South Dakota "Atlantic" Salmon?

The barrage of daily emails can sometimes be overwhelming. I really need to hit the "unsubscribe" button rather than just automatically delete the messages that show up in my inbox each day. Most of them are just trying to sell me things, but sometimes you see one that stops you in your tracks...

GFP News: Atlantic Salmon Trial Enters Final Phase

Looks interesting right? It's especially novel considering it was sent from South Dakota Game, Fish, & Parks. (I receive their emails because I bought a fishing license while on vacation there in 2016.)

Image: Finygo.com

Now... I'm no expert, but something tells me that Atlantic salmon and South Dakota really shouldn't go together. I mean there's no way for the fish to naturally get there. This is not a case of re-establishing a native species. I even double checked a map...

In reading this email release, it appears that 86% of South Dakotans polled are in favor of stocking Atlantic Salmon in Lake Oahe, a 370,000-acre man-made reservoir just about smack-dab in the middle of the state. 

Evidently, Chinook (King) salmon which also don't naturally belong in South Dakota, have been stocked in Lake Oahe since the mid-1980s.

Perhaps this is just an innocent way to get more unique sport fish in the water. Is it something that needs to be reviewed more closely as a large-scale case of "bucket biology?" Or should we not care since this already goes on in the Great Lakes and this particular large body of water is not exactly natural to begin with?

Beats me. I'm personally not a huge fan of putting any non-native species where it doesn't belong, at least in this day and age. Over the past 200 or so years a ton of that has been done in the United States, particularly out West, but does it need to continue happening? There always seems to be unintended consequences.

On the flip side, I'm sure the local anglers would benefit, and perhaps the State would as well from the sale of Atlantic Salmon stamps or special licensing fees. I really am not educated at all on South Dakota game & fish politics or policies to make an educated statement.

I tried to look for any online feedback, positive or negative, and the most I could find was a few comments on the article on the SDGFP's Facebook page. Unfortunately, they were all about people debating a deer tag issue (no clue) and using this topic to create an analogy to push their agenda forward. So really, I found nothing.

Well, that's a lie, I found this video from 2014:

I did happen to send a note via email to SDGFP to ask them why they feel they need Atlantic salmon in South Dakota. Will be interested to see if I get a reply.

In the end, they're going to do what they're going to do. I just found the whole concept of South Dakota Atlantic salmon interesting. Thought you might as well.

Tenkara Tuesday: Quick Hits From Social Media

Welcome to Tenkara Tuesday...

Going to try and make this a more regular Tuesday thing again, some weeks it will be extended "features"... other weeks it'll probably be some quick hits. This is one of those weeks.


Tanuki Golden Trout Rod

So if you follow Luong Tam and his Tanuki rod company on Facebook at all, you might have noticed that he's been all about golden trout recently, and he's developed a rod to go chase them. Check out the paint job on this thing...

Photo: Luong Tam

My only hope is that it's more suited for chasing golden trout than the "Appalachian Brook Trout" rod was for chasing brookies a few years back. Looks good so far...


Yonah Tenkara Fanny Pack

Ok, not gonna lie, I totally feel like I'm cheating on Zimmerbuilt by writing this, but a new tenkara/fly fishing fanny/sling pack from Yonah Packs was released recently.

Photo: Yonah Packs

I did purchase the original Yonah "simple" pack a while back just to check out the build quality and materials, and I will say that if that was any indication, anglers should be very pleased with this new edition. (Use coupon code YONAH5OFF for a $5 discount & free shipping)


Discover Tenkara Hirata-San Bundle

John & Paul at Discover Tenkara... half the time I can't keep straight whether they're asking me to sign up for free stuff, buy downloads, watch YouTube videos, or support through Patreon. Whatever. It's probably my fault, their informational content is so good, I tend to oversubscribe to their offerings.


Right now they've got a new bundle of content consisting of videos, e-books, and audiobooks on sale featuring tenkara master Hisanobu Hirata. I downloaded it the other night and have gone through the audiobooks in my drives in the car - they're excellent. And for a few more days the bundle is available for $45, rather than the regular price of $109. I think that price is good until the 19th, so don't sleep on it if you've got any interest.


Tenkara Cast 2.0

Daniel Galhardo is back from Japan and changing things up a bit with his popular "Tenkara Cast" podcast. Per his latest entry:

"I'm doing a soft "relaunch" of the Tenkara Cast, where I will be focusing on sharing more practical advice for your next outing. In addition, every episode will now feature a conversation with a different Trout Unlimited chapter around the US to find out more about their projects and how you can get involved." 

Sounds good to me... well not literally, I haven't listened to it yet. But if you'd like to, check out the embed below, or punch it up on your favorite podcast app.



Instagram: @tenkara.babaa

While not necessarily a new IG account (over 1,000 followers at the time of writing this), this really has to be one of my favorite Instagrams to just scroll down and get lost traveling through all the photos. Aside from the fact that the photography is great... the settings are absolutely phenomenal! This is real mountain fishing (and on-stream eating). Have to be careful though, too much of this account will get you stir crazy, wishing you were on the water!

Photo: tenkara.babaa Instagram

So I guess that's about it for today. I'm headed out on vacation this week so maybe I'll be doing some blogging from the road... or airport... or if wi-fi allows... boat. We'll see.

In the meantime (and in closing)... here's a random video from a Vimeo "tenkara" search for no good reason except FUN. Enjoy!

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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! Feel free to send an email HERE, I'd love to publish your original contribution.

Wednesday Nibbles - Summer Vacation Edition

The weeklong summer vacation is over. It's actually been over since Sunday afternoon, but you know, needed a few days of recovery before sharing something on the blog.

