Tenkara on the Fly

Switzerland!

2012-05-25T15:05:00.000-06:00

I will be heading home to the old country for 10 days to visit family but will of course bring my 12 ft Iwana with me. Who knows, maybe I can harrass some fish while I am there. Would be interesting to see my old fishing holes where I spent hours and days fishing as a kid.

Anybody out there in Switzerland who follows this blog and has some advice?

See you later, -K

A new rod, net and some old and new friends

2012-05-21T21:42:00.001-06:00

Anybody who knows me knows that I am not really fond of the city. New York City that is. I lived in and around New York City for 8 years and that was enough. There is a reason why we moved to Denver after all.

That being said, business trips bring me back to the city once every few months and one of the things I do without missing when I am in NYC is meeting up with Chris Stewart, the Tenkarabum, for drinks and burgers, sometimes even for some fishing time.

Last week was no exception I had a great time catching up with Chris and talk Tenkara. One of the fun things when hanging out with Chris is getting some inside as to what new stuff is to come, see it or borrow it for some testing. This time was no exception.

First, I picked-up my new Daiwa Soyokaze 31SR. This is one of the tanago rods Chris is selling, but at 10'2" it is the longest "tanago" rod and, to me, really a nifty and fun small stream tenkara rod. If you are a reader of this blog, you might remember I fished earlier this year the 9' long Daiwa Soyokaze 27SR. The 27SR at 9' left me wanting another foot back then, so I wanted to get the longer version. Funny how things go, yesterday, when fishing the 31SR, I at times wished I had the shorter rod. But the 31SR was really just the ticket yesterday, handling fish up to 11" or 12" just beautifully. While it has a soft tip, it also has quite some backbone that lets you handle fish of good size. This will become my small stream rod when the 12' or even 11' Iwana is too long and the 9'4" Iwana is too short.

Next, I was able to borrow a new net for testing, the Daiwa One Touch Keiru Damo 25. This is a collapsible that fits a pouch attached to your belt. I had a few blog posts complaining about forgetting my tamos at home and Chris suggested I try the One Touch that is small and can stay in the car, bag or attached to my wading belt. The One Touch 25 has a diameter of 25cm (apx. 10") and a very deep bag and will hold large fish without any issues. Some of the fish I caught sort of "disappeared" in the net which leaves me to think that a 16" trout or even bigger won't be a problem. There is also a bigger net, the One Touch 30 with a 30cm (apx. 12") diameter frame. When you are ready to land a fish, you simple get the net out of the pouch (secured with velcro), shake the handle and the net opens pops up. This is a net for the minimalist who wants to have the net out of the way and off his/her back.

Lastly, I got one of the new hand-tied bi-visible fc lines for the Daiwa Soyokaze 31SR. If you have been interested in level lines, you know that Chris had some outstanding and visible level lines in hi-vis orange. Well, those lines are being discontinued and Chris had to come up with something new filling the void. Chris found a new chartreuse hi-vis line and has begun thing lines using both the "old" orange and the "new" chartreuse lines. This way, you have a line that is visible in all conditions. If you have been using level lines, you might have noticed that in certain conditions hi-vis yellow is more visible and in some conditions hi-vis orange. This line is both and enables you to track it during any light conditions and backgrounds. I fished with this line yesterday and couldn't have been hap. pier.

And yes, I had a great time fishing yesterday on Bear Creek. I landed 18 trout, all bronws, one nice rainbow got away while I was about to net it. I started out fishing with a CDC & Elk and got my fill, later in the day I switched to an Ishigaki Kebari and continued to catch fish, twitching and pulsating it in pocket water. Caddis where out at first and were then later joined by some Mayflies. Oh, and I ran into another fellow tenkara angler and blogger, Kevin Fricke of Tenkara Rising. He seems to have been quite successful on his own yesterday. I only known about Kevin from Facebook's Colorado Tenkara Anglers and was glad to finally put a face to a name.

River Statistics:
Weather: nice & sunny, little wind
Air Temp: low 50ies @10.30am, high 60ies/low 70ies @ 4.30pm
Water Temp: n/a
Flow: 23cfs, a bit off color from heavy rains the prior day
Day on the water in 2012: 10
Fish: 20 hooked, landed 18
Equipment: Daiwa Soyakaze 31SR, Tenkarabum new bi-visible hand-tied line 10'2"

South Platte Ponds May 6, 2012

2012-05-06T17:12:00.002-06:00

Today I found a window a few hours to hit the water so headed for once to the South Platte Ponds off 470 for some warm water fishing. Still water is not really my cup of tea with tenkara, I prefer running water. But if you never try it or give it a chance, you never know what you'll miss.

I hoped to get into some panfish like blue gills, crappies etc. and maybe into a smallmouth bass (the ponds have supposedly a very healthy smallmouth bass population). I started with one of the small hidden ponds where I saw some largemouth bass cruising. I started casting to them but I guess they knew I was up to no good. I didn't give up and had one take, probably just being annoyed, my black wooly bugger. A few seconds into the fight one of the new knots I tried broke. Bye bye bugger. I retied and went with a small size 14 beadhead chain marabou damsel (purple) harassing the same bass. Sure enough, he took that bitty fly and the game was on. The Ito was bent and the line sang under the strain and pull of the fish but eventually I could tire the fish somewhat and land it. It was a nice fatty, 16" as per my measure net and my first "nice" bass caught with a tenkara rod:

The rest of the morning was less than spectacular. I had two good sized smallmouth bass flash on my bitty fly and then during the last half hour was I able to find some panfish and land those two guys:

Heading back to the car, I knew I would probably run into my friend Jason Klass of Tenkara Talk who let me know that he would probably head to the ponds about the time I was leaving. Sure enough I found him but I couldn't believe my eyes.

