First Look: new yellow hi-vis Tenkara USA level line

Yesterday evening I received a package from Tenkara USA with their new yellow fluor carbon hi-vis level lines. The color appears to be truly hi-vis and I am looking forward giving them a try on-stream very soon. One of the advertised features is that they have reduced coiling (a typical characteristic of fluor carbon lines) so I was wondering how they look brand new right off the spool. Well they have some coil but they can be straightened-out very easily. I will let you know how the coiling is once stretched and then re-stored on a spool.

More to come once I have fished with them and compared them with Tenkarabum's hi-vis lines. Should be fun!

Tight Lines, -K

PS: don't forget the "Your Tenkara Story" contest, submission deadline is March 31st. 

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

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