Last visit of the year

Since the season started I have always fished the same stream that flows nearby my home but today was my last visit of the year. The water level has dropped very fast and I do not want to disturb more the trouts, which are not many, any longer. Hopefully there are not a lot of anglers fishing on this stream.

This last outing has been pretty difficult because of bad weather, sunny sky but cold wind, and the growth of blackberries, nettles and trees make the access to many spots very difficult but that is what makes small stream tenkara interesting.

The gear used in the following video is the Nissin Kawashi 320 rod, Nissin level line (size 3), Fujino fluorocarbon tippet (号0.6) and a black Takayama sakasa kebari.

Kiji Kebari

Since I have started tenkara I have rediscovered the pleasure of tying beautiful and effective fishing flies with simple and natural materials. In the last three years I have created only one sakasa kebari pattern using some synthetic dubbing. And I have not fished with it at all during the two last seasons!

My favorite feathers are cock neck and saddle, partridge flank, hen pheasant wing. These materials have proven to make beautiful and effective kebari.
Lately I have been looking for good quality ringneck pheasant feathers, "church windows" to be more precise but I have realized that most of what I did purchase was low quality. Even though those feathers are not expensive I do not like binning half of a feathers bag. As my grandfather used to say: "Cheap is often too expensive".

If any of you wonders why these feathers are called "church windows" I think that the picture below will give you the answer.

Now I have found a reliable supplier for these feathers I finally can post something about the tying of a nice and effective kebari whose name simply means "pheasant fly". Fly tying is easy, it is only a matter of training. Trouts do not care if the bug they bite has been tied by an expert or a newbie!

The kiji kebari is a wet fly pattern to be tied on heavy wire hooks like the Owner Kuawahara Tenkara, the body is made of 6/0 tying thread. I use thread of this size to made the tying faster and the fly stronger. 

Perhaps will you find this video useful.

Interview for Tenkara Fisher forum

I have done a few interviews for my blogs but I had never thought that I would be the interviewee one day...now it is done.

The administrator of the American forum Tenkara Fisher, my friend Adam Trahan, did an interview with me and I must say that I am honored and proud to have done this because I know Adam's passion for tenkara and fishing in general and he is a very demanding person with a great knowledge about tenkara and other Japanese fishing techniques.

It is a really great to see my name among the other great tenkara and keiryu anglers who have already been interviewed by Adam.

If you want to read this interview, please click here. 

Spring sunday

The winter has been very long this year in my area but this time it seems that we have finally entered spring, all the signs are here. I went on a small local stream yesterday and I think that we are really close to fully enter the fishing season. 

Until my fishing outings have been pretty short and not very productive but I think this is about to change with the recent improvement of the weather. 

With the sunny weather the water level in streams is going to get lower and the water clearer, fishes will be more active on food and that will make fishing more productive and more pleasant. 

I did fish yesterday with my faithful Oni type 3 rod and a Takayama sakasa kebari and if it has not been easy fishing has been more productive than my previous outings. I caught a series of baby salmons in the beginning so I did skip this spot and headed upstream to fish only the fast parts and it was the good choice. I did catch several trouts along the bank, all were very strong muscular trouts. 

As it was the first tenkara outing with good weather conditions I stopped fishing and took a nap under a blooming cherry tree. 

After this nap I did fish a straight line with a pretty nice fast current covered by a dense and low canopy. It was really worth the effort! I did catch several nice sized trouts, in fact my biggest fishes of the season. 

Sunday tenkara

After the rainy week I did decide yesterday to go fishing and enjoy the first sun rays of the weekend. The sky was clear but it was probably not as hot as one could expect.

Once on the stream I realized that my weather forecast was good because it was only 53°F! Even though it has rained a lot the week before the water low has not raised a lot but the stream has a tea-like color that I do not  like a lot.

In such conditions I know that it is hard to catch a lot of fishes so I take advantage of this kind of outings to improve my skills, especially casting accuracy. I never practice the arrow cast because of a personal choice and the fact that in my opinion this casting technique is not suitable with tenkara rods because of their delicacy. It is much more interesting to me to learn how to cast in tight and snaggy places than taking the risk to break my rod tip. 

I did catch a few small trouts and lost two bigger ones because of tree branches over the water that made my hook setting turn bad but after that is a part of the game. The angler can not win every time!

This season is starting very slowly, it is not surprising with such conditions but I am not stressed about that, spring is slow to come this year but patience is a gift.