There is Hope!

Finally!

The extra day off during the Presidents Day weekend allowed me to finally head out back on the water again. Yesterday, I teamed-up with my buddy Graham to harass some trout on the South Platte, on the only not frozen solid piece of water within a reasonable drive.

We initially wanted to hike into Cheesman Canyon since we heard that even the Deckers area had ice and slush. Driving up the river we saw a lot of ice and slush, even entire sections of the river completely covered by ice and snow. We even joked that we should have brought an auger to do some ice fishing, still hoping we would fine some water that's not "on the rocks".

When we got to Denver around 9.30am, the river was slush free and we decided that we probably should spend time fishing instead of hiking into the canyon.

We pulled all the way up to just below the cable, separating the public section from the private property of the Wigwam fishing club.

It was a beautiful but cold day, even my net froze to my waders. But it was a spectacular and beautiful day, there was just a bit of a snow blanket from the night before that covered the ground, rocks, hills, tress with a white sparkly blanket.

The water was extremely low and clear. I consider 150cfs a healthy flow but since the end of January, it was barely 40cfs. The fish of course were wary. We could see pods of a dozen and more fish not even a rod lengths from us. They could see us, too. The only chance to catch them was to present a fly from behind a obstacle where they could not see you prior to your presentation.

While walking upstream I was able to find some cover behind some brush and cast just forward of two feeding fish. The first fish ignored my offerings but the next fish up took the first drift of my Killer Bug1 I managed to finally hook and land one of the elusive winter trout, a chubby rainbow trout measuring 17". The moment I hooked the fish I also realized that my camera was still in the car. Too bad as this fish was a beauty.

I managed to hook 2 more fish, a 13" rainbow I was able to land and a bigger one that actually chased my fly, took it, and continued running downstream and broke off.

next time I need to remembe tohave the camera on me when I catch the big one!

Looks like I finally shook the winter skunk off...

A Slow Start into the New Year

Against all odds and common sense, I headed out yesterday, Jan. 2, 2012 with my friend Graham of Tenkara Grasshopper to the South Platte up in Deckers for some Winter Tenkara Fishing.

We got to the river just after 10.00am and it was 12F.... The river looked almost like a slurpee with all the sludge coming down river. We started heading upriver the 10 miles or so towards Deckers where the temperature was a balmy 22F and the river was ice free. It was actually quite nice and warm as long as you stayed in the sun.

You can't tell from the pic, but it is a slurpee alright

I used this opportunity to do some long line tenkara (18ft level line plus tippet with my Tenkara USA Ito in the 13ft position) but soon realized that for the type of water we were fishing, this line setup was the wrong choice (we were fishing the close pocket water). But from a casting and testing point of view, it was beatiful to see at what distance I could hit some pockets with all the line off the water. This will be a very promising technique on the South Platte and bigger rivers once it warms up a bit (hello Spring!).

Graham in action 

Both Graham and I pounded the water blind casting for a while before we found two nice fish in the 18-20" range and started sight casting to the fish, but after half an hour and no interest of the big bow we packed-up and started heading downstream to escape the usual Deckers crowd.

At Pine Creek, we (well, ok, I) spooked maybe a dozen fish from under the ice shelf (go figure) but continued our efforts, oftentimes thinking that the bump we felt was a fish (turns out it was just ice that got snagged on our flies). I switched to a baby bugger on my Amago (what a difference after casting the Ito) and managed to get a flash of a fish but no take.

The day ended for us just after 3.00pm, feeling cold but happy having escaped a day stuck in the house or office. There is hope that this skunk is not an omen of the new year but only for our Winter tenkara fishing. And I think I am about to repeat myself by saying that maybe I should focus on skiing in the Winter.

River Statistics:
Weather: sunny, no wind
Air Temp: 12F at 10.00am with a high of 48F in the afternoon
Flow: 130 cfs, clear (slightly off color in the afternoon due to warmer temps and snow melt)
Day on the water in 2012: 1
Fish: 0

Cheesman Tenkara

My most recent trip was to fish the South Platte in Cheesman Canyon with Jason Klass (of Tenkara Talk) and Daniel Galhardo (of Tenkara USA) while Daniel visited Colorado late October (click here).

This trip was special for me on many different levels, starting with finally meeting Daniel Galhardo and share some water with him, observing his techniques and strategies and exchange thoughts. But also by fishing the entire stretch of Cheesman Canyon. Having two cars, we were able to drop one car at the bottom of the canyon and park at the top, allowing us to hike and fish the full 3 miles of water. 