Jason Klass of Tenkara Talk...

what the heck?

I guess desperate times ask for desperate measures. Hope you had more luck than I did, buddy.

Statistics:
Weather: overcast with sun, some wind
Air Temp: 36F @8.30am, 58F @noon
Water Temp: n/a
Flow: n/a
Day on the water in 2012: 9
Fish: 4 hooked, landed 3
Equipment: TenkaraUSA Ito, yellow level line no. 3

South Platte April 22, 2012

2012-04-22T21:16:00.000-06:00

Today I had a chance to go fish again with my friend Lyle Tate and he was today for the first time fishing tenkara only. We headed up to the South Platte below Deckers looking for some promising pocket water. While it was fairly cold at the beginning of the day (37F at around 8am), it warmed up to the low 70ies by noon when we left the river. The first stretch of water was beautiful but not very kind to you, both of us started with Killer Kebaris but neither got any action. We moved further upstream to directly downstream of Deckers and things started to look better. In the meanwhile, I decided to add a dropper, my trusty RS2, knowing that this fly should produce if anything would. I cast to a tiny little pocket tucked against the canyon wall on the other side of the river and let the flies drift behind a rock. I couldn't see where the line entered the water but it "just didn't look right"and I lifted the rod to find a nice brown of about 14" on the other end. I was able to get it across the faster water over to my side and was able to hand-line it in the shallows (of course I again forgot my net at home!).

that little pocket in the middle yielded a nice trout (behind the rock on the right)

I landed another nice brown of equal length in the same stretch and lost three more, one of them looked like a 16" rainbow - its acrobatics where pretty impressive. At least two of the three lost ones would have likely been landed had I had a net with me. Lesson learned: don't forget to pack a net or have a spare in your car!

It was great to get out, fish, catch some and spend time with my buddy Lyle who is now a tenkara convert!

River Statistics:
Weather: nice & sunny, little wind
Air Temp: 37F @8am, 72F @noon
Water Temp: n/a
Flow: 119cfs, clear
Day on the water in 2012: 8
Fish: 5 hooked, landed 2
Equipment: TenkaraUSA Ito, TenkaraUSA level hi-vis yellow 3.5 9ft with 3ft red Amnesia tip (thanks Jason!)

Bear Creek April 8 2012

2012-04-11T21:28:00.000-06:00

Easter Sunday morning I had a few hours to myself and took the opportunity to head back up to Bear Creek. I considered going to the South Platte up in Deckers but the area was on fire, literally (a small wild fire North of Deckers near Ox Yoke that I believe was extinguished fairly quickly).

Fishing was at first slower than usual, I wasn't quite sure why since the conditions haven't changed much since my last few visits. I started out with a Killer Bug and got some follows and bumps including a very aggressive strike of a rainbow trout but none of them were hooked enough to be landed. I switched to some sakasa kebaris with no interest, so I finally switched to my confidence flies, the CDC & Elk and RS2 dropper but fishing remained still fairly slow.

The first fish to hand was a little brown trout that fell of course for the RS2. Getting hungry, I started wrapping-up things just before 1pm and headed downstream towards the parking lot. Of course I got tempted to make a few casts in some of my favorite spots and was promptly rewarded with 5 more trout of which I landed 4, all within less than half an hour! 4 of them took the RS2 and one eager brown took the CDC & Elk.

Who says the "one more cast" can't produce?

All said, it was nice to get out and spend some quality time on the river.

River Statistics:
Weather: nice & sunny, little wind
Air Temp: 46 @9am, 64F @1.30pm
Water Temp: n/a
Flow: 20cfs, clear water
Day on the water in 2012: 7
Fish: 13 hooked, landed 5
Equipment: TenkaraUSA Iwana 11ft, Tenkarabum 11ft hand-tied hi-vis fc line of

Tenkara Story Contest Winner

2012-04-09T22:13:00.002-06:00

I would like to thank everybody who has sent in their Tenkara Story and made an effort to tell their story. I have had now a few days to read, re-read and read again and to make up my mind which wasn't easy.

Obviously selecting a winner is very very very subjective and it was not easy. So don't give me a hard time if you don't like the story or think another story should have won.

Since it was so difficulet to decide I selected two winners, EACH will get the first price.

Anyhow, may I present you the winning stories, written by David Nash and Anthony Naples - Congratulations!! David and Anthony - I will be in touch with you in regards the custom horse hair line and flies. But don't worry, each writer will be receiving some of the new Tenkara on the Fly stickers. So I will be in touch with you too!!

Enjoy the stories and check out the Your Tenkara Story tab abovefor more stories.

Winning Story No. 1 by David Nash of My Leaky Waders

What is it about those streams and creeks,

Running down mountain valleys

Winding their way through high plains

And Midwestern pastures

That keeps me up late tying, planning

Reading and dreaming?

It is the fish, the hunt,

Stalking the quiet.

Always looking,

Searching for more ways to be closer to water,

To fish painted unlike any other.

At times it takes a slow mind to study the behavior

Of fish and river.

The next day it is a mad rush to conquer the terrain

And unearth the dominant invertebrates

That are the keystone to a heavy creel.

Concentrating, I know what ails me,

I yearn to be closer to the ground.

I want cologne of wet dirt and

Sweet rotting leaves,

Fresh like spring water

And changing-weather breezes.

So I strip down.

Simplify.

Rod.

Line.

Fly.

Fewer moving parts mean fewer

Distractions from the surroundings.

With this strange, new rod in hand

I feel giddy.

Every headshake and body thrust

Of the fish sends shock waves down my arm.

Connected to the fight like never before,

I giggle.

Now I am silver and ruby,

Rust and olive,

Forest green spotted blue, red and yellow.

I am my nephew on a dock screaming with laughter

At the sunfish bending his Lightening McQueen rod.

