Tenkara Fishing Along Fern Lake Trail

Realized last night that I never posted about fishing on my last day in Colorado; the Sunday after the Tenkara Summit. I also never posted about the Summit itself, but I'll probably save that full write-up now, as Adam Trahan did a pretty solid job covering it over at the Tenkara USA blog. May share some photos at some point though.

Anyway, back to fishing. What a fun day!

Rocky Mountain National Park is such a nice place to fish. I rolled into the park around 9AM, and already saw quite a few anglers out fishing in the Moraine Park meadow. Rather than put further pressure on that water, I decided to head up the Fern Lake trail and fish that section of the Big Thompson River a bit further upstream.

Along the way, I passed another tenkara angler named Marc, and chatted him up for a bit. He was trying out his new Hane 2 rod and said he was having some success with the brown trout. Excited, I hiked in a bit more before popping down to the water to see what I could find.

Almost immediately, I had a fish on... and then off. Usually, that would piss me off, but I took it as a good sign of things to come... and it proved to be. 

Working upstream, I encountered a brown in almost every nice sized hole. Now, I'm no tenkara wizard, but I felt like I was casting some sort of spell with my magic wand, as fish usually don't come to hand that easy. Guess that's just how it is out in Colorado.

Not really being familiar with the water, it didn't seem all that deep, so I wasn't fishing weighted flies. Instead, I was primarily using a black Ishigaki-style kebari with grizzly hackle, that I'd first drop into the various pockets, holes, and eddies and let sit, or dead drift. If the trout didn't show interest in the fly, I'd impart a bit of action by twitching the fly slightly faster than the current. The latter technique seemed to be what brought the "larger" fish to hand. (I don't catch big fish, so large is a relative term.)

I'm not going to bore you with any more fish photos, instead, just look how gorgeous it was that day. So, so pretty.

Ok, I lied... one more fish photo!

It ended up being a great way to end the Tenkara Summit weekend. Couldn't have asked for more out of my second Colorado experience. Now the only question is when do I get to go back?

Fishing Wild Basin Trail

It was Friday morning. The plane had just landed in Colorado and I still didn't have much of a gameplan in place. The red Kia Soul rental was acquired, and I couldn't check into the hotel up in Estes Park until 3pm, however, in the meantime, I had a few hours to burn and wanted to get a line wet.

In between the airport and the hotel, I knew I wanted to stop at two of my favorite places in Boulder, McGuckin Hardware (to obtain a fishing license), and Rincon Argentino (to obtain lunch). While eating my empanadas and referencing a Rocky Mountain National Park guidebook, I decided I wanted to head up to the Wild Basin area and try my luck at some brook trout, and perhaps, if I was lucky, some greenback cutthroat trout.

License in hand and belly full, it was a short hour or so drive to the Wild Basin trailhead. Everybody must have had the same idea, as the parking areas were very full, but I was fortunate to find a spot in the main lot near the ranger station. Most of the foot-traffic was not fellow anglers, rather hikers, sightseers, and those of other outdoor pursuits. Hastily grabbing gear from my suitcase, I thought I had everything I needed, but more on that in a bit.

The first spot I dropped in at was a short walk from the trailhead, and for those familiar with the area, not quite as far as Lower Copeland Falls.

Fortunately, the brook trout were eager and quickly came to my fly. Unfortunately, I had left my waterproof camera back in the car, and with a long weekend ahead I didn't want to accidentally dunk my phone in the water in the name of a few fish photos. I took a few quick snaps with one of the brookies in the net and then resolved to keep the phone stashed away, with the exception being the occasional landscape photo of my surroundings from dry land.

Fishing each run of boulders and corresponding pocket water methodically, I found the time was passing extremely quickly. I had arrived at around 1PM, and before I knew it, it was almost 5PM. It was a damn fun four hours though. I brought many brook trout to hand and got to fish some of the most gnarly, yet beautiful stretches of water on the way up to the Calypso Cascades and Cony Creek.

With the sun getting lower in the sky, and about a 45-minute hike back to the car, (to be followed by an hour drive up to Estes Park), I decided to turn back, unfortunately before getting up to the altitude and water where the greenbacks reside, but man, what a day, it was still damn worth it.

While it's always a little bit sad (and tiring) walking back down the trail knowing that fishing is over for the day, I couldn't help but feel more than a bit energized. I'm standing in Colorado, cool water rushing beside me, knowing there's trout everywhere and also two more days of fishing fun ahead. Man, I love the Rockies.

The drive to the hotel went faster than expected, and having been up since 3:30AM East Coast time, I collapsed on the bed in a heap. Finally, hunkered down in the room, I slept well that night... although Saturday (and the Summit) couldn't come soon enough.