We got to the Deckers area around 8am and it was surprisingly cold - only 22F! However, the hike to the river warmed us up very quickly and the sun, once it crested, made it a very pleasant day to fish. The hike in was long and steep, the main reason why I don't hike to the river from the top - the return trip after a full day's fishing is just brutal (I did it once, pre-tenkara, during Summer when it was in the high 80ies, with my waders on and a fully loaded fishing vest).

Just below the dam of Cheesman Reservoir

Daniel in action

That's the hole I hooked with my first fish, after Daniel fished through it

Once we reached the water, Daniel was quick to start fishing and got a big brown trout to turn but unfortunately she did not take the fly. After I rigged-up with my new 14ft hand-tied line for the ITO from Tenkarabum, I got surprisingly quickly into a very nice rainbow, somewhere around 17", but I was not fortunate enough to land her (I really need to look into a tamo or landing net with a long handle!).

Daniel working some pocket water

Daniel with the only "landed" fish of the day

What seemed to be a good start proved soon to be pretty tough fishing, with the water level being very low (around 80cfs) and the river having lots of green, whitish and black algae. We were concerned that this would be Didymo, but a biologist of  Denver Water to who I reached out after the trip, confirmed, to our relief, that it's NOT Didymo. Over the course of the day, Daniel hooked two and landed one and I hooked two and lost both of them. I fished almost exclusively tenkara flies and both hook-ups were on a Sakasa Copperbari of Tenkarabum.

We had a great day on the water besides the "not catching many fish" part, the weather was great and the company was even better. Cheesman confirmed it's reputation to be a difficult river, but we were able to fool a few fish with flies that were not quite the "standard" fare for this technical tailwater, which really encouraged me to fish more with traditional tenkara flies.

new friends, tired but happy

Tight Lines, -K

Eagle River Sept. 25, 2011

I have been living in Colorado for over 3 years now and only this September did I make it up to Vail for the first time! The occasion was to spend a relaxing weekend with the family of my daughter's best buddy Harper and to celebrate my buddy Lyle's birthday (Harper's dad).

Heading up on Interstate 70, I was surprised that the Aspen trees have already changed into their brilliant golden Fall colors. The mountains looked like they were on fire! This is most definitively my favorite time of year in Colorado - the days are warm, the nights are cool, the weather is as always great and the colors top it all off.

Since it was Lyle's birthday, he requested to go fish Sunday morning - who am I to not comply? After a hearty breakfast, we headed down the valley to Minturn to fish the upper Eagle River. I never fished this river before but heard good stuff, so there were some expectations in the back of my head.

When we got to the river, I was taken back how clear the river was (and cold!). It is a moderate-high gradient river with strewn with boulders and rocks and so clear that you could see every single rock down to the bottom of most pools. Beautiful water to fish indeed and pretty good flow, although on the low end, of around 50cfs.

Lyle started off fishing with his "Western" rig with a nymph rig upstream of me while I pulled out the ITO rigged with a 13' no. 3 level line of Tenkarabum (so far, this is the line I like the best on the ITO, although I have a hand-tied 14ft fc line coming soon) with a Mini Hopper from AZWanderings and a small CJ as dropper. I landed two nice browns right away (on the Mini Hopper) but then things slowed down so I watched Lyle for a while and took it slow, enjoying being just out on the river. Eventually, I couldn't resist and changed my setup to a CDC & Elk (of course) and started hitting the slow pockets and eddies. I was able to raise a few fish and even land one but the action was not steady.

Lyle before being "converted"

The best fish came from a run I fished after Lyle was done. A nice and healthy brown took the dry fly and I was able to land the fist fairly quickly off the fast water. One observation I had was that none of the fish was fighting very hard; I am not sure if that was due to the cold water or whether they "knew" they'd be released.

yours truly

one healthy brown

Later in the morning, we moved to a different spot a bit downstream where Lyle finally gave in and tried to fish Tenkara. Well, let me say that he hooked a fish but lost it (and his glasses) while trying to land it. After we were done and heading back up to Vail, he said: "I really enjoyed Tenkara. Much different than my Western rig - the touch and feel is way better. I am really going to enjoy making the transition". It looks as we are having a new convert, especially since he's bumming one of my rods for his trip down to New Mexico this weekend!

not the best quality, but I like this picture a lot

Tight Lines, -K

South Platte Sept. 16, 2011

After spending a week in California, I had one day of spare vacation time which I used to head to the South Platte to fish some more with the Tenkara USA ITO in pursuit of bigger fish than I would catch in RMNP or on BC, my other favorite spots to play around.

