Connecticut Fly Angler Does Tenkara

Adam Klags and I hit some small streams today on the hunt for brook trout. I brought along my trusty St. Croix Avid 6'6 rod, but I did not use it... oh no, today I was determined to learn something about Tenkara. Adam lent me one of his rods and lines for the day and gave me a quick lesson on casting and fly manipulation, and dropped hints throughout the day, and I got the feel for things. Other than the casting stroke, which is very similar to the cast championed by Joe Humphreys for short line nymph fishing, it was nothing at all like what I am used to. The tip of the rod flexes so much that when the fish took they hardly felt the hook and one even had the fly in her mouth for about five seconds before I set the hook! Getting snagged required more care than normal to preserve the delicate rod tips which are much more likely to break than a western fly rod's. 

The first stream we fished was not in my original plan, but coincidentally my error in directions brought us to the most productive spot of the day! Adam and I caught caught three each is the short section we fished... if that doesn't sound like it should be the most productive all day, you'd be right. We covered a lot of water and caught very few fish where we should have caught numerous fish and some large ones.

The second stream we fished has often been quite productive for me, and among a few that BRK TRT was been kind enough to show me first a couple years ago. Adam is just the kind of person who I trust with these small brook trout streams. He keeps them quiet! Anyway, we flubbed one section and I got one fallfish on the next. 

The third stream of the day is one that I recall having some really gorgeous brookies. Unfortunately the bigger ones avoided us today, but I was pleased to catch some smaller yearlings. They were already showing the amazing colors of this stream's special strain of char. The red spots go farther up the flanks than I have seen anywhere else. 

In the end, it was great to spend another day on the water with Adam and so cool to begin learning a new type of fishing. It forced me to step back and look at things differently again, and I think the more an angler forces his or herself to do so, they gain a better understanding on the whole. What a good day.