Grassart.net

[adam]

Brookville settlement

The Other Side of the Mountain

I've been fishing Tenkara style my last couple of outings and I've been having a absolute hoot. It reminds me of my childhood fishing with a cane pole catching grasshoppers and threading them on a hook, fishing. But with a Tenkara rod, there is more. There is casting and it is subtle, petite not forcefull. It is a blend of cane pole and fly angling and I don't say that to piss off the guys at Tenkarausa. I write that because it reminds me of my childhood fishing with a cane pole and that my friends is exactly what I'm looking for when I go fishing. I'm looking for good memories, fun experiences in the outdoors.

I've made no mistake, Tenkara is fly fishing.

I decided to invite an old friend to go with me on my next adventure. He makes bamboo rods, fishes Arizona and we are pretty evenly matched in the stream fishing experience department the way I see it. I enjoy his company and when ever we go fishing, it's usually a pretty good time.

About a third of the way into our trip I go, "Mike, this is about a 9 on scale for me, what do you think?" He agreed with something like, "Yeah, to be perfect, all you would need to do is catch a really big fish." I don't give out 10's very often, looking back, this trip was a 10.

Now I've been fishing this place over the years, it is not a secret although it is hidden in plain sight. I've fished it with only two other people, one of them was my son. I've kept it to myself for all these years. But I wanted to take a friend and show him a great time and that's exactly what I did.

We left at 4a and it's a 261 mile drive one way and this was a one day trip. We got home at 8p and it was worth every single minute of the drive.

When we got there, the sky was essentially clear with a small cumulus cloud over Baldy Peak. The road in was wet, it had rained yesterday. I thought it may be one of those days where it rained like hell then the next day it was sunny. The dirt road in was pretty rough in places and we had to gear down to 15 miles per hour in the rough spots. No big deal, still making good time.


Fishing Tenkara style photography by mikeytwoshoes


The Hidden Valley photograph by mikeytwoshoes


mikeytwoshoes fishing the Hidden Valley




On the way home, the Salt River Canyon

[adam]

I've decided to unlock the story based on where I was going with it.

I'm not interested in speaking the particulars of this stream. It's bad enough that I have posted a few photographs of it...

I guess the gist of the day is that it's a blast to fish with old friends at a great spot. In this case, there was two different disciplines defining the same good time. Mikeytwoshoes using a rod he made. The rod I made was left in the car and I used a fixed fly line telescoping rod of 12' long.

It is called Tenkara.

It is a natural way to fish small streams. Not distracting, just a little different. There are those that say it is many times better than fly fishing. I say the enemy of good is better. It's not better, it's a choice and a damn good one, for small streams.

Now it is my goal to get one in bamboo.

There are a few of us here that are interested in that and I would be willing to help each one of you with what I know about it.

Tenkara rods are on the 0 to 2-weight scale. You will use a light tippet 5 or 6x. The rod must be able to cast a loop and have an action that is effective for a hook set. The rod should be 11 to 13' long and the line that it will cast will be as long if not a few feet longer depending on the angler's choice. For line leader length, I use a 1/3 leader and 2/3'rds fly line formulae.

I'm interested in helping you get these rods in bamboo made. I can't stand having so much fun with a plastic rod when I know that it is possible to have one of bamboo in hand.