Tenkara Tuesday: Looking Back & Ahead At The Tenkara Summit

Bug Outs and Summits and Jams, oh my!

While the 2017 Tenkara Jam was mentioned in the prior post, it would be negligent of me to not also mention the upcoming Tenkara Summit hosted by Tenkara USA.

This year's Summit will be held in Colorado over the weekend of September 16 & 17 at the Estes Park Events Center. Having attended several different tenkara gatherings over the years, I hold the Summit in the highest regard; the content is phenomenal, the turnout is solid, and it's an absolute blast to attend. This year will be my fourth Summit (of the six total) and it can't get here soon enough.

While daydreaming about fishing in Colorado again, I took the time over the past weekend to look back at some photos and memories from prior Summits. If you've never attended one, the 3 videos below should give you a little flavor for the event.

2012: Salt Lake City, Utah. After missing the first Summit in 2011, this was my first adventure in traveling for fly fishing. The Tenkara Guides of Utah played a huge role in hosting this very well run gathering. I even got some one-on-one time with Dr. Ishigaki on stream - not only observing the fly manipulation techniques of a Master, but also noticing that we both had the same orange waterproof cameras!

2013: Harrisonburg, Virginia - the Summit comes East! Japanese fly fishing meets Moonshine and Bluegrass... literally. Looking back, this was the precursor of the Tenkara Jam we can now enjoy annually. My only regret regarding this event was opting to go on my own on Sunday rather than fishing Mossy Creek with the many of the attendees. From what I heard, Mossy was pretty epic!

2014: Boulder, Colorado. This is when I learned everything they say about outdoor recreation in the Rockies is 100% true. I also had the pleasure of fishing (or grabbing some beers) with so many of the different tenkara-folks I had met online over the years - far too many to list them all. And the bugling elk in Rocky Mountain National Park... it was so cool.

Unfortunately, I missed 2015, also in Estes Park... and there was no Summit 2016...

All of that being said, if this piques your interest, it's definitely not too late to register for the 2017 Summit should your schedule allow for it. Tenkara USA's official website is located HERE, with a ton more details including a list of speakers and a general overview of activities. Hope to see you there!

For more details and info on prior Summits, click HERE to view all prior "Tenkara Summit" tagged posts.

Tenkara Tuesday - New Year, New News...

Welcome to Tenkara Tuesday...

With the turn of the new year, there's been a flurry of interesting news in tenkara circles. Figured I'd recap a little bit of it here today.

Tenkara - The Book?

Leading off, Tenkara USA teased a new tenkara book on Facebook yesterday. Knowing nothing more than what this video displays, it appears that there's quite a bit of eye candy to be had. Looking forward to adding this to my fly fishing library.

This has been a project in the making for the last few years and it is now getting closer to reality. Stay tuned to hear more about "Tenkara - the book" by Daniel Galhardo
Posted by Tenkara USA on Monday, January 4, 2016

And speaking of books, don't forget the e-book that the guys from Discover Tenkara have coming out as well. Sign up for their newsletter HERE for more updates, but it looks like we've all got a lot of reading in front of us!

2016 Tenkara Winter Series

Next, the details of the Tenkara Winter Series were announced (and accompanying website updated). Slated for March 12th in Golden, CO, there will be presentations by Bob Younger, Dennis Coppock, Jason Klass, & Robert Worthing, as well as a 2016 new product unveil by Zen Fly Fishing Gear, hosts of the event. If only I lived closer...

Tenkara Times TRY300

Finally, the popular Tenkara Times TRY330 rod has been reimagined for 2016. Per the release:

"The new TRY300 rod is an update to the TRY330 and it retains the best qualities of its predecessor. Much thought and design consideration went into the original TRY330 and that continues with the TRY300. 

The TRY300 is very light, weighing only 56 grams and with a center of gravity of 55cm and rotational moment of 3.08 it feels extremely light in the hand. 

The rod blank is painted matte grey without accents. Since small stream tenkara fishing typically happens at very short distances this muted color is stealthy and spooks fish much less than a bright and glossy rod can. The rod’s light weight allows you to comfortably grip the rod by the butt and is the reason we use a short handle with only the single profile bump. 

The true rod length is 3.06 meters so the new model name of TRY300 now more accurately indicates the rod’s actual length."

The TRY300 is available now at the Tenkara Times website, and will also be available domestically at Three Rivers Tenkara in the not too distant future.