Today, I am closer to the water.

Closer to trout.

Closer to char.

Because of tenkara,

I am closer.

That is all I ever want to be.

Winning Story No. 2 by Anthony Naples of Casting Around

Footprints on the Moon: My Journey to Tenkara

I'm not all that old. I've had forty-one birthdays as of this writing. But time has left its mark on me; the thinning hair, the aches and pains...There are memories from my youth that are written on my brain, indelibly, like with some kind of mental Sharpie. Bold and permanent. As I've gotten older though it seems like new memories have become less so. New memories are like footprints in the rain filling with water, their contours becoming muzzy, until finally they are mostly indiscernible and filled with murky water. The memories of my youth seem, in contrast like footprints on the moon. Pristine. When I think about my journey to the foot of the mountains wherein my tenkara lies, it is hard to remember the more recent events that lead me to stand there.

My oldest memories are gathered into a primordial ocean. That is the ocean from which I crawled on fins or flippers, the ocean in which I was formed, knit together from bits and pieces of memories. In contrast, my newest memories are only tiny streamlets – noisy, tumbling and jumbled and unimpressive compared to the ocean. I know most will evaporate before they complete their run to the sea. It is hard to recall what the streamlets whisper. So I can't say for sure where I learned of tenkara. It was, I think, from an internet advertisement on a fly fishing website. However it happened, a seed was planted, and finding fertile soil it grew. It took about six or seven months to sprout. That is about the time it took from hearing about this thing called tenkara to actually buying my first tenkara rod.

Let's back up. A tale of a journey should start at the beginning. But where is the beginning? There are an infinite number of absolutely improbable things that happened (or didn't happen) to bring my existence about, stretching back through time to the creation of the universe. And each of these things are necessarily a part of the tenkara journey. How far back do you go? I'll pick out a few moments. My paternal grandfather, a first generation Italian-Serbian American joined the U.S. Army in 1942. He was 19. He was sent first to North Africa, then to Sicily and then landed at Anzio in Italy. He served as part of a chemical mortar unit and marched from Anzio to Rome, where he entered the city victorious and enjoyed some R&R (I've never heard specifics – but one can imagine that party). Anything can happen and often does. I often wonder over the idea that anybody survives to adulthood. But of course serving in the army in WWII was a particularly dangerous occupation. According to family lore my grandfather had two very close calls. I imagine these as moments where my existence stood in the balance. Once, the sweet temptation of the fruit of the date palm led him into the upper reaches of a tree. I never did find out if the dates were any good – but my grandfather always claimed that the tree saved his life. An artillery shell hit while he was in the tree, exploding in mayhem and death in the spot where he had been moments earlier. Another time, while sitting around with his buddies on the beach at Anzio a shell landed in the middle of their group – it did not explode. And so, either through dumb-luck or fate, here I am.

Living the American Dream of postwar America, my grandfather got work in a Steel Mill, got married, bought a house, had two kids, took vacations in Florida, took up golf and continued the outdoor life of his father and uncles. Stowing a pack of howling beagles in the enormous trunk of some 1950's sedan they would head just out of town for a day of rabbit hunting. My father likes to tell me how the old guys would walk the train tracks while the young guys were assigned the same duty as the beagles, that is struggling through the brambles that lined the banks along the tracks kicking out rabbits. Later his Serbian grandmother would cook the rabbits up in spaghetti sauce. Deer hunting and trout fishing were done at the Camp up in the “mountains”. These are Pennsylvania mountains were talking about – the Alleghenies – and their resemblance to those rocky peaks of the west is passing at best.

My grandfather was a salmon-egg and trout worms, opening weekend, early-season trout angler at most. It was an activity to do with the guys – it was not an obsession. Still, as far as I can tell he is the beginning of my trout fishing lineage. I sometimes like to imagine that my Italian ancestors were fishing with the tenkara-like style of Pesca Alla Valsesiana to trout in the Sesia valley of Italy, but in reality my grandfather's family is from Reggio Calabria. Reggio Calabria is down near the “toe” of the Italian boot and about as far away from the home of Pesca Alla Valsesiana as you can get in Italy. It is very unlikely that my Italian ancestors ever cast a fly for trout in Italy.

I'm not sure that I remember my first trout. I remember the day before my first trout trip though. I remember standing on my grandfather's back porch. My enduring mental image of my grandfather is of him sitting on the glider on the back porch in the summer, bowl of sliced cantaloupe on his lap, and he's wearing an undershirt and boxers. This trip was probably springtime though, so he was probably wearing more than that summer outfit when he offered his fishing advice. He must have wanted to say something to mark the occasion of my trip. He was a very caring man, but sentiment was difficult for him to express. So he said to me. “Catching trout is not like catching sunfish.” I don't remember if he elucidated that remark or not. He probably meant it as a gentle warning against likely disappointment due to an unsuccessful first trout fishing trip. I don't recall if I caught fish on that trip or not. But my grandfather's words have stuck with me for 30 yrs.

Eventually I did catch trout. My first trout memories are of slim wild brookies caught from the bottom of deep pools in a diminutive Pennsylvania mountain stream. It was the kind of stream that is defined by glacially deposited boulders of car and truck sized proportions. Each large bolder would be attended by a deep placid pool. Cast your salmon egg and split shot to the head of the pool let it ride into the depths and settle. Then...tap, tap, tug, splash and flip. I feel like I can recall each tiny trout. Eventually I graduated from jars of salmon eggs to little plastic cups of maggots. Maggots somehow seemed more refined. All of you fly fishers don't fool yourselves. The real “killer” bug is the maggot. Trout seem to really enjoy their maggots – they cannot resist them. From maggots I went to spinners. Then the leap to the fly rod.

