Video: Do Brook Trout Have a Future in Shenandoah?

Was thinking about the 2013 Tenkara Summit last night; it was the one in Harrisonburg, VA. That trip opened my eyes up to the beauty of the Shenandoah Valley for the first time, and when it came to fishing, all anybody wanted to talk about (for good reason) was the native brook trout.

A quick search for "Shenandoah brook trout" into Google, promptly yielded the video below, which is actually a complimentary piece to a lengthy blog post from the National Parks Conservation Association that you can read HERE.

Tenkara Tuesday: The Final Tenkara Post...of 2013

Welcome to Tenkara Tuesday.

To continue yesterday's "year end" theme in which I recounted the most popular posts on the Troutrageous! blog over the past year, I thought I'd change it up and write similar post with a tenkara theme.  I mean it's no coincidence that the last day of the year is a Tenkara Tuesday, right?

Well, even though I wrote over 50 posts involving tenkara in 2013, none of them ranked statistically in the top five overall posts on this blog by Google Analytics.  Yeah, despite the buzz, tenkara is still definitely a niche pursuit.  So for today's installment of Tenkara Tuesday, I'm going to recap what I thought were the top 5 most memorable tenkara-related posts of 2013...perhaps you can call them my personal favorites.  I hope you enjoy.

The Top 5 Troutrageous! Tenkara Posts of 2013

#5.  Seeing Positives Through The Fog

While this wasn't my first fish of 2013 (that honor belongs in THIS post), this mid-January post had some really pretty brown trout in it...and for some reason I always like fishing in the rain.  Plus, if you look close, you may just see a familiar silhouette through the mist.


#4.  Southeastern Pennsylvania Blogger Trouting

This April event was not a tenkara exclusive outing, rather an opportunity to fish with some of the local folks I had met online over the years and subsequently developed friendships through fishing.  Two of us fished tenkara, while the other two fished "western," but we all got into a ton of fish, as they were particularly active.  It really was an awesome day, possibly my favorite of 2013.  It also spawned a kebari tying video found HERE. 


#3.  Tenkara Summit 2013 - Fishing The Day Before

I was fortunate enough to be able to make the May trip down to Harrisonburg, VA for 2013's Tenkara Summit.  This particular post was not about the summit itself (THIS one was), it was more about the fishing that took place the day before, and honestly just exploring some beautiful Virginia water.


#2.  Farewell (For Now) Good Friend

This Memorial Day outing was my "good bye" to Pennsylvania fishing (as a resident).  My June move to Florida kind of put a halt to my tenkara trout fishing for the year, but what a way to go out!  The fish were super cooperative...perhaps it was just their affection for the patriotic kebari tied especially for the day.


#1.  In Search of Pennsylvania's Wild Salvelinus Fontinalis

I had done a lot of fishing in Pennsylvania, but I had never caught a wild brook trout.  A gazillion wild brown trout, absolutely.  Stocked brook trout, sure.  Wild brook trout in other states, yep.  But for some reason, not in Pennsylvania...  After doing a little bit of recon, I was able to achieve the feat in a tiny trickle of a spring-fed creek in Southeastern Pennsylvania, a region of the state where brook trout are relatively rare.  While maybe not "epic" by most standards, I still smile thinking back to that day.  It meant a lot on many different levels.


Honorable Mentions:

• The New VEDAVOO Saddle Pack
• OMFG! Two New Tenkara Rods
• My Tenkara Submission to the F3T or IF4 or STFU5
• Tenkara Tuesday - A Kebari Keepsake
• Exercise in Video Making Futility: Valley Creek Tenkara

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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.

Tenkara Summit 2013 - Day One's Events

The first official day of the 2013 Tenkara Summit had a little bit of everything...

Welcome to the 2013 Tenkara Summit

Lots of people...

A view of the vendor fair floor

Fly tying...

Loften Deprez tying kebari for an onlooker

Book signing...

Misako Ishimura and Kevin Kelleher (not pictured) signing copies of "Tenkara"

Gear hawking...

The Zimmerbuilt table...it was very brisk all day long

Knot making...

Lance Milks showing how to make that tricky Level Line to Lillian knot

Raffle items...

Lots of items donated by Mossy Creek Fly Fishing & Tenkara USA

Casting demos...

