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.  

Tenkara on the Haut-Chéran stream

After driving through another village we took a very small mountain road and after a few miles of winding road we did park nearby the stream where we were going to do what we like most: fishing.

We were parked just after a bridge over a beautiful torrent: the Haut-Chéran.

We were gifted with very good weather conditions: temperature was around 64°F, the sky was slightly overcast and there was almost no wind. This tenkara day was beginning under very favorable omens.

Christophe told me that he wanted to try his chance downstream the bridge as he had spotted several trouts during a prior outing in the area so I let him take the lead.

The first trout of the afternoon was caught rapidly. I was surprised by its grey skin, beautiful and really uncommon for someone who is not used to fish in this kind of stream.

This trout released properly we approached to the bridge as discreetly as possible and we had the confirmation that there were two nice sized trouts under this bridge but they were very fast to rush to the fly and go back to their shelter. Christophe did make only one try for each of them and collapsed down the Oni rod as for the next part of this stream we would need a shorter rod. 

This bridge physically marks the passage to the wild part of this stream, much narrower and running between heavily forested banks. The both of us having passed under the bridge we took a last look at the spot from where the trouts had arisen. They were probably hungry but still not enough to spend a moment in a landing net!

I rigged a NISSIN Royal Airstage 320 rod with a short monofilament line, a two feet nylon tippet and my dry fly while Christophe was observing the stream before taking action...

My "Hi-vis" dry fly combined with Christophe's talent did give very positive results immediately...

We fished in tandem with one rod so we fished in turn, we were not competing and it would have been a nonsense to fish spots already fished a few minutes before. As my friend, who knows this gin clear stream stone by stone stated: "One spot, one chance". 

I did my best to do what I had learned in the morning on the Nant des Vaches:  landing my fly precisely and being concentrated enough for efficient hook setting. I think that the lesson was learned because I did fish the whole afternoon without missing any fish. I even was lucky enough to catch a very nice sized trout for this stream that had the particularity to have exactly the same yellow skin pattern than the native trouts of Normandy. 

The Chéran was generous with us all along this tenkara outing and we have caught a lot of trouts. 

Fishing in tandem and in turn is not my habit but the exercise is very interesting when practiced in a good spirit because one can learn a lot only by watching someone else fishing. I sincerely thank my friend Christophe to make me discover the Chéran which is to me the typical mountain stream: shallow fast water with very fast trouts. 

We did realize what time it was only because the temperature was dropping, we had fished the whole afternoon without a break. Absorbed by the stream. It was 8 p.m when we climbed a huge boulder to access a spot from which we could easily reach the trail back to the place where our vehicle was parked at. 

Back at the vehicle we were tired yet blissfully satisfied by a great tenkara session. The fishing gear safely stored in the van we did take the road back towards the bivouac spot called: Sparta. 

A very comfortable Sparta indeed where we had a feast worthy of kings.

After this outstanding feast we did fall asleep only a few meters afar from the place where we were going to fish the next day...