Last day on Chéran stream

After a good night of sleep on the banks of the stream we did wake up at sunrise and took out time for a delicious breakfast. The weather promised to be good for fishing like it was the day before. It was the last day of my tenkara road trip so I wanted to enjoy every moment to the fullest. 

We decided to go fishing downstream from the spot where we did stay by night is quite famous among local fly anglers. I do not know if this is a good place for fly fishers as the couple of them who we saw last evening were not really smiling when they left the stream. 

We prospected the stream with a dry fly, results did not come immediately. It was very early in the morning and we had to wait for the temperature to rise to catch the first trouts. Our gear was very simple: an Oni type 2 and a Nissin Kawasahi 390 as rods, a 5 and a 10 meters Fujino tapered lines. 

After two hours of fishing in a wide part of the stream we arrived at a narrow spool and as soon as I saw this spot I said to myself: "full of trouts!". Christophe fished this pool on dry fly and did not catch anything and I was joining him upstream we just saw a trout rising to the surface in the shadow of a tree.
"Did you see it?"

"Of course I did! Can I try something?"

"Please yourself"

Christophe gave me the Kawashi rod, I did cut the tippet and put the dry fly back in my kebari box. I knotted on the tippet an old wet fly pattern of mine that I have been fishing with for at least two decades. I did cast it and as it was drifting to the calm part of the pool a trout did bite. The strike was brutal. These mountain trouts are not huge but they are very good partners for tenkara anglers, hungry and angry.

There was probably a nice school of trouts in this pool because each drift of the wet fly brought back one. Each of them did strike brutally and proved to be a pretty fighter. 

After my share of trouts I did give the rod to my friend and even if he is not used to fish on wet patterns he did catch his first trout quite fast.

He is a good angler and watching me do was enough for him to understand the basics of wet fly tenkara.  He caught beautiful trouts like I had a few minutes ago. 

After the fuss we had done in this pool we decided to go fishing upstream where without a doubt more trouts were eager to bite our fly. This morning of tenkara was a pure moment of joy with a lot of trouts, we did not know how many of them were fooled by our patterns during this tenkara trip and we did not care. My tenkara road trip was close to its end and I was totally satisfied by the experience lived at the Tenkara Fest and then with Christophe who I can sincerely call a friend. 

After a seven hours drive I was back home. I think that I will do other tenkara road trips in the future because it is a rewarding experience not only to discover unknown streams but mainly to meet sincere and passionate tenkara anglers.