I cannot wait till I actually have a tenkara leader to use.  I lost the only one I had….so i attempted to use a leader of mono….casting was difficult, but even with that difficulty the fish were very willing.  I must say that I saw no one else catching fish or even getting strikes while I was there.  I was the only one fishing tenkara and it will not be my last.

Sorry for such a rushed post with no pics, but I wanted to get it posted.

I hit the stream around 8:00am and started (attempt) to fish the stream.  I found some decent runs, and a few deep pools, but no fish.  Well,  I had a strike from a 4in monster as I was lifting the fly out of the water, but that was it.  It was difficult to fish using an 11ft Fountainhead rod, 10.6ft leader, and 3ft of tippet.  It all I had since I was just borrowing the rod.  Hopefully next time I will be able to buy a TenkaraUSA Iwana with the 9ft handle if they ever get them back in stock.  I headed home having been defeated by this little stream.

After the funeral on Sunday, I was able to hit up a pond that is literally right down the road from my in-law’s house.  I know this pond holds some decent fish and was ready to give tenkara a try on some gills (mainly because I KNEW I could catch some of those).  I tied on a fly and started swinging.  When it hit the water I watched it slowly sing into the depths….then it disappeared.   I lifted it and let it fall back down.  All of a sudden my line starts to take off and I set the hook.  What followed was a fight I will remember forever.  The rod was bending, the fish was tugging, and I was smiling.

It was a slaughter.  I caught fish after fish with the little fly.  I must say that I am totally hooked, and have thought about selling most of my western fly gear.  I would keep my one rod for river smallmouth, but as for trout….I am tempted to get rid of it all.  I have not made that move yet, but doubt I actually will, but in that moment I wanted too.  Its just weird to me to think about fishing without a reel all the time.  I just think of all the situations where I might want a rod and reel to strip in a streamer…I do not know…

I cannot wait until I have a trout on the end of a tenkara rod.  If these gills can put up such a fight, a wild brown must be CRAZY awesome.  Its time to try and sell some guitar gear to fund some tenkara gear.  It was a great time and I appreciate everyone who has helped me with my questions.  It means a lot that you guys would help a complete stranger as much as you have.

I will say this though about Tenkara.  I love how simplistic it is, and is supposed to be, but I hate the fact that there is really only just a handful of places to buy gear from.  I realize that it is somewhat new to the United State, but I would love to see other people hop on board and start making other gear, rods, line, bags, etc.

I just find it funny how I am getting into Tenkara without ever really giving it a shot yet.  I know that some people are not into the whole thing and want to stick with their rod and reel.  Don’t get me wrong….I am not going to be selling my 8’6″ 5wt or my 8wt anytime soon.  I have not gone mad over it….yet.  I am in the market for a tenkara rod though.  Anyone have any suggestions?  I am fishing for brown and rainbow trout.  The size of the fish will be around the 4-15inch range with a few maybe topping out at 18in.  The streams are going to range anywhere from 5-25 feet wide.  I know in a perfect world that I would own more than one tenkara rod,  but I need to fish it a few times before I go all cuh-razy with it.

I love this video from My Leaky Waders

Speaking of trout. I went out after work to chase some more stockies that are still swimming the the local stream. The closest stream to me that holds wild trout lies about an hour north of me, so when they put trout in the water just down the road I am there all the time. Last night I decided to go after work to see what survived opening weekend. I decided to leave the fly rod at home and just take the ol’ spinning rod to see what I could not catch. The weather was great, the water was (somewhat) clear, and the fish were biting. I wrangled in five trout all together with about a dozen sunfish. It was a great time out.

Now I am patiently awaiting my Tenkara Care Package from this guy, and a few sakasa kebari from this guy!  I must say that I am supper appreciative of all the support that the blogging community have given me in my attempt to try Tenkara, and to just the help that everyone has given me.

It’s pretty crazy there.  These pictures are from Bennett Springs.  Its a trout park that is in Lebanon, MO.  The water there is beautiful.  It is super clear and its easy to see the hundreds of stocked trout just swimming around.  Its not uncommon for me to have around eight swimming around my boots as I wade eating what I kick up.  Just because of the number of fish doesn’t mean that its just gonna be a walk in the park.  They see thousands of people and everything people throw at them, and at times can be tough, but most of the time its shooting fish in a barrel.

Sooo….this brings me to the PA opener.  I friend of mine wanted to try a new stream about an hour away.  He picked me up in front of my apartment around 6:15 and we made the trek up to the creek.  When we arrived the parking spots were full so we drove up stream and found a sweet hole with no one around it.  We walked down stream to wade across to get to the other side and got ready for the 8:00 start time.  I choose this tine little riffle that led to a deep run.  The bait of the day was wax worms.  I caught my limit pretty quick and noticed only a few others catching here and there.

