Yesterday was an awesome day. I have an upcoming article submission to Tenkara Angler magazine for a lot of the goings on so this post is going to dial in on a big mistake I made while fishing on private water for beautiful trout…and why my client who was tenkara fly fishing for the first time, caught twice as much fish as I did.
I can be stubborn. This reality is not always a liability because it has served me well in my fly fishing journey as I will continue to get out on the water whether or not I catch fish. It has, yesterday in particular, also cost me some opportunities.
The conditions were quite tough, bright sunny sky with no cloud cover and lower water on spring creeks: recipe for skittish fish.
That being said, there were opportunities that I missed and primarily because I got stubborn. I had in my head that I was going to tight line nymph. This was, in my marginal defense, because I had just received my new tenkara rod that is supposed to be incredible for just that.
I have spoken before about being a versatile angler. Yesterday, especially when we moved to our second private creek with 50 cfs, was one of those days I need to be be more versatile mentally. The reality was that the conditions of just the stream flow prescribed a completely different way of fishing and I stubbornly soldiered on with hundreds of futile casts and drifts and lots of frustration.
Only after seeing my client smoking the fish under the guidance of a professional tenkara guide did my conscious brain start to take control. The guide came over and pointed out that in the conditions there was no way to effectively tight line and that I should move to a suspension rig (even more fancy way to say bobber?!?). This would allow me to get both longer drifts and allow for better presentation.
Somehow, I had gotten it in my head that I couldn’t do that…and it was wrong.
Guess what happened when I put on a bobber and also did some dry dropper stuff? That’s right, I got into the fish and one of them as freaking huge.
Enter being stubborn once again. I was using a pvc floating line from Dragontail Tenkara (thanks Brent!) that was 15’ in length because it casts beautifully with more weight and air resistant stuff (bobbers) vs. level line. However, to get the dropper to the fish I need to use every inch of the 15’ line. You can probably see where this is going…
Got the rig out to the right seam, great drift while the rod and line were fully extended, and fish on. It was a really nice fish, long body gleaming in the stream as it turned downstream and kept going. As the more experienced tenkara anglers know, you have no chance of turning a big fish if you don’t have any bend in your rod…and this was no exception. I will admit it was exciting for the 5 seconds I was connected to the trout.
Once again being stubborn came back to haunt me. I had, in my back pack full of way too much gear, plenty of 18-21’ tenkara lines that wouldn’t have taken more than 3 minutes to get out and rig…but, I stubbornly didn’t want to take the time to do it…and then when I hooked the fish I lost the fish accordingly.
I am going to work on taking some time to breathe when I fish. I am talking the deeper more meditative breathing that will (hopefully) allow me to be a little more versatile…mentally.
Can any of you relate to my trials and travails yesterday? Don’t feel sorry for me, I was spending the full day on private water and I did catch trout.
All the best,
Mike
Being stubborn or lazy have cost me a more than a few fish in my day. Taking a "I am going to work on taking some time to breathe when I fish." is a great approach. at least it's worked for me. Glad you had a successful day.