Our trip from Mt. Rushmore to Yellowstone to Grand Teton/Jackson to Salt Lake City was not a fishing trip, so if you read this blog purely for the fishing expertise (ha!), feel free to click off now. However here's a quick week in review, via captioned photos...


Day 1 & 2: Rapid City, SD / Crazy Horse / Mount Rushmore

Wheels down in Rapid City, and there was quite a storm on the horizon to greet us!

The hotel had a small lake out front, this was the only fishing I'd do on the trip.
Bass put up a good fight though.

The bus. Home away from home for a week

Didn't know what to expect from Crazy Horse.
They've evidently been blasting and carving since the late 1940s.
It's quite the sight, much, much bigger than Mt. Rushmore.
Maybe I can get back in a few decades to check the progress.

Down the road about 20 minutes from Crazy Horse, there's a spot on the highway where you can stop and see Washington's profile peer from the side of the mountain with no other presidents (or sign of the park) in sight. It's cool, but kind of eerie at the same time.

I was pleasantly surprised by Mt. Rushmore. Figured you just went and stared at the side of a mountain. Instead, there's a whole complex with walking trails, museums, etc...
Could have spent the whole day there if we had the time.

Day 3: Repositioning to Cody, WY

Day 3 was pretty much a waste, we were in the bus pretty much all day as we moved from Rapid City, SD to Cody, WY. Did catch this "wild" pic of the girls in the Wyoming visitor's center.

We drove by Devil's Tower...

Stopped for lunch in Sheridan, WY...

Drove through the Bighorn mountains...

Before ending up in Cody for the night - home of Buffalo Bill, and never-ending cowboy-kitsch

Day 4 & 5: Yellowstone

The first day was kind of rainy, but we did see a lot of wildlife.  Bison, bear, coyote, elk, & deer

And some really cool old park buses

Elk can walk on the travertine

But we stuck to the boardwalk to take selfies in front of it

The following day's weather was much better.
All of the thermal features were amazing

As were the falls in the canyon

The photo doesn't do this one justice!

Wouldn't want to swim in that hot tub

Gotta take a picture of Old Faithful, right?

More pools

Standing on top of the hill looking down at the river surrounded by geysers was breathtaking.
Two days were not even close to being enough to sample Yellowstone's wonders 

Day 6: Grand Teton / Jackson, WY

On Friday we headed South from Yellowstone down Rockefeller Parkway through Grand Teton National Park

We stopped several times along the way - there were so many scenic views

I mean come on, is this for real?

The highlight was a lakeside picnic lunch

I'm not a holy man, but the view out of this roadside church window was amazing

Once we reached Jackson, we took a ski lift up to the top of the mountain overlooking town

And then descended to take in the Cowboy meets Hippie vibe

Watched a street performance (don't worry, the good guys won)

And washed the day down right

Day 7: Repositioning to Salt Lake City

The last real day took us to Salt Lake City via Logan Canyon

Lilly approved of the scenery

I approved of lunch. If you're ever in Logan, UT, Angie's is amazing.

Our trip ended with a tour of Temple Square

With beautiful architecture

But no Tabernacle Choir, (they were on the road).

And after that, a night of sleep, then home to Florida the next morning.

Our vacation went so quickly, but it was certainly a memorable one. I feel like I shared so many pictures above, but I took TONS more. So many neat things to see and experience.

As for the bus tour aspect, I'm not certain I'd do a bus tour again, as I felt that while we saw a lot of incredible things, we really didn't get to spend enough time at any one particular place to really enjoy them. We kind of figured that was going to be the case heading in; it was sort of like when you go on a cruise ship and visit several ports of call, but spend a lot of time "at sea."

It was more a quick sampling of some magical Western sights, many of which I know we'll head back to in the not too distant future. K.C. is already scoping out a return to Jackson & the Tetons, and I just saw so much beautiful water out the bus window that was screaming to be fished!

Summer Vacation Prep Week

Dang, that snuck up quickly.

Don't think I mentioned it here before, but the Griswold family summer vacation this year is one of those week-long guided bus tours through some of the western National Parks - most notably, Mt. Rushmore, Yellowstone, & Grand Teton, with a few stops at touristy cowboy-towns in between.


I've been wanting to see the parks for a while, like I can watch those damn Ken Burns documentaries over and over, and doing one of these tours was the only way to get K.C. & Lilly to agree to go as they require, no demand, hotel accommodations and whatnot each night. No roughing it for the ladies...not that I blame them BTW. Scheduling it near the 4th of July only means that the utter chaos and crowds will be amplified, but who cares...not me. I survived summers at the Jersey shore. And if you've been there, you know.

In preparation, the agenda seems pretty straightforward - wander off the marked boardwalks, take a dip in a volcanic hot spring, and rescue the suffering baby bison, because they're cold. If one fits in the carry-on luggage, I'll bring a tiny Tatanka home to Florida to warm up. Because that's evidently what we as tourists do now. God Bless America.

All jokes aside, I'm up against it in terms of preparation. We're out of here in a few, and with only a handful of days to prepare, I should probably get started...

I think I've got the clothing situation sort of in check, as well as the minimal gizmos & gear we're planning to bring along. It's not a fishing trip by any stretch, but I am going to bring a tenkara rod (aka the travel rod) and a fly box just in case we have down time amid our tour guide's rigorous schedule near any water. Any suggestions on what flies to put in said box?

Truthfully, I'll take any recommendations - sights, sounds, food, bug spray, bear spray, whatever - this is a totally new experience for all of us, so if anyone's been to any of the places above, I'm all ears...