I went to Penn State University in State College Pennsylvania. One of the state's best wild trout streams, Spring Creek is within bicycling distance of the campus. Penn State offered the country's first fly fishing course for college credit (Phys-ed credit). I was not aware of that when I matriculated. I was not a fly fisherman at the time. I was a spin fisherman. The moment I decided that I wanted to become a fly fisher is perfectly clear to me. I was in the library's periodical section looking at copies of fishing magazines. There was an article in one about the limestone streams of Pennsylvania, Big Spring, The LeTort, Falling Spring. The pictures showed pastoral streams winding through fields with willows sweeping low along the banks. It talked about the fly fishing heritage of these streams and the innovators that fished along them, Charlie Fox, Vince Marinaro, Ed Shenk. They were fly fisherman – and clearly this was the only way to properly fish these streams. So it began. I got a Cortland 8' 5-wt GRF-1000 with a Cortland Crown II reel for my birthday – that was almost exactly 20 yrs ago. Of course I have upgraded a little over the years.

I've never really been a gear junkie. I want to fish, and I want decent gear that works well, but always sort of enjoyed sticking with the less expensive gear. $800 fly rods than weigh next to nothing might be nice – but I'd rather spend that money on a trip to Colorado. The onslaught of high-end fly fishing gear in the past few years is a turn-off to me. Sometimes it seems like it's not about fishing – but only about having expensive gear. I realize some of the hypocrisy in that statement. After all I'm not fishing with the cheapest possible stuff. Another pet-peeve of mine is fly patterns. The number and type of patterns touted by fly fishing magazines and books has become paralyzingly large. The new fly angler must look at the array of patterns being thrown his way and be tempted to throw in the towel. After all if you don't have that size 22 BWO cripple with, CDC partially emerged wings and z-lon shuck, with just the right blend of synthetic UV and natural dubbing (in just the right shade) and tied on the proper emerger hook, then well – you can't hope to catch anything. Pack up your rod and go home. Half of the time when I read a fly recipe in a magazine I don't know what most of the materials are or where to get them. What happened to fur and feathers? My fly fishing had become progressively more complicated – and I had mistakenly thought that that meant it had become better.

Keeping up with that world of fly fishing was difficult and tiring. So when tenkara came along it was like an answer to a question that I hadn't even fully articulated to myself yet. I was yearning for tenkara and I just didn't know it. Or more precisely I didn't know the name to put to it. Tenkara. To step out of the rat race of modern fly fishing's obsession with more and more and to reset the fly fishing clock, that is what caught me I think. I have to admit that I didn't know, at the time that I would be won over so completely. I thought tenkara would be just another way of fly fishing for me. I didn't realize that it would become the way of fly fishing for me. Tenkara takes me back to my humble origins. Tenkara takes me back to a sort of simple and wide-eyed innocence of my first trout fishing experiences. Back then, to catch those trout was amazing to me. And now to catch them on my tenkara gear is amazing to me. By taking away all of the extra layers of accumulated junk - tenkara has allowed the wonder of fly fishing to shine again for me. Corny? Maybe – but nonetheless true.

Reminder - Deadline March 31st

2012-03-29T10:13:00.000-06:00

Reminder:

The deadline to enter into the giveaway with your personal tenkara story is March 31st.

Please submit your story by email here, do not post it in the comments below. I will accept entries received received/sent by midnight 3/31 MDT.

Any questions, please contct me.

Cheers, -K

Giveaway / Tenkara Story Deadline Reminder

2012-03-22T10:01:00.001-06:00

A Few Firsts

2012-03-19T21:53:00.002-06:00

Having another day off, I headed today back to Bear Creek, although today it felt like Winter was back again. Gone are the days of low 70ies, today it was more like high 30ies and low 40ies.

Today, I wanted to use two new pieces of equipment: a release box and a new rod.

The release box is something I have been thinking about ever since I saw this post over at Tenkara Fisher. Finally feeling inspired enough I went to the hardware store and bought the supplies, including the wrong glue. It was a fairly easy project - were it not for the glue. I didn't pay too much attention and just got some superglue which is not quite the best for this project. It works, but, well, let's just say it's not easy to work with. Anyway, I finally have a release box and I have plans for a few more already for some of my friends. And I ordered the right cement, too.

The new rod is a Daiwa Soyokaze 27SR, a tanago rod offered by my friend Chris Stewart (aka Tenkarabum) who sent me this rod as a replacement for a rod that whose tip broke last year in RMNP. A tanago rod is not quite a tenkara rod, although it is a telescopic rod. It is made for smaller quarry, such as minnows. Yes, I said it. Minnows. Small fish. Actually, very small fish. Read more about it here and here. BUT, the rod, at 9ft, can be used as a tenkara rod and you can successfully fight and land fish that are bigger than 2". Today, I landed a few around 10" and a bigger one, probably 12", that I had at my feet but lost it since I forgot my tamo and tried to land it with the release box. The release box I built is 11.5" long and 2.5" wide, so not really the right tool to land fish. Anyway, the point I was trying to make is that this little rod is has more to it than what meets the eye, it is a nice and handy tool for very small creeks. It has plenty of backbone for trout of 12", probably even bigger fish. The length of the rod will require you to fish in stealth mode since you are loosing about 4-6 ft of reach compared to when using an 11ft or 12 ft rod. I spent a lot of time on my knees today... but with good results! This, or the next size up at 10.2ft. would be a rod perfect for someone who needs a light rod for some backpacking - it weights only 1.69oz (the 9ft does)! A more comprehensive review of the rod will follow after I have fished it some more. I am thinking RMNP...

Back to the fishing today - cold, sun, clouds, overcast, windy mixed in with some fine trout. Of 17 trout hooked, I landed 9 even without my tamo (...). Two came up on top and took my CDC & Elk, all others fell for the RS2. These are my two confidence flies and fishing them together as a dry & dropper just seems to work - all the time.