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ATTENTION TENKARA FISHERFOLK
Are you a tenkara angler? Do you have a story, pictures, video, fly recipe, or simply a fishing report from one of your recent tenkara adventures? If so, I'd really enjoy hearing from you for an upcoming Tenkara Tuesday post or Tenkara Angler magazine! Feel free to send an email HERE, I'd love to publish your original contribution.

Tenkara, Roller Derby, Swag, & Calendar Grab Bag

Sometimes there's beauty in silence...

That could have been the theme of this blog over the past few weeks. Other than a random post here or there, I gotta be honest, it was just nice to kind of tune most everything internet & social media out for a little bit.

However, it's time to hop back on that horse; I think I'll give a rundown of some things of note, things that may even foreshadow future posts here on the blog...


The 2015 Tenkara Summit

Yep, the Tenkaraverse is descending on Colorado again for a gathering that seems to get bigger and better each and every year. I have to admit that while I'm kinda bummed not to be heading West this year (I've attended the last three), I wish all of my fixed-line friends safe travels and an absolutely awesome time.

While meeting others and putting faces to names is always the highlight, Rocky Mountain National Park is also beautiful this time of year, the bugling elk should be out and about, and I'm sure the fish will be eager to cooperate.

Women's Flat Track Roller Derby Playoffs

The reason I'm not going to the Tenkara Summit is because my wife has become super immersed in her role with the Jacksonville Rollergirls, who's All Star team is one of the top 10 ranked women's flat track roller derby teams in the world!

The Rollergirls happen to be hosting the Division 1 playoff tournament this weekend...and if the team does well against the likes of Denver, London, & Atlanta, well...I might just be following them on to Minnesota in November (brrrrr...) to cheer on their quest for the World Championship!


Mail Call

The postal service has been kind to me in recent weeks. Folks must think as a blogger of a largely dormant blog, that I have some sort of influence or something...ha!

Seriously, first off, a BIG thank you to my friend Howard for passing along the fancy, new WK&TL stickers...they're great! I'll find a nice place to stick 'em...if Lilly doesn't get a hold of them first!

I also received one of the new ultra-light floating tenkara lines to play around with from Anthony at Three Rivers Tenkara. They aren't exactly what I expected (in a very good way), and I'll likely do a write up/review of the line for next week's "Tenkara Tuesday."

Last but not least, a new 5-weight rod and reel showed up somewhat unannounced. The new Pflueger Medalist reel, paired with a Fenwick World Class rod needs to get put through some paces, pronto. I just need to get a line on the reel...and I feel like I've been fishing tenkara so much lately, I'm somewhat out of tune on what to string on there. Any suggestions for a solid 5-weight fly line that won't break the bank, let me know...

Oh, and BB-8.


Tenkara Calendar

I silently launched a new website over the weekend that I hope in time will become a good resource for the tenkara community.  I have to admit, the idea was not mine at all (although I'm not sure that person wants to be named); I just set up the site.

Check out TenkaraCalendar.com for all of the tenkara-themed events I could find online, neatly organized under one central URL.

The events can be expanded to read more information, directly saved to your Google Calendar, shared socially, heck there's even a button that allows you to submit your own tenkara or conservation-based event to the calendar, be it as large as a summit or as small as a meetup on a local creek. All events are welcomed!

I'd love any feedback on how to improve the site, it's rather basic in appearance right now, but I'm open to constructive criticism.


I guess I've written enough, that'll probably do for now. Need to leave a few things unsaid in the interest of future posts...

Sunday In Rocky Mountain National Park

I never wrote a post about my last day of the Tenkara Summit weekend...aka fishing in the Park on a Broncos bye-week Sunday...

Unlike prior Summits that I had attended, the Sunday following the conference was more of a "free for all" fishing day.  The unofficial, official Summit outing was along Boulder Creek, and the Tenkara USA crew was going to seek people out during the day, drop in, and fish with them, give tips, etc...  Me, we'll I kinda went on my own, bypassing the Boulder Creek outing for a solo trip up in Rocky Mountain National Park.  I'm not gonna lie, I didn't care about the potential for crowds, I just wanted to fish and see some elk.

It was a gorgeous, somewhat brisk morning, and for better or worse, there were a ton of people in the park that day. I couldn't find a place to park at any of the trailheads, but did find a spot to pull off on the side of the road.  It made for a bit longer walk to and from the water than I had hoped, but it was definitely worth it.

I had an absolute blast fishing the Big Thompson River near Fern Lake Trail.  It wasn't difficult fishing, but the brown & brook trout were more than accommodating.  They especially seemed to like the white hackled, light bodied kebari I was tossing that day.