The fish up a fight for stockies.  It was a very enjoyable day.  After we left, we drove to Tyler State Park so my buddy could try again to catch some fish….again he got skunked.  He just cannot wrap his mind around how he got skunked on opening day.  It’s not like he is an amateur….he usually out fishes me.  Here are pics of some of the other fish I caught.

I plan on heading back out soon….maybe this time I will take a fly rod.  I hope everyone had a great opening day.  Its fun to just get out and be on the water.  I also found out that I need a GoPro….I could have had some cool video with one.  I tried to hold my camera and fish at the same time….doesn’t work

I pretty much am going to be throwing junk flies to these stockies when the crowds thin out a little.  The guy I am fishing with wants to try a new stream, so we are headed up to the Unami Creek for part of the day.

After I had everything in order I decided to attempt to tie up some flies for Tenkara, or as I guess it is called Sakasa Kebari.  Looks simple enough right?  Well….I suck and tying so it still was a little challenge.  I will throw this one excuse out there.  I was tying with material that I received in a Bass Pro kit around six years ago.  I had new thread, but the same hackle that has been through war of being jammed in a baggy and tossed around from when I was younger…so it was fairly difficult to work with.  It kept breaking as i was trying to wrap it around the front of the hook, and my thread which was also from the same kit wanted to break during the whip finishes, so I just cemented the body on a few…..pretty ugly.  I mean, I have new stuff for hoppers, so I used that thread for two of them (green and orange one) and they turned out the best.

My question to all you tenkara masters is this.  To much hackle being used?  Should it be more sparse around the eye of the hook.  I feel that it might be a tad on the heavy side, but I couldn’t tell ya.

Well….Now I am off to chase some stocked Rainbows and whatever else swims in the Unami today.  May also hit up the Neshaminy at Tyler State Park.  Good fishing to everyone else going out!

Right now I want to be fishing.  Not only do I want to be fishing, but I want to start making actual videos.  My goal in the next month or two is to purchase a DSLR so I can get some pretty sweet footage and still images.  When I get the camera if anyone in the SE PA area wants to hook up for some film and fish I would be down.  I have been getting more into videography the past few years.

….anywho….this has just been on my mind recently while I sit in my office at work…..

I decided to hit the stream Monday morning to shake off the dust that has settled on all my fly fishing gear from the past 6 months.  After debating over and over were to go I decided to hit a small stream located in Valley Forge National Park.  I was not in a rush to get there that morning even though I only had a few hours to fish.  I just wanted to have nice relaxing day……wait a sec…..relaxing and fly fishing don’t mix for me.  I am THE definition of the word noobie.  I started out by losing two of my bead head pheasant tails to some trees, and then totally knotting up my leader a few more cast later.  Not very relaxing, but I pressed on.  I tied on a a caddis poopah with no one even looking at it, and eventually lost that fly as well.  Next was a small copper john….lost.

covered bridge where my day started

I felt defeated.  I gave into the old trout park, stocked rainbow, junk fly guy that is inside of me and tied on a san juan worm.  I am not saying that a san juan worm is a junk fly, but there are times I feel that its almost as bad as slapping on a worm to the end of your fly.  It worked.  Literally the first drift through a deep pool yielded my first Valley Creek brown trout.  I was super excited and was ready for some more fishing even though it was getting close to the time I needed to leave.

first brown of the day

After I started moving my way back to the parking area I thought I would give the ol’ San Juan another try in a little pool that I saw.  After a few attempts I ended up landing my second brown of the day.  I was super pumped, and even though I still have yet to catch a trout on a nymph, I was still having fun.  I plan on trying my hand at nymphing again.  There is so much that I need to learn.  I need to take fly fishing lessons like I would take guitar or golf lessons

second brown of the day

I want to say thanks to Mike over at Troutrageous! He gave me some good advice on how to approach and fish Valley.  This is what I love about the fly fishing community (at least the one around me).  They are always willing to help out a dude!  I really appreciate it!!

….also…..I am excited that my free stickers came in the mail!!  Thanks Cameron from The Fiberglass Manifesto.  They look so sweet!!

Big Appetite Small Mouth DVD Trailer from Mangled Fly Media on Vimeo.

I love chasing smallies with the fly rod. To me there is nothing like it. I plan on chasing them a little more this year than I have in the past. There is still so much that I have to learn about this sport of fly fishing.