Tight Lines, -K

River Statistics:
Weather: cold, little sun, clouds, overcast, windy
Air Temp: high 30ies/low 40ies
Water Temp: 39F at 11am
Flow: 18cfs, clear, no runoff (duh, too cold!)
Day on the water in 2012: 6
Fish: 17 hooked, landed 9

PS: don't forget the "Your Tenkara Story" contest, submission deadline is March 31st.

Bear Creek March 16 2012

2012-03-16T21:41:00.001-06:00

I still had some leftover vacation days from last year and decided to take a half day to go fishing while the nice weather lasts. Sunday's outing to Bear Creek was still on my mind and I thought that fishing would be now even better with since it was nice and warm the entire week. Boy was I right...

I made plans with Jason Klass of Tenkara Talk to meet early afternoon; Jason took the whole day off and started fishing earlier in the morning, having a pretty good day himself. And he caught his first trout of 2012! Congrats, Jason.

Jason changing a fly

He told me all his fish in the morning were caught with a Utah Killer Bug, so I tied one on myself but it didn't quite work out for me. I switched to my standard searching setup, a dry (olive CDC & Elk) & dropper (midge larva at first, then RS2) and things started picking up. All my fish were caught on the dropper, go figure. What I really like about the CDC & Elk in this combination that it floats well and that it is a really sensitive "strike indicator". The slightest hesitation will pull it under.

I fished today with two new pieces of equipment, the Ebisu of Tenkara USA and the new yellow hi-vis level line of Tenkara USA*. These are my fist impressions, I will do more testing for a comprehensive review of both.

The Ebisu is a 12ft rod with a 5:5 action. It has a beautiful glossy black finish with gold letters. The "special" thing about the Ebisu is it's handle - made of pine instead of cork. The rod fishes well, it is definitively much softer than the Iwana 12ft. It feels a bit "top-heavy", similar to the Ito when fully extended. I suspect this has mostly to do with the relatively short pine handle that measures 8" and is rather short compared the other rod handles in Tenkara USA's lineup. You notice the "top-heavyness" at first when switching from the Iwana but you get used to it very quickly - as you do with the different casting stroke with this slower stick (I really start to dig the slower actions). One of the larger fish I caught today put an awesome bend in it but I hope I don't have to wrestle fish larger than, let's say 16" in swift currents; the Ebisu doesn't have the same backbone as the Iwana does. Don't get me wrong though, I really like this rod, in particular how nicely it casts a level line - such as the new Tenkara USA yellow hi-vis line.

This new line does cast really nicely, I used today solely the 3.5. It performs in the same way as Tenkarabum's orange hi-vis no. 3 line. In fact, I measured both with my caliper and they have the same diameter. Anyhow, the lines perform almost identical, personally my first impression is that the yellow line feels slightly softer than the orange line. I am not sure if that makes any difference how it casts but the yellow seems to have, as advertised, less coil off the spool, although I wasn't able to directly compare this to the orange line since I didn't store it one a spool (figures...). I will make sure to test this later. In terms of visibility, well, I have to do some more testing also. The orange line appears to be more visible overall by having more contrast with various backgrounds. The yellow line is slightly less visible against backgrounds of similar color, i.e. beige, dead grass of Winter and beige/sand colored rock.

THAT BEING SAID, I was fishing most of the time with a dry and dropper and I didn't have to watch the line for strikes - the dry fly took care of that. I will need to do more back-to-back testing with both lines when I actually would watch the line to indicate strikes.

So, without further delay, I know that you also want to see some fish porn, here are some of today's beauties. I was quite excited having landed 3 rainbows of the total 7 trout landed, rainbows are in the minority on Bear Creek and are purely catch & release whereas you can keep some brown trout (how many does escape my knowledge since I practice 100% catch & release). One of the rainbows put a pretty nice aerial show on, jumping 3 times trying to shake the fly.

gotta love them orange dots!

*) The yellow hi-vis level line of Tenkara USA was provided to me free of charge, the Ebisu was bought by myself (used).

River Statistics:
Weather: nice & sunny, little wind
Air Temp: low 70ies
Water Temp: 44F at 1pm
Flow: 23cfs, clear water with very little discoloration from run-off
Day on the water in 2012: 5
Fish: 14 hooked, landed 7

PS: don't forget the "Your Tenkara Story" contest, submission deadline is March 31st.

First Look: new yellow hi-vis Tenkara USA level line

2012-03-15T14:35:00.001-06:00

Yesterday evening I received a package from Tenkara USA with their new yellow fluor carbon hi-vis level lines. The color appears to be truly hi-vis and I am looking forward giving them a try on-stream very soon. One of the advertised features is that they have reduced coiling (a typical characteristic of fluor carbon lines) so I was wondering how they look brand new right off the spool. Well they have some coil but they can be straightened-out very easily. I will let you know how the coiling is once stretched and then re-stored on a spool.

More to come once I have fished with them and compared them with Tenkarabum's hi-vis lines. Should be fun!

Tight Lines, -K

PS: don't forget the "Your Tenkara Story" contest, submission deadline is March 31st.

Early Season on Bear Creek

2012-03-13T21:07:00.001-06:00

My wife's weekend work schedule opened up a bit this last Sunday so I was able to sneak out for a few hours and check out how Bear Creek is doing. Bear Creek, although a tailwater (flowing out of Evergreen Lake) is frozen solid regularly during Winter with only a few ice free spots (which are typically void of trout). Since we started to have some decent weather here on the Front Range lately I thought I would see how things are.