There were probably a ton of other spots to go fish in the park, but as I mentioned before, I really wanted to see the elk, and during the drive in, they were out in the Moraine Park meadows bugling up a storm.  Literally.  Some rain clouds started to roll in on my fishing outing, so I packed up the gear and headed back to the parked car to do some wildlife viewing before the rain started.  I was fortunate to get a lot of that in amid the drizzle.

 

Simply stunning.  My sub-par pictures don't do the beauty of this area justice.  I'd really like to get back and make a vacation of just exploring the park.  It's a truly special place...and what an awesome way to end this four day Colorado tenkara adventure!

The 2014 Tenkara Summit Recap

There have been a handful of 2014 Tenkara Summit recaps posted in the few weeks that have elapsed since the event. Two excellent examples can be found HERE & HERE. I had fully intended on jotting down my notes at least a week ago, but some business travel sort of got in the way, so I'm going to catch up now...

The Summit started a little after 9:00 AM, with some opening remarks by Daniel Galhardo. He spoke a bit about the acceptance and growth of tenkara in the U.S. over the past few years, noting some of the highlights and milestones that took place along the way. A segment from a Japanese TV program on tenkara, featuring Daniel & Dr. Ishigaki also was shown.  The same segment is available online (& below).

Dr. Ishigaki then took to the podium for his tenkara presentation, a bit about his background, the history of tenkara in Japan, an overview of the tackle & techniques, wrapped up by a Q&A session from the crowd. Personally, it's always entertaining to see Dr. Ishigaki speak. While his presentation was very similar to the one in Salt Lake 2 years ago, his passion for promoting tenkara comes through in full despite a language barrier (an interpreter was used). The Q&A session was surprisingly long, but full of interesting asks, both basic & advanced.

After that, it was time to break out to the product vendors, fly tying demos, and rigging/casting demos. A large hall of vendors featured quite a variety of suppliers...including Tenkara USA, Rocky Mountain Anglers, both Zimmerbuilt & Vedavoo, Fly Fishing Artwork rod cases, Native Eyewear, and artwork by Jeremy Shellhorn just to name a few.

Over in the fly tying area, tyers woud rotate among the tables. Three I watched tie were Dr. Ishigaki, Graham Moran, & Joe Egry.  Jason Klass also tied a bit, as well as Mark Bolson.

Joe at the vise

Graham tying one of his fish catching kebari

Dr. Ishigaki always draws a crowd

Inside Ishigaki's fly box

A kebari shadowbox on display.
Assembled by Adam Trahan, each square shows a photo of a
tenkara angler as well as at least one sample of their hand-tied flies.

Out on the lawn were the rigging and casting demos. A canopy was set up to show the various knots and whatnot required to attach tenkara lines to rods, tippet to lines, etc, etc... Daniel also showed some basic casting to an eager crowd. He even had Misako Ishimura stand in for a trout to show how to hand line in a fighting fish. It was pretty funny, wish I took video.

FISH ON!

Dr, Ishigaki took to Boulder Creek (which was literally a minute's walk behind the hotel) and showed off some casting & fly manipulation techniques. He even caught a fish with like 80 or so people watching. Crazy.

The afternoon closed out with a very entertaining "tenkara magic" show by Dennis Vander Howen, a presentation on the impact on last year's Colorado floodings by Trout Unlimited (which was probably 15-20 minutes too long, my only complaint), and then some local fishing suggestions for the rest of the weekend, first by the folks from Rocky Mountain Anglers, then by Steve Schweitzer, specifically speaking to fishing Rocky Mountain National Park.

After some closing remarks from Daniel, the event wrapped up around 4:30PM, which left some time to go fishing...

There was a smaller nightcap back a the hotel bar for folks that wanted to stick around, including live music and some more up close magic from Dennis. It was pretty fun...plus I'm never one to say no to beer.

The Afterparty...  I'm on the right, chatting up Scott Hunter from Vedavoo.
Graham Moran is in the back holding the tenkara rod and saying something I'm certain was very "deep" to Karel Lansky.  Dennis Vander Howen is in the foreground...disappearing?
(Image Courtesy of TJ Ferreira)

All in all, it seemed like a very successful and well run event. If it wasn't, the crew working it on the Tenkara USA side sure fooled me. I had a great time and met some great people.

Looking back, my favorite parts of the Summit event itself was actually the down time in-between sessions and during lunch. The time spent sort of milling about, bumping into folks you knew, if only by name, and saying hello.  

I met quite a few people for the first time that I had either been friendly with or was familiar with from similar online circles. Folks like Chris Kline, Graham Moran, & Adam Hanna just to name a few...

Chris was even so kind to drop off some care packages to several anglers there, myself included. I'd guess the gurglers were probably unique to my Florida-bound Altoids tin though...thanks Chris!