Tenkara Moments

June has started like May has finished which means cold, temperatures hardly rise up to fifteen celsius but as the week was over I really wanted to visit one of my favorite local streams and check the conditions and perhaps, i.e. probably, fishing it to give the weekend a good start. The area has hopefully escaped the torrential rains of the week. 

The water is still very cold and greyish but once standing on the edge I did see that this cold weather did not interfere a lot with the insects, mainly mayflies and caddis, emerging and flying away regularly. Trout are very discreet, much more than usual at this time of the year but I rigged my Nissin Zerosum Oni rod and started fishing the spots most likely to shelter some trout that would bite on my Yamato kebari.

To fish these shallow spots, not more than a foot deep, I use the current to sink my kebari. Carried by the stream it easily takes a natural drift, different sasoi manipulations can help to make a recalcitrant trout bite. 

Like my previous tenkara outings I could not expect fishing until the evening rise because the temperatures were going to drop, we really are far from the typical June's fishing until complete darkness with high temperature. Fortunately accurate casts, controlled drifts and a little bit of concentration did give very good results. 

Trout adapt to the new spots created by the trees fallen across the stream. Downstream natural drift revealed to be the most effective technique today. 

Downstream fishing with a single fly is a very simple technique and that is why it is so effective. I already had experienced this technique when I was still (western) fly fishing but a tenkara rod drift control is even better. 

There were a good number of trout on the spot created by this submerged tree. 

I finished this nice tenkara outing downstream the pillars of a long disappeared ford oxen where I also did catch some brown trout thanks to the same downstream fishing technique.

It is a great pleasure to fish with finesse and improving your technique. Rod, line, kebari; it is not only a simple principle but a guarantee of effectiveness. 

After releasing the last trout of this brief tenkara outing I did turn back carefree and happy to have been at the place at the right time. 

Post thunderstorm tenkara

Since my last tenkara outing the area where I live has faced highly unstable weather and many thunderstorms and as I have seen last weekend the streams still wear their stained winter dress but yesterday by the end of the afternoon  I wanted to enjoy the little bit of free time I had so I decided to visit the stream close to my home with the hope that I could fish in.
The sky was slightly overcast, the wind was low but I did think that the conditions were better than the previous week and I made my Oni type 1 rod ready. 

It was my first fishing session on this stream this year and my first observation was the number of trees bent by the winter storms or outright fallen into the stream.

If the water was stained in the mainstream it was clear on the edges. There were lots of insects emerging among which tiny black sedges and mayflies. 

I had four meters of the new Nissin Oni-ryu level line size 2.5 on my spool as well as a meter of fluorocarbon tippet to which was tied a Yamato kebari.

I caught the first trout of the day after casting a few meters upstream its rising spot. I quickly released it, walked a few meters to catch a second one after seeing it rise to a large mayfly.

Trout were active, and did rise easily to the surface thanks to the regular hatching of mayflies, my stealth approach combined with accurate casts and controlled drifts were rewarded by several catches. None of the trout seem to make any difference between the natural mayflies and my Yamato kebari.

Time passing by the wind got stronger and trout less active so I decided to walk upstream to a more sheltered spot. I did hit a small fishing spot that I like because I always find several trout in the quiet raws of the stream. If you want to train fishing without using weighted patterns that is the typical spot you have to look for. 

Accurate casts and controlled drifts are the keys to success in tenkara fishing; there is no need to knot or stick accessories to your line or tippet. A minimum of concentration on what you are doing is much more useful than the last fashionable gadget advised by fishing forums "experts".

Despite stained water, cold and high water trout were still moving for food.

The wind was rising and I did feel that the temperature was dropping as it has been almost every evening for the last weeks. I did catch a last trout and as it was gone back into its habitat I did collapse my rod, disconnected the line and did take the way back home. 

It was a short and enjoyable tenkara outing, I did not have the opportunity of a typical June evening rise but I still enjoyed these moments on the stream. Maybe next time...

A sunday between tenkara and photo

The weather was very nice last week, the sun was sunny every day and helped temperatures that were till then under the seasonal average rise so I have spent last sunday in the outdoors to enjoy tenkara and photography. 

