Surprised by rain

To enjoy a little bit of the sun last weekend I decided to go on a stretch of a stream near my home that I have not fished for several seasons, it was fine but I really did not expect to find the stream in perfect condition for fishing. Spring comes by turmoil, a sunny day is followed by a dull and rainy one and it shows significantly on the water level in the streams.
Along the way, walking warming me I found myself to take off my jacket, but I did not do illusions because the sky was veiled by moment. At first I was surprised to realize how this portion of the stream has changed throughout the years. Some jams have disappeared probably washed away by floods in many places besides bank erosion has greatly expanded the river. The water was as I had expected high and still tinged because of recent storms but I still decided to put my tenkara rod in action. Casting practice never hurts, it's the only way to improve.

I did take my time as I like to do when rigging my tenkara tackle, preparing a line, connecting the tippet and a kebari and meanwhile brightness dropped very quickly and just when my kebari landed on the water a heavy downpour began. And it only stopped after the three quarters of an hour it took me to go back home!

Dried and after an excellent cup of sencha tokusen I decided to do a new edition of one of my first fly tying video that I did release more than three years and I was not satisfied with.

These fly tying videos are intended, if indeed they had a goal, to show clearly to tying newbies some useful basic skills because it is not a secret that luring trout with a kebari that you tied by yourself greatly enhances your pleasure to fish.

Spring is coming...

After the first real fishing outing last week that has  left me a pleasant memory it seems that spring is on the way; temperatures begin to rise and the wind is less present.

I have had very few moments to be on any stream but a few days ago as I was driving nearby a stream I did stop for a few casts on a spot that I had not visited for ages. What was not my surprise to take this big rainbow! Very beautiful, with fins in perfect condition there is no doubt whether a trout have been introduced into this stream and that has managed to survive the herons, fishermen, etc. 

Even though it was cool to land this big fish I would have preferred it to be an atlantic salmo trutta fario. 

With spring animals, just like fishermen, are much more active and that offers me the opportuniy to do some photography. It gives me the will to become a little more familiar with the Canon EOS 1200D camera I purchased last winter and which has almost not been used yet.

The early morning is the best time of day to watch all this wildlife that often lives a few steps, or something a few tens of yards, away from us. 

I recently made new editions of my kebari tying videos,  I make them so that they are understandable to everyone, especially novices so hopefully it will meet their expectations about this topic. Fly tying is not complicated or mysterious, it's just a matter of training.

First fishing outing of the season

After the cancellation of the fishing outing planned last weekend due to unfavorable weather I finally did take yesterday morning the way to my favorite creek for early in the season without really knowing what to expect because major rivers in the area still have very high and strongly stained water. So I arrived around 10 hours and a half and I was pleased to find that the water level had dropped since the opening of the season and I saw along the path that the stream was about to regain its original color that is really more beautiful than opaque grey.

As always on this stream fishes rarely betray their position, in this shallow and narrow stream  trout are almost impossible to sight so it is to the angler to read the current and potential positions where to cast his kebari. I was fishing with a pattern with which I like to fish, the Zenmai-dou, and I was surprised to see it be taken dry on the first cast. To me pattern categories categories like "wet" or "dry" do not exist anymore as I like fishing with the most versatile ties that can be used at different levels. Trout and salmon parr did show themselves very active until that the kebari drifted straight into their mouth.

After lunch which was a bit more sunny than that of the opening day I decided to go downstream because the sector explored in the morning I had seen a lot of footsteps making me me think that this stretch had been visited very often lately. Fishermen are probably far more numerous than usual on this stream as large rivers still have very high water level and that brings many fishermen back on the small streams they usually shun.

It is in this corner that I started fishing again,  a delicate and accurate cast bringing my kebari in the quiet strip at the foot of rotten trunk made me take my first legal sized trout of the season. In my area the legal size if you want to keep a trout is 24 centimeters. 

After releasing it I decided to ignore a sector that I know well and that somehow I prefer to reserve for myself later I walked upstream again to go to a spot where I have not fished in a long time. Along the way, traces of fishermen passage faded and then disappeared completely which was good to me because unfortunately some fishermen do not leave only footprints behind. I will never understand how some people can consider themselves as fishing enthusiasts and use the streams banks as dumps. 

There are throughout the ten kilometers that measures this stream many construction remains and they often provide excellent trout shelters. My Zenmai-dou had dried along the way and I did cast to the right through the remains of what once was a wall. This trout shelter was so tempting that I could not resist casting my kebari there. It did not drift five centimeters before a trout rose and took it. I was actually really pleased; this trout was beautiful and it is with a smile on my face that I put this amazing fish back to water.

After this moment of satisfaction and joy I did collapse my rod, put my line back on a spool and did take the path back home. It was my first real fishing outing of the year, it went very well and that's the main thing.