Well, things are still a mixed bag. There are sections that are iced-over, some of them have a 3 feet thick layer of ice and snow, namely the section in the canyon upstream of Lair of the Bear. Downstsream though, you can find sections that are ice free and fishable. I did not venture further upstream closer to the dam, but I would imagine that water that is not in the shade all day will be open.

I started out with a Killer Kebari on a red hook with not much luck. The water is very clear and still cold and I spooked a few nice trout that were holding in slower water. I was able to observe a nice rainbow, maybe 14", moving around and feeding quite actively, including the occasional rise to what must have been a midge. I tried my luck with a small dry and a midge dropper, but some kids from the picnic area next to the creek came running and the bow got spooked.

Red Hook Killer Kebari

I moved further downstream and fished the stretch above the Beaver Pond where hooked into two trout (finally!), both were long distance released. Moving around a bit more, I got two more hook-ups which were also long distance released. All four took the midge dropper behind the dry...

River Statistics:
Weather: overcast, with some sun mixed in. some wind.
Air Temp: 42F at 10am, in the high 50ies/low 609ies in the afternoon
Water Temp: 40F at 10am
Flow: 22cfs, clear water with very little discoloration from run-off later in the day.
Day on the water in 2012: 4
Fish: 4 hooked, landed 0

PS: don't forget the "Your Tenkara Story" contest, submission deadline is March 31st.

Tight Lines, -K

"Your Tenkara Story" Giveaway

2012-03-08T17:40:00.003-07:00

When I recently ordered some of the Oni Tenkara Spools from Japan, I thought I would order some extra for a little giveaway. Now that they have arrived and I was able to use them on-stream (see previous post here), it is time to launch the first Tenkara on the Fly Giveaway and Story Contest.

I will be giving away the following to the winner of this contest:

- 1 pack of two Oni Tenkara Spools

- 1 custom Horse Hair Tenkara Line made to your spec's

- half a dozen “Tenkara on the Fly” flies (you can pick the patterns from my Fly Box)

Rules: Submit your personal tenkara story, be it how you discovered tenkara, a great tenkara fishing outing or your personal thoughts and take on tenkara. The story must be new and not previously published or posted elsewhere. Should you want to include pictures/video with your story, you can most certainly do so. The winner will be selected by myself; I will try to pick the most captivating, creative and well written story.

All stories submitted that qualify will be published on this blog in the Your Tenkara Stories tab and the winning story will be published as a featured guest post on the Home page.

Your story needs to be submitted by March 31, 2012 to this email address with "Tenkara Story" as subject. Please include your full name and your email address (email will not be published) so that I can get in touch with you. I will try to select the winner and notify him/her within a week or so after the deadline.

DO NOT SUBMIT YOUR STORY IN THE COMMENT SECTION BELOW.

One last thing: By submitting your story (or video, pictures, audio etc.) to its publishing on this blog and you agree to the rules of this giveaway. Any off-subject or offensive submissions will be disqualified.

Any questions - please ask and happy writing!

Tight Lines, -K

Oni Tenkara Spool - other items in the picture not included.

loaded Oni Tenkara Spool

rod, chair, desk and carpet not included

Still Winter... and a new gadget

2012-03-05T21:02:00.001-07:00

Yesterday I spent a beautiful day on the South Platte fishing with my tenkara buddies Graham of Tenkara Grasshopper and Jason of Tenkara Talk. The fishing was great, the catching not so much. In fact, we all got only one or two nibbles and neither of us could actually hook-up with a trout. Just another typical day of Winter fishing (for me). However, the company was quite excellent.

It is still Winter here on the Front Range, although yesterday was one of those days that signaled that Spring is just around the corner. The daytime temperature was in the high 50ies but the water was still pretty frigid at around 39-40F.

Graham working some good looking water

Graham still smiling despite no trout

Jason watching the end of line intently

I started out with my adaptation of Pat's Rubberlegs in size 10 (yes, not a tenkara fly) but lost it soon along other flies, such as a what was my try at a brown/golden stonefly sakasa kebari, to the elusive rock bottom trout (it must have been a huge one!).

Pat's Rubberlegs

BH Golden Stone Sakasa Kebari

The wind made things a bit challenging at times, the occasional wind gust tugged at the line lifting the entire rig out of the water. However, the heavy 14ft hand-tied line of Tenkarabum performed quite nicely on the Ito. I also wanted to finally fish with my Tenkara USA Ebisu, but unfortunately I did not remember I had it with me until late in the day when we started wrapping-up things. I am getting old. Maybe next time.

One thing that I got to test was a new line spool I received this week from Japan, Jason has a friend who was kind enough to order and send us a batch of Oni Tenkara line spools. In anticipation of trying the spools I removed my current line management system of choice, the Fuji Hook Keepers. The spool is made of fairly hard foam with a plastic "crown" featuring notches where you can place the fly (although Jason prefers to place his fly in the slit of the foam). In any case, the spool, at 65mm diameter is a valid alternative to the Fuji Hook Keepers, although the Fuji Hook Keeper is still my favorite for immediate line storage while moving around on stream because you can wind your line faster and you can store the rod in the Ebira. But the spool definitively looks much cooler. And it's harder to come by, so it's somewhat special.

I will soon have a giveaway for a few spools, so please stay tuned.

River Statistics:
Weather: sunny, some wind gusts
Air Temp: in the mid/high 50ies
Flow: 285cfs, discoloration of water due to some run-off and increased flow/release from Cheesman Reservoir.
Day on the water in 2012: 3
Fish: 0

Eyeless Tenkara Hooks and Flies

2012-02-22T22:27:00.001-07:00

I recently got from some Japanese tenkara hooks from Tenkarabum that feature no hook eye; instead you attach a length of cord, line or silk braid to the hook to create a loop so that you can attach your tippet. Intrigued by the concept and some pictures of really cool flies I found on Japanese sites, I decided to give it a try and tie some.