This time I decided to go on a small stream, and not a creek, to check the water level as during the last months it has been very high on the whole of local streams. I did not know what to expect at all and I was positively surprised to find a clear stream which has many spots with dropping water level. But as I noticed when I started wading it is still very cold. 

I did quietly rig my Oni type III rod and knotted to my tippet a kebari that I have been carrying everywhere for several seasons now. I could name it a mayfly or perhaps "mayfly kebari" but I have used it for the whole 2014 trout season with only one variation, presence or absence of the peacock herls thorax, and I have no regrets about this experience. Anyway last sunday, at least during I was on the stream, there was no ephemera danica hatching. 

I only saw a handful of sulphur emerging and flying away without a single trout to rise and catch one.

I applied to accurate casts, using the current as best as I could to make my kebari go to the stream bottom as one can do if fishing tenkara as it is meant to be: using the line to cast and then keep it off water. I was rewarded by catching an amazingly beautiful trout. 

After releasing this beauty I waded a little bit upstream but it was not the good time, the sun in my back cast my shadow on the stream. On this stretch of the stream it is only possible to fish from one bank so I decided to collapse my rod. Better leave the trout alone. I walked down the stream slowly while taking a few pictures and thinking about the trout I had caught. It has been a short tenkara fishing session but very intense. 

Pleasure is the only measure a trout fisherman should ever take.

Fujino "Straight Line"

The Fujino firm, a company that has produced fishing lines in Atsugi, Japan since 1957 has called several times recognized tenkara experts to design lines such as Takashi Yoshida  for the "Soft Tenkara" and "Tenkara Midi" lines and Masami Sakakibara for the "Soft Tenkara Long Type".
A few weeks ago Fujino announced the imminent release of a new tenkara line designed by a very experience angler who has greatly contributed to the evolution of this fishing technique and is a widely recognized ambassador: Dr. Hisao Ishigaki.

This line, commonly called "level line" is not made of fluorocarbon but of polyarylate, a family of thermoplastics polymers with various industrial use. In the case of this tenkara line it is made of a material called "Zxion" (pronounce "Zekushion" ®) which means that it is consisting in polyester liquid crystals whose main characteristics make it an interesting product to make a tenkara line with: high strength, insensitivity to U.V radiation and very low shape memory. 

As the picture above shows the "Straight Line" has a yellow stain that I call "curry yellow", it is an opaque non-fluorescent yellow which is a good idea as fluorescent yellow for tenkara lines has the disadvantage to make it virtually invisible, except when fishing in low light conditions, and that is a problem especially for beginners.
This line that Dr. Hisao Ishigaki has first designed for tenkara beginners make accurate casting easy as it is stiff enough to be easily controlled and it is dense enough to insure an effective transmission of the casting motions energy. The tip of the line is made of a 30 centimeters section of furled nylon with black markers every five centimeters. This makes a strike indicator which can be very useful for a tenkara beginner. 

This line is available in three different length: 3.50, 4 and 5 meters + 30 centimeters furled section.

Dr. Hisao Ishigaki is, besides a tenkara angler with a forty years experience who has stayed faithful to the principle of simplicity in tenkara and is unanimously recognized as a tenkara ambassador, a renowned ophtalmologist who has among many other things supervised the development of vision training software for Nintendo and that is in my opinion a guarantee of seriousness in the design of this tenkara line.

The furled nylon tip has elasticity enough to absorb the energy of the hook settings and if it is your "thing" you can use the black markers as a fish measure tape as there is five centimeters between each of them.

Fishing with the "Straight Line" is really pleasing, it perfectly matches the objectives of its concept and in my opinion it can go further than matching the specific needs of tenkara beginners as this line allows very delicate kebari presentation.
This line is really a part of what is best among tenkara lines as those created by Hiromichi Fuji, Yuzoh Sebata,  Takashi Yoshida or Masami Sakibara which are all the fruits of a long tenkara experience, a high level of demand and fidelity to the principle of simplicity.

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.