Tenkara on the Kokra.by Jeremy Lucas, UK Running steeply off the Julian Alps in northern Slovenia, close to the border with Austria, is the jewel of the river Kokra. Fishable way above the thousand metre altitude, and all the way down to its confluence with the magnificent Sava, near Kranj, the Kokra affords ideal opportunity to fish with either leader-only western-style (or low mass fly line) or tenkara. The water is utterly clear and cold from snow-melt and summer rains while the river consists mostly of pockets and dashing rapids, with some short glides, particularly in the lower reaches. Heavily treed banks intersperse with pale gravel beaches. Idyllic villages and mills seamlessly interrupt alpine meadows and forested sections. Nowhere is the river broader than about 10 metres, in summer conditions, and in most places in the upper section above the hamlet of Kokra it is little over half this width. Even in low water, however, there are occasional surprising depths where fish are poised, while in the very shallow glides, fish are invisibly translucent. In a country full of incredible fly fishing potential, the little Kokra is magnificent, and one of my and my friends’ favourites. ![]() ![]() The Motive 390 was, indeed, the perfect tool for the job; made so by the scale of fishing (size of river and fish) as much as the delightful stiffness, accompanying the low weight, of this rod. The length allowed the use of a 4.5m leader/tippet which yielded a casting stance at a reasonable range downstream or across of most of the fish-holding pockets. I fished, as always on the river, without a landing net, preferring to bring fish to hand, because it is usually much easier to deal with the unhooking and releasing process when a net is not involved. ![]() The above issue is not, of course, a particular problem of the Motive 390. Indeed, I now believe this rod to be an outstanding design. It has a hollow carbon fibre tip section, and while one might suspect this will render the tip subject to breakage, it does afford a stiffness without significant increase in mass. This is significant: where one needs low mass is at the tip of a fly rod (much less important in the butt because of leverage), so the hollow tip provides this, while also being stiffer than thin solid sections. Tenkara rods usually conform to the flexing ratios of 5:5 (soft), 6:4 and 7:3 (stiff). My previous regular tenkara companion has been a 3.6m Iwana designated as a 6:4. This rod is certainly softer than the Motive 390, though I am reluctant to designate the latter as a 7:3. Simply put, it ‘feels’ like a stiff rod, but with hardly greater mass (and therefore tiring leverage) than the Iwana, and that extra 30cm really does give a presentation advantage, particularly in allowing one to keep almost all the tippet off the water. ![]() The rest of the morning passed to yield me over fifty fish to the tenkara, including a rainbow of 35cm and a grayling of 34cm. The rate determining factor was the length of time in dealing with a hooked fish, which is always longer with tenkara than western-style, because of that inherent inability to gather line through the rod and the necessity of hand-lining the thin tippet. (Note: perhaps the answer to this persistent issue is, after all, a long handled landing net, but the cumbersome nature of this seems to destroy the gorgeous simplicity of tenkara) Paul had interchanged between nymph and dry fly on his western rig, and came back to the meeting point at lunch time similarly awed by the Kokra, though perhaps with fewer fish than I had caught, simply because the nymph will almost always be slower than dry fly in a river such as this in normal summer conditions. In the afternoon session, Paul fished tenkara, again with both nymph and dry, while I switched to a two weight fly line on a 10' Streamflex. ![]() By the end of the afternoon we had caught a huge number of fish from this astonishingly prolific river. The Motive 390 had been both a delight and perfectly suited to the alpine river, which after all is not so dissimilar to the mountain rivers of Japan. I was able to deal more expediently with the larger stream of the afternoon's section, and its generally larger fish, with the western-style, although the tenkara would have managed comfortably enough here, as it did for Paul. All in all, the day had been exemplar in several ways: it had reaffirmed that tenkara is at its best on a small mountain river, particularly where stalking is necessary and where casting space is restricted. It had also shown me that the Motive is among a new class of high-performance rods for the fixed line approach. And beyond it all, was the discovery of one of the most astonishing alpine rivers I have ever fished, teeming with trout and grayling, of high average size. Oh, and beautiful, did I mention that? ![]() |