The below is sort of a "how-to" - or at least how I approached the tying process. As always, excuse the somewhat bad quality of the pictures, I am working with a simple point and shoot camera.

The Hooks - Gamakatsu Amago and Owner Yamame

The Loop - I am using some white fly line backing that I had laying around

instead of just using white, I thought I would have fun with colors using a Sharpie

Gamakatsu Amago in size 7.5

first I tie a white base which will give the fly later some translucency when wet

next tie in the braid on one side of the hook...

...then tie down on the far side to create a loop

trim one tag short, the other longer, this will help creating a tapered body

tapered under body

now tie in Ultra Thread, silk or similar

select a feather, I am using Grouse

get rid of the fluff

tie the feather in, I typically do that on top of the hook and tip forward

trim tip

wind hackle, secure hackle stem with thread

tie-off thread, fly is finished

top view

voila

a hand-full of some eyeless sakasa kebaris

Have fund and thanks for stopping by.

Tight Lines, -K

Ski & Fish - and my first trout of 2012

2012-02-05T21:27:00.001-07:00

Today I headed up to the mountains for some morning skiing and afternoon fishing. After logging just shy of 22,000 vertical feet in 3.5 hours, I headed down to the Blue River below Dillon Reservoir to give the new Red Devil Sakasa Kebari a workout.

Let me say that this new fly fishes very nicely, but I still have no game in the Winter. I spent almost 3 hours pounding the water, seeing some very nice, big colorful rainbows staring at and ignoring me. And it was cold. Not as cold as on the mountain (0F), but then the activity and clothing is different. Anyway, I think I am repeating myself, but Winter fishing is just not for me. Call me a wimp if you want, I don't care.

BUT - in those 3 hours I caught one of the famous Blue River rainbows, hogs feeding on mysis shrimp coming out of Dillon reservoir and growing to stupendous sizes. I was even able to land it without a net (which was at home). My fist trout of 2012:

yeah, and it was foul hooked as well, below the jaw.

that's the dam of Dillon Reservoir

the building in the back is part of the Outlets at Silverthorne

On the positive side, the drive back to the low land was a breeze.

See you on the river, -K

River Statistics:
Weather: sun with clouds moving in, wind
Air Temp: in the low 20ies
Flow: 53cfs, very clear
Day on the water in 2012: 2
Fish: 1

The Devil

2012-02-04T17:59:00.001-07:00

Originally my plan for this weekend was to ski, but the little blizzard that came through yesterday made travel on the Front Range a bit challenging, so I had some time today to spend at my tying vise. Having had a conversation with Graham of Tenkara Grasshopper earlier today about red hooks and how they probably would catch trout without any dressing, I thought I would tie some with at least "a bit" of dressing.

So I tied what I call the Red Devil Sakasa Kebari with one of the red octopus hooks, some black wire and a jungle cock spade feather (thanks Jason!):

And then I rememberd having picked-up some free black octopus hooks of Allen Fly Fishing at the Denver Fly Fishing show, so I had to see how it would look like when I reverse the colors, aka the Black Devil Sakasa Kebari:

I hope to give the duo a workout soon, maybe tomorrow on the Blue after some skiing...

Tight Lines, -K

Winner!

2012-01-24T21:27:00.001-07:00

Last Saturday we returned from a week-long vacation skiing in the mountains of Colorado and going through the mail, I found a nice thick envelope with my name on it. I knew the sender but wasn't quite sure why I was receiving mail. I suddenly started to sweat; was there a swap I forgot about and didn't send in my flies? I proceeded to open the envelope and found a very nice note from Chris (aka Kiwi from the blog "The North River") with 6 really cool flies. Reading through the note, I suddenly remembered that early December, I suggested a name for a new fly that Chris came up with and, well, my suggestion was picked-up (see blog post here). The "price" was a half dozen of the newly named "The Green Hornet Sakasa Kebari":

The really cool think about this fly that there is some Krystal Flash worked into the forward slanting hackle, giving it some "bling" and "sparkle" that sure will get some fish's attention.

I am looking forward giving this fly a workout this Spring, I'll bet it will be a winner.

By the way, Chris is actually quite an accomplished fly tier. Last year, he came in 2nd in a fly tying design contest of Montana Fly Company and the Outdoor Blogger Network.

Also, Chris' flies are available for purchase through TenkaraBum here. Give them a shot, they are worth their money.

Tight Lines, -K

2012 Fly Fishing Show in Denver

2012-01-08T11:55:00.001-07:00

While living in the NYC area, I used to go each year to the Somerset/NJ Fly Fishing Show and the Fly Tying Symposium but felt each year that it is pretty much the same show with nothing really new and interesting to me. Once I moved to Denver in 2008, I went twice to the ISE just to realize the same. Actually, the ISE wasn't really my kind of a show since a large part of the ISE is about hunting and other outdoor pursuits than fly fishing that do not really interest me.

Fast forward to 2012: This is the fist time that Tenkara USA is represented at the Fly Fishing Show in Denver through RIGS Fly Fishing and in Somerset/NJ with their own booth, so Jason Klass of Tenkara Talk and I decided to visit the show and provide some support to Daniel Galhardo of Tenkara USA. I was curious how tenkara will be received at the show given some folk's hostility to it on forums and blogs.

Well, let me say that I was pleasantly surprised by the interest visitors showed at the RIGS Fly Fishing booth and Daniel's casting presentation. I counted something around 60-70 folks watching Daniel's presentation at Pond 2 and whenever I walked by the RIGS booth, someone was engaged in a conversation about tenkara and/or actually buying tenkara equipment. It looks like tenkara is starting to be accepted by the "establishment". I hope my observation is true and will continue with Daniel's presence at the Fly Fishing Shows in Massachusetts and New Jersey.

