Sunday was the closing day of the trout stream fishing season and I of course did follow the ritual of the last fishing day. It has often rained during the last weeks and the stream I did fish already wears its autumnal finery: high and cold water spoofing the first fallen leaves. But the season is done, if one missed his season it is too late to make it better. To me it is a last opportunity to say goodbye to a stream I like fishing, it is only better if I catch a few trouts.
So I was leaving home in the beginning of the afternoon with minimum gear, what a tenkara angler should always keep in mind: rod, line, kebari. The great Charles Mingus once said: "Making the simple thing complicated is commonplace; making the complicated simple, awesomely simple, that's creativity." In the morning the sky was overcast but now it was sunny, it was even hot.
I walked along the stream without fishing before I was at the spot where I wanted to catch the very last brown trouts of the season. On the way I did not meet anyone, we are fewer and fewer every year to fish this stream.
The upstream part of this spot is shallow, the current makes the water rich in oxygen before it reaches a right angle turn where the depth grows. Depending on the level of water and its temperature trouts will place themselves in the fast or the slow part. I did fish with my faitful Oni type 2 rod, a five meters tapered line and a Takayama sakasa kebari. After a few casts I got the first brown trout of the day.
I did lose a big one just after this one, it went away after making a maximum of fuss so I was expecting a long moment without catching anything. I decided to take a break, left my rod on the bank and went in the woods on the other side of the stream but did not find any edible mushroom, the only things I brought back were crow and pigeon feathers. Useful but inedible!
Back on the stream banks I did take the rod back but decided to skip the fast part of the spot. I walked a few meters upstream to fish a quiet stretch where I caught a couple of very nice brown trouts. The both of them were very nice typical brownies from Normandy with grey and yellow flanks.
It was hardly four p.m and I was already feeling the temperature has begun dropping, the light intensity was going down so after the second trout was gone back to its shelter I did collapse my rod and rolled back my line on a spool. It started raining just at the moment when I closed the door of the house.
A trout fishing season just ended, not "one more" as they are all different and to me the 2015 season has been awesome.
Sadly, I never broke out my Tenkara rod this Summer. Of course, to fish with Tenkara you need water in the creek. That is something we lack in Northern California in a big way. In fact, I can't remember when I last broke out a fly rod. It's sad out here, very sad.
RépondreSupprimer