I actually just picked up a new rod and fly gear yesterday. What I bought was really neat and I was thinking of making a post about it, all on its own. Here is it.

It is a Shimano Keihou Tenkara. Tenkara is a Japanese style of fishing. Basically it is Japanese fly fishing. What is so unique about it, and got me really attracted to it for ultralight fishing, is that it only uses a pole and no reel. The line is a fixed length with a fly on the end. The rod I bought yesterday weighs 61 grams (2.2oz) and it telescopes out to 3.2 meters (10ft). The line is about 4 meters (13ft) long. I'm going on a fishing trip this weekend with my buddies up in the mountains. We are trying to get trout (iwana) and cherry salmon (yamame). I'm really excited to be going. They do make tenkara rods that telescope out to 4 meters, but the streams we usually fish at are small, so we can get by with short 3.2 meter rods.

So if the rivers/streams you are going to be fishing aren't very big, I would maybe suggest looking in "tenkara" as a viable way of fly fishing. I'll write a report about when I get back this weekend. I've only been lure fishing so this will be my first foray into "fly fishing." It seems pretty easy and it looks really slick as far as ultralight goes.