As I might have written earlier, the South Platte is a very different fishery (being a tailwater) than BC or any of the high country creeks. It's a mid-size river with good fishable flows from arond 150cfs to somewhere around 400 cfs. If the flows are higher, I consider heading to a different river or creek. It's also a river that is still recovering from the effects of the Hayman Fire that devasted the area around Cheesman Canyon and Deckers in 2002. The South Platte offers a lot of different water, riffles, pools, pocket water etc. and there is a lot of "decomposed" granite in the river looking like little rough pebbles. Many sections look like there is no cover for fish at all but thankfully there are many more sections that provide enough cover and holding places.

Anyway, I fished a section that I haven't fished before (there is a $5 parking fee), playing around and testing the ITO. The day began slow, it was in the 40ies when I got to the river in the morning. I started out with an nymph attractor/dropper rig at first but could only convice very few fish to be interested, most of them hit, of course, the small dropper, my mercury RS2.

As it warmed-up, I decided to see if any fish would be looking up; the section I fished was not too deep and at a flow of about 200cfs chances of getting dry fly action were ok (the SP is traditionally NOT a dry fly river). I tied on my trusted CDC & Elk (size 16) with an burnt orange body (October Caddis imitation) and soon I was able to entice a few fish to come up and take my fly. I was happy as a little kid in a candy store (well, I am always happy when I am actually able to get out fishing). The action was not overwhelming, but surprisingly steady. I focused on pocket water, eddies behind rocks and other structure such as trees, undercut banks etc. Basically any water that had structure and was not just decomposed granite.

I landed more than a dozen fish, most of them brown trout with the males already showing first signs of spawn colors and kypes. The highlight of the day was when I was fishing back upstream to where my car was parked, hitting pockets in the fast water and getting hits on almost every other cast, which didn't go un-noticed by two kids in their twenties nymphing further downstream. One of them actually came up to ask what I fly I was using and noticed that I had no real. I explained to him that this is Tenkara and he said, "oh, yes, Japanese nymphing!" I just chuckled and replied "yes, Japanese Fly Fishing". He nodded and headed back downstream, not being interested to learn more.

It was a good day on the river and my ITO got a nice workout. I didn't catch any monsters, but a few fish in the 12-14" range which the rod handled quite beautifully. I definitively like how the rod casts collapsed at 13', sometimes I extended it to it's full 14'7" to be able to cast to some spots farther away if I couldn't or didn't want to wade closer to. Once a good fish was hooked, I liked to extend the ITO to it's full length and use the added leverage for landing. The rod is soft, but I like it!

A few pix of the nicer fish caught, typical fare for the South Platte a few miles downriver from Deckers:

And yes, my underwater caption skills need improvement, I have to figure out how far away to hold the camera and what direction to point it....

Gear Review: The Ebira Plus and Ebira Guide Rod Quivers (TrailLite Designs)

I know, there have been a lot of gear reviews lately, thanks to some weird lucky streak over at OBN but also thanks to the increased availability of Tenkara Gear - which I love to test for you so that you know what's out there and whether it's worth considering.

You might remember my review of the original Ebira, the Tenkara rod quiver made by TrailLite Designs (the same shop that also makes the Ti Net). Turns out that TrailLite Designs, that is run by Thom Darrah, is on to something. TrailLite Designs collected feedback from Tenkara anglers and the result is two new Ebiras.

The Ebira Plus is designed to pack 2 rods and has one pocket for gear. The pocket is slightly bigger than on the original Ebira and will hence accommodate either a bigger fly box for us fly junkies or a bit more gear such as tippet, nippers, lines or floatant etc.

Product Details Ebira Plus:
Weight: 1.5 oz. 
Material: dyneema-x 
Attachable Pocket
Type of Closure: Drawstring on the quiver pocket and water-resistant zipper on the tackle pocket.
Dimensions: 22.5" x 4.5" (2.25" per sleeve)
100% made in the USA

The Ebira Guide, for which I received a prototype for review, is designed to pack a whopping 4 rods (!) thanks to slightly wider twin sleeves than the Ebira Plus. You will able to store 4 rods if you insert one rod grip down and one grip up in each sleeve if you will carry the rods not rigged. Two rods, one per sleeve, can be stored if you decide to carry your rods fully rigged with EZ Keppers. Then there are two pockets to hold even more fly boxes and gear than with the Ebira Plus as well as a very comfortable new wide shoulder strap with pocket attachment webbing where you can attach one of the pockets upfront or just attach forceps or other small gear if you prefer. If you already own either the Ebira Plus or the original Ebira, you can attach its pocket to the shoulder strap on the Ebira Guide and be equipped with 3 pockets (just in case two fly boxes are not enough....).

