Since last summer I've been having a great time with tenkara, so this winter I decided it would be fun to organize a fishing trip for people interested in tenkara in my neck of the woods. It would be an opportunity for a few people to become acquainted with this new (to the US) method of fly fishing, and get out on some beautiful mountain streams; the kind on which tenkara originated in Japan.
The trip was a long time in the making; planning began in February if memory serves me well, with an initial date of April 17th pencilled in. Well, the weather did not cooperate at all, and the outing was postponed due to the threat of snow and heavy rain that weekend. May 15th turned out to be the ideal postponement date in terms of weather; clear skies, temps in the 60's, and a breeze light enough to keep us cool without making casting too difficult.
We met up at the parking lot for the Dunbar Brook Trail at 9:30, and were out on the stream fishing by 10:30 after everyone was introduced and set up with tackle. There were five of us in attendance, which turned out to be a good number, I don't know if we all would have gotten in much quality fishing with a bigger group.
Michael from the Eclectic Angler got the first fish, in the first pool, probably on the third cast of the whole trip. It seemed like an auspicious start to the day. The stream was absolutely magnificent, with pool after pool, and plenty of small pocket water. We found many of the pools to be incredibly deep; easily over 8ft. Despite the profusion of great brook trout habitat, we only caught one more fish between the 5 of us on Dunbar brook.
After lunch we decided to try out the Deerfield River right down the hill from us on Dunbar Brook. This section of the Deefield above the Fife Brook Dam is much smaller, chock full of boulders, and experiences less severe releases from power stations upstream. All in all another beautiful place to fish. We pounded the Deerfield for a few hours, and just as we were about to leave Casey hooked this magnificent brown trout:
Despite not finding much in the way of fish, we all had a great time. I enjoyed getting out and fishing this beautiful spot a bit more extensively, and getting a chance to meet a few people I'd only known over the internet. Introducing Robert and Casey to tenkara was also a lot of fun. Both love fishing small streams, and I hope they'll get some enjoyment from tenkara's simplified approach.
As a final note, here is my Picasa web album for the day.
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