A trout season ends...

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. 

MY "ONE FLY" EXPERIENCE

At the end of the 2013 season I had decided to experience the one fly theory that has nothing of a dogma but rather a fishing theory based on the principle that for tenkara fishermen technique is more important to catch fishes than the choice of a particular fly.
After that season finished I decided to stay true to the most productive pattern used in 2013 inspired by a traditional Japanese pattern: the Takayama sakasa kebari.
Some of my ties were the same than the original Japanese pattern, others were not for the simple reason that I did not have enough stock of this or that element of the pattern and I wanted to buy as little as possible fly tying materials during this 2014 season.

I no longer differentiate my flies in categories such as "wet", "emerging" or "dries" because I think that as I do not consider tenkara in terms such as "fly fishing without reel" so I am not limited by the restrictive boundaries of the different sects ruling the fly fishing microcosm. I rather explore all the possibilities offered by only one pattern. 

As I wrote in the introduction the one fly theory is not a dogma but it is nevertheless advised for those who want to improve their technique. 

During the 2014 season, which was probably the most difficult in many years, I did not get skunked any single time and I even surprised myself to catch trouts in places where I had never caught anything else than chubs! 

I think that fishing only with one fly pattern makes you question your technique and can help to improve it and make you more self confident while continuous fly pattern changes only lead to fill boxes.

Trout is not less opportunistic and more intelligent than other freshwater fish species, I am not a partisan of the smoking theories about the "intelligence" of trouts. Their brain is not bigger than the one of a chicken but I have never met an angler praising the intelligence of chicken. 

Self confidence and technique are the keys to successful fishing. Is it a coincidence if the true fly fishermen that were our fathers and grandfathers used only a few fly patterns generally tied with materials found in their backyard or in the woods? Absolutely not! I am sure that they know that their technique was more important than the pattern used. 

My one fly experience has really brought me to fish with more self confidence than ever and there is no doubt for me that if I had not questioned my technique I would still spoil my pleasure to fish and that I would also be a less skilled angler. 

CLOSING OF THE 2014 TROUT SEASON

The fateful date of the trout season closure in the first category streams has come so I had to take advantage of a rare thinning to enjoy a little of this part of the river.

In the french fishing regulations streams are divided in two categories:
-The first category includes streams where fishes are at least 90% salmonids.
-The second category are streams with a maximum of 60% salmonids.

I did not expect easy fishing, fall is already here; rainy and windy as always in Normandy. The water level has been abnormally high throughout the season but recent storms have contributed again more to stain the water. So this  last outing on the Sienne stream was quite short.

I am not frustrated that the season closing has already come because I think that despite the incredibly bad conditions we had this year I have lived my tenkara experience to the fullest. 

I will write again about this difficult trout season that has taught me a lot. In the meantime I offer you a video of this last trout season day. 

FINAL STRETCH OF THE 2014 SEASON

It is not yet time to print the balance sheet of the 2014 season but the end is near and one must not miss an opportunity to go fishing and that is what I did yesterday.

The summer was rotten, it is a fact that no one can deny but since a few days the nice weather is back, it is even hot! It does not make fishing easier either. Trouts are not very active on food as they have had time enough to binge during the last two months that where, according to weather records, the wettest since 1959. Just that!

I went fishing a small stream which is very unusual for the area as it looks like a mountain stream: strongly cashed banks, little water, many rocks, waterfalls, etc.

The picture on the left depicts what I have seen when I left the town and started getting closer to the stream. I was sure to spend a good moment in this place.

I did not expect the fishing to be easy and it was not. I think that I am realistic about the status of the salmonids in the area, they are only a shadow of what they were. This situation has made me realize that it was more satisfying for me as a Tenkara angler to catch some wild trouts in these overlooked streams than catching bigger stocked specimens in C&R areas. Unlike most fly anglers I do not let the rods on the rack when fishing gets harder.

The morning was good with a few catches on well marked positions but when the trouts are not hungry it is useless to expect a catch behind each rock. Anyway I do not feel the need to highlight the score as if tenkara was a basketball game, it is much more important to me to learn something every time I go fishing.

I will definitely return to this beautiful stream. The surrounding woods are pretty dense and slow progress on the river allows true immersion. 

It is now 2 p.m, the sun is blazing overhead, the temperature is at its maximum and I decide to leave this heavenly place. 

NORMAN CREEK TENKRA

After several windy days I had an opportunity to go back to the stream where I did the season opening.
A short summary in motion picture...

This outing was very nice, even though I had forgotten my sunglasses, and I think that I made progress since last year on two key points:

-Accuracy: I have been so precise in my casting, even when I was fishing with a western fly rod. Tenkara is, according to me, a fly fishing technique that consists in teasing the trouts where they are and not in waiting for them to betray their presence. If they do, good. Otherwise I take a little bit of time to observe the stream and try my luck.

-Enticing: When I released the first trout in the pool and saw another one rising about 7 feet from me I thought it was a good opportunity to test my discretion and my ability to make my kebari interesting in the eyes of a trout. There is a little more than one year that I fish Tenkara only and I think that my perseverance to fish only in the traditional style is beginning to pay. Fly animation combined with a good drift can really make a difference.

I will go soon fishing tenkara on streams I have never fished yet. That is, I think, the best way to improve my tenkara.