hopefully along the way we become a bit more skilled and we have more than just a puncher’s chance.

---

---

Do you have a story to tell? A photo to share? A fly recipe that’s too good to keep secret? If you would like to contribute content to Tenkara Angler, click HERE for more details.

When you buy something using the retail links within our articles or Gear Shop, we may earn a small commission at no extra cost to you. Tenkara Angler does not accept money for editorial gear reviews. Read more about our policy.