Ebira Plus @ TrailLite Designs that will go on sale this week

My rig last week, I only carried two rods rigged in clear tubes

that's how the attachment point of the pockets looks like

top of Ebira Guide with shoulder strap and draw-string top

close-up of shoulder strap

very comfy shoulder strap!

3rd pocket attached to strap (note only two pockets are included but you can move them around)

pocket on shoulder strap close-up

Product Details Ebira Guide:
Weight: 2.5 oz. 
Material: dyneema-x 
Attachable Pocket
Type of Closure: Drawstring on the quiver pocket and water-resistant zipper on the tackle pocket.
Dimensions: 22.5" x 5" (2.5" per sleeve)
100% made in the USA

You will notice that I also carry the "oversized" Tenkara USA ITO in the Ebiras which does stick out a few inches. However, I feel comfortable carrying the ITO in the Ebiras, it stores securely and and is being held in place when you pull the drawstrings tight. Unless you store the ITO rigged with EZ Keepers, you should be absolutely fine. From personal experience, I do not recommend to carry a fully rigged rod with EZ Keepers if it sticks out of the Ebira or a backpack. You will snag it in a branch or brush, pull out the tip and break it and loose your whole setup. Yes, it happened to me recently.

During my last few outings I started to use a lightweight plastic tube in the sleeve of the Ebira (i.e. the tube that the spare handles from Tenkara USA are shipped in). The tube makes the sliding in and out of the rod easier and you can keep the rod fully rigged without fear of any snags inside the Ebira and it adds almost no additional weight. The downside is that you will obviously only will able to carry one rod per sleeve instead of 2.

Conclusion:
These are very thought-through prodcuts specifically made with the Tenkara Angler in mind. The quality is very good and should last you for years, even if you are as rough on equipment as I am. I have been a fan of the original Ebira and like the two additions even better. There is a purpose for each of them, depending on your fishing needs any give day. For me, the Ebira Guide is the one I will use the most, carrying at least 2 or 3 rods (one I will be fishing, one I want to fish/test and a back-up rod). Also, being a gear junkie and not being able to let go of accessories, the ability of having two or even three pockets available is a winner.

Where to get them:
The Ebira Plus is available for $70 at TrailLite Designs here as well as at Tenkarabum here. The Ebira Guide is available for $105 at TrailLite Designs here and Tenkarabum here.

Disclaimer: I am not affiliated with TrailLite Designs nor did I receive any compensation to review the Ebira Plus or Ebira Guide, however, I received the Ebiras free of charge for testing & reviewing from TrailLite Designs.

Leaky Waders

After a rough work week - I can't remember I ever had to deal with so much crap at the same time - the best wife sent me off to a mental cleanse, Tenkara fishing!

I wanted to finally fish my new Tenkara USA ITO so I decided to head up to the South Platte around Pine Creek even though flows were above 300cfs and a bit high for my liking. I got to the river a bit later than anticipated, I just couldn't decide whether to stay in bed or go fish. I guess we all feel like that at some point.

The river was pretty clear with a darker green shade whether it was a bit deeper - the spots I was focusing on. I started off with a killer kebari and mercury RS2 and switched later to a CDC & Elk with the same RS2, all fish took the mercury RS2. I guess no surprise here.

I used a level no. 3 hi-vis line of TenkaraBum, cut to 13.5" which performed quite nicely on the ITO. As I mentioned in my previous post, I start to like level lines more, in particular on softer rods. For stiffer rods, I still prefer tapered lines though.

I hooked 6 rainbow trout, all but one on the smaller side for the SP but the last one was was around 16" and made the line sing! Unfortunately I wasn't able to land her, thanks to a long distance release. My guess that it was hooked in the upper lip like the other ones, and that was it.

What stood out today were my waders. Maybe 2 hours in, I suddenly felt water literally rushing in from below. I suspect that the seam between the waders and booties gave up and it filled up my left wader leg all the way up. The additional weight in the wader gave me quite a work out while wading. Later this week I will have to find the leak and try to fix it or it will be all wet wading for the rest of the season, brrrr.

I also was able to further test some gear that I am reviewing for OBN (the Flying Fisherman SunBandit - Rainbow Trout Camo and the Glacier Gloves - Ascension Bay Glove) as well as the Ti Net and the new Ebira Plus of TrailLite Designs that holds two Tenkara rods. More on those later, the reviews will be posted soon.

Stay dry my friends, -K

A Visit to Rio Grande Country

Last weekend, we headed up to Creede, Colorado, on the shores of the Rio Grande. The reason for our trip was to visit friends and to see a few plays at the Creede Repertory Theatre, but my thoughts were of course "there's got to be some good fishing in that corner of Colorado". Sure enough, the best wife ever has planned for me to go out for a day with a friend of her's.