Daniel Galhardo showing casting fundamentals

Bamboo rods...

Some vintage bamboo tenkara rods saw the casting pool as well

Baby pools...

For Tanago rods only...

DVD previews...

Daniel Galhardo previews the upcoming Tenkara DVD

Technique presentations...

Tom Sadler gave an incredibly entertaining presentation

Stream disclosures...

Brian Trow of Mossy Creek Fly Fishing points us all in the right direction

And Skype-ing with anglers from Japan...

Quite possibly the highlight of the day, talking live to Tenkara anglers halfway around the world!

Got all that?

Good, because there was a bluegrass band too.

Shenandoah Alley plays for the after-Summit bar crowd

And evidently, a lot of blurry cell phone pictures!

Tenkara Summit 2013 - Fishing The Day Before

Phew...

Exhausted, bruised, and smiling, it's tough to get back into the work week after a most excellent long weekend at the 2013 Tenkara Summit in Harrisonburg, Virginia.  Over the next two days, I'm going to recap some of what went on...because it seems like a lot got crammed in over a short period of time.

I made the trek down to Virginia from Philadelphia immediately after work last Thursday night.  It took about four and a half hours to get down there, but I finally arrived around 11:30 PM, just in time to check into the hotel and get a good night's sleep for a day of Friday fishing before the Summit was to start on Saturday.

I figured I'd split Friday up into two parts, as I wanted to hit at least a few different fishing spots.  Using the advice given by Tom Sadler in his Middle River Dispatch blog, I figured I'd give the Rapidan River a go in the AM, and Skidmore Fork in the afternoon.   Unfortunately (and I didn't realize this until I was halfway there), the link he provides that gives the Google Maps GPS directions for the Rapidan were really that for the St. Mary's River...so I fished the St. Mary's instead.

Now the St. Mary's was gorgeous.  Picturesque even.  A little bit off the beaten path with not much of a trail in and around.  It truly was in the "Wilderness."  Albeit a damn beautiful wilderness.

Although it doesn't look it from the pictures above, the water was really high and really fast and pretty hard to wade.  The one pic with all the rocks wasn't even from the main flow, but a smaller break off.  Turns out high water was to be the trademark of the trip as the Harrisonburg area suffered through about a week of rain prior to the Summit wekeend.  Although I had a couple of swipes and flashes of brookies stinging my kebari, I didn't catch any fish.  Oh well.  After about 3 hours decided to leave after I took a spill on some rocks and banged up my left wrist.  I was okay, but figured it was a sign to get lunch.

After lunch, I headed over to Skidmore Fork to try some tenkara in a different locale.  Luckily, Tom's map worked this time.  :)

Even though the water was pretty high and fast here too, I found a little bit more "soft" waters in and around rocks and downed trees that yielded fish.  I didn't catch bucketfuls, but I did manage a few wild brook trout, expanding my wild Eastern brook count to Pennsylvania, North Carolina, and now Virginia.  (Who's next?!)

The best part of the trip to Skidmore was that I happened to run into a lot of different folks in my meanderings.  About five minutes after dropping in I waved hello to Chris Stewart as he appeared from the brush and crossed the stream above me.  As I walked in the woods I passed Chris Zimmer (Zimmerbuilt) and bumped into and chatted with TJ Ferreira and John Geer from Tenkara USA who were watching Misako Ishimura fishing in the current.  Finally, on the way back to the parking area, I was greeted by Daniel Galhardo, TJ (again), and Anthony Naples, sharing about a half hour conversation before sending out the search party for the rest of their group.

Exhausted, I headed back to the hotel to grab a bite to eat, shower up, and get some rest.  However once I got there I got a text from Lou (Fly & Fin) that he was down at the bar...so of course being thirsty I wandered down and met up with him, Bart (The Jersey Angler), and their friend Rich.  A better bunch of guys I've never met.  They had evidently dominated Beaver Creek earlier in the day.  As the night progressed, the folks from Skidmore also seemed to show up one at a time as well.  I also met Justin Ide, a talented photographer that took some great pictures to chronicle the event.

Some other things may have happened after the bar closed, but after a few sips from a Mason jar it was all a blur... #shineresponsibly.

Tomorrow, Day One of the actual Summit...