Other than that, I was surprised by the number of booths and visitors since the Fly Fishing Show was in direct competition with the ISE that was taking place during the same weekend in downtown Denver. I have to say that I actually liked it better than my previous visits back in NJ. Walking the isles, I did not see any new earth shattering developments or products (other than tenkara of course). But I did take advantage of browsing some fly tying supplies and equipment that was to be found at a discount compared to regular retail prices, but at the end of the day I did not find anything that I "needed" to have, so I left the show with some stickers, business cards and freebies (Allen Fly Fishing was giving out samples of their hooks).

It was also a very nice opportunity to catch-up with some friends and make new contacts and introductions. Oh, and I finally got to meet a friend of Daniel's, fly fishing author and trout bum John Gierach:

your's truly and John Gierach, photo courtesy of Jason Klass of Tenkara Talk

Did you go to the show or do you plan to visit the upcoming ones?

Tight Lines, -K

Denver Fly Fishing Show this weekend

2012-01-05T11:57:00.001-07:00

I will be at the Denver Fly Fishing Show at the Denver Merchandise Mart this Saturday, Jan. 7th. It would be nice to meet some fellow tenkara anglers there, talk shop and make some new friends while there. Daniel Galhardo of Tenkara USA will be presenting that day at 12.15pm (Pond 2) and at 4.00pm (Destination Theater Room C, the rest of the time he will be sitting at the booth of RIGS Fly Fishing (currently the only Colorado Tenkara USA dealer). Oh, and Jason Klass of Tenkara Talk will be there as well.

Send me a quick email through the "Contact Me" tab if you will be there and want to meet. Otherwise, look-out for someone with a baseball cap with the Tenkara on the Fly logo:

See you there, -K

A Slow Start into the New Year

2012-01-03T21:00:00.001-07:00

Against all odds and common sense, I headed out yesterday, Jan. 2, 2012 with my friend Graham of Tenkara Grasshopper to the South Platte up in Deckers for some Winter Tenkara Fishing.

We got to the river just after 10.00am and it was 12F.... The river looked almost like a slurpee with all the sludge coming down river. We started heading upriver the 10 miles or so towards Deckers where the temperature was a balmy 22F and the river was ice free. It was actually quite nice and warm as long as you stayed in the sun.

You can't tell from the pic, but it is a slurpee alright

I used this opportunity to do some long line tenkara (18ft level line plus tippet with my Tenkara USA Ito in the 13ft position) but soon realized that for the type of water we were fishing, this line setup was the wrong choice (we were fishing the close pocket water). But from a casting and testing point of view, it was beatiful to see at what distance I could hit some pockets with all the line off the water. This will be a very promising technique on the South Platte and bigger rivers once it warms up a bit (hello Spring!).

Graham in action

Both Graham and I pounded the water blind casting for a while before we found two nice fish in the 18-20" range and started sight casting to the fish, but after half an hour and no interest of the big bow we packed-up and started heading downstream to escape the usual Deckers crowd.

At Pine Creek, we (well, ok, I) spooked maybe a dozen fish from under the ice shelf (go figure) but continued our efforts, oftentimes thinking that the bump we felt was a fish (turns out it was just ice that got snagged on our flies). I switched to a baby bugger on my Amago (what a difference after casting the Ito) and managed to get a flash of a fish but no take.

The day ended for us just after 3.00pm, feeling cold but happy having escaped a day stuck in the house or office. There is hope that this skunk is not an omen of the new year but only for our Winter tenkara fishing. And I think I am about to repeat myself by saying that maybe I should focus on skiing in the Winter.

River Statistics:
Weather: sunny, no wind
Air Temp: 12F at 10.00am with a high of 48F in the afternoon
Flow: 130 cfs, clear (slightly off color in the afternoon due to warmer temps and snow melt)
Day on the water in 2012: 1
Fish: 0

Tying with a new hook

2012-01-01T08:54:00.001-07:00

I found an interesting looking hook at one my local fly shops, the Gamakatsu C15-BV: a vertical eye, light emerger barbless hook.

The most interesting feature was the shape of the hook and I thought it would be interesting to see what I could come up with it.

Well, after tying and finishing a fly (it took me 5 attempts to finish a fly) I have the following conclusions:

light wire hooks are great, but if they bend under the slightest pressure/pull of tying thread, they are a major PITA to tye with
the hook eye is tiny - I wonder how I will be able to get some 5x through that hook eye

Here is the fly I tied with it with different backgrounds. Interesting how each background highlights the fly differently.

Also, since I was at the vise, I thought I'd tie some micro buggers - you never know when they come in handy.

Happy New Year and tight lines!

-K

Christmas Swag

2011-12-27T11:16:00.001-07:00

I got myself some gifts prior to Christmas from Tenkara USA, i.e. the Iwana 10ft handle (well, I guess it's actually now a 9'4" rod), a t-shirt, the bigger 27cm tamo and some level lines.

But my better half got me something much more special, a wooden hand-made tenkara fly box from fellow Tenkara USA forum member Rick Setina with a laser engraving of my name in Japanese. This box is of outstanding quality and a beauty just to look at. Can't wait to tie some more kebaris to fill it.

What tenkara swag did you get for Christmas?

Merry Christmas and Happy Holidays

2011-12-24T07:47:00.000-07:00

Wishing you and your family Merry Chrstmas, Happy Holidays and a Great New Year with lots of time on the water.

Thanks for being a reader and showing interest in my attempts putting my tenkara fishing experience in words.

Red Hook Kebari

2011-12-22T15:58:00.001-07:00

I picked-up some red salmon egg hooks at Walmart the other day and wanted to see how a they would look with some thread and hackle.

I guess it'll catch some fish, what do you think?