Since I picked up Tenkara, I started focusing more on native species, such as Greenback Cutthroat native to the South Platte and Arkansas drainage and which is now found only in some high country lakes and creeks, namely in Rocky Mountain National Park. While in Creede, I thought I should give it a shot at getting into some Rio Grande Cutthroats, one of the other four cutthroat subspecies native to Colorado (the other two, next to Greenback Cutthroats are Colorado River Cutthroat and the now extinct Yellowfin Cutthroat).

I did a lot of research to find some of the creeks where there are still some populations of Rio Grande Cutthorat and found some that are fairly close to Creede, but unfortunately the trip was too short to allow for me to do a full day hike into the back country that would have been required. But I do know where they are and I should pay them a visit on my next trip to Creede, probably next year.

That being said, I obviously did not catch any Rio Grande Cutthroats, but I got the opportunity to fish with a friend of my wife who grew up in Creede and knows the area very well. She originally planned to take me to a creek maybe 20 miles outside of Creede, but the day before our outing, my wife and I explored the area around Creede and we drove be a creek that I started salivating over while driving by it. Alas, as for much of the water in the region and the Rio Grande itself, it was on private property. As much as I have an issue with rivers and creeks are not available to the public, I myself would probably not want just anybody wander on my property and fish a river that would run through it. It starts with liability issues to trash and going as far as plainly "this is my land".


The creek as it presented itself from the road

Anyway, I mentioned this creek to our friend that was about to take me out the next day and she simply said "I don't think that my dad would have a problem us fishing there if you want". What? Really? I am that lucky that my friend's dad owns the ranch where that particular stretch of creek is running through? Turns out I was. You should have seen my big grin and excitement.

The next morning, after a hearty breakfast in Creede, we hit the road and got to said creek mid-morning. I immediately regretted to bring the ITO and the 12ft Iwana, realizing that those rods are too much for this overgrown little creek. My fishing partner, Adrian, fished with the Fountainhead Caddis 330 which is my loaner rod and which happened to be the best suited rod of the three I brought. I actually wished I would have had the Tenkara Fishing 300 rod which would have been the perfect rod for this creek. Unfortunately, I left this rod behind with TenkaraBum for his review and testing when I was in NYC the weekend before.

I gave Adrian the quick and dirty introduction to Tenkara (is there actually any other way?) and 5 minutes later she was into her first trout. To quote her "... this is so easy!" and yes, we do have another Tenkara convert! We were fishing for maybe 90 minutes, taking turns on the creeks pools, both of us hooking with trout in almost every spot that looked like it could hold a fish.


Adrian - my host and newst Tenkara convert!

Then Adrian had to leave to get some work done, leaving me with this creek full of trout just for myself. I immediately switched from my 12ft Iwana to the Caddis 330. The Caddis 330 was rigged with the Tenkara USA 10.5ft furled line and I just couldn't get comfortable with how it cast, so I switched to a level line which performed much more to my liking on this 5:5 action rod. It appears that my dislike for level lines only applies to the stiffer 6:4 rods like the 12ft Iwana or Amago, but on the softer rods like the Caddis 330 or Tenkara Fishing 300 I definitively prefer the level lines.

Anyhow, the day brought some of the best fishing I have ever encountered - fish number wise -; I hooked and landed well over 50 trout with a guess that the final number was somewhere close to 100. I was literally hooking fish on every other or third cast. I would never have thought that I would say this, but at some point it got really annoying if one of the small brookies instead one of the resident brown trout would hit the fly. This was the 3rd outing with my new Ti Net of TrailLite Designs and I have to say that I continue to be very impressed by the quality and extreme lightness of the net. I took several rough tumbles (yes, I am clumsy) and there is not a scratch on it.

Speaking of brown trout, from the pictures it looks like a good fish in this creek would be 10" and the brown trout were around that size, but there was one spot, oh boy, where the creek was tumbling down into a small pool and hitting a big rock, where a huge brown trout, that I would guess to have been at least 18", took my CDC & Elk on the downstream presentation. I had this fish on for exactly 2 seconds but those were the best 2 seconds of the entire day. I was shaking after it got off.

right there is hiding a big brown trout...

I fished my way upstream until I hit some beaver ponds with smallish but eager brookies that would hit anything that looks remotely like a fly. By that time it was already late afternoon and I decided to pack-up and head back to Creede to meet-up with my wife and daughter.

At the end of the day, I felt very satisfied how things went and I will make sure to talk myself into revisiting this little creek maybe sometime next year.

Tight Lines, -K

PS: Those were my favorite fish... the markings couldn't get any more different!