Denver Fly Fishing Show this weekend

I will be at the Denver Fly Fishing Show at the Denver Merchandise Mart this Saturday, Jan. 7th. It would be nice to meet some fellow tenkara anglers there, talk shop and make some new friends while there. Daniel Galhardo of Tenkara USA will be presenting that day at 12.15pm (Pond 2) and at 4.00pm (Destination Theater Room C, the rest of the time he will be sitting at the booth of RIGS Fly Fishing (currently the only Colorado Tenkara USA dealer). Oh, and Jason Klass of Tenkara Talk will be there as well.

Send me a quick email through the "Contact Me" tab if you will be there and want to meet. Otherwise, look-out for someone with a baseball cap with the Tenkara on the Fly logo:



See you there, -K

A Slow Start into the New Year

Against all odds and common sense, I headed out yesterday, Jan. 2, 2012 with my friend Graham of Tenkara Grasshopper to the South Platte up in Deckers for some Winter Tenkara Fishing.

We got to the river just after 10.00am and it was 12F.... The river looked almost like a slurpee with all the sludge coming down river. We started heading upriver the 10 miles or so towards Deckers where the temperature was a balmy 22F and the river was ice free. It was actually quite nice and warm as long as you stayed in the sun.

You can't tell from the pic, but it is a slurpee alright

I used this opportunity to do some long line tenkara (18ft level line plus tippet with my Tenkara USA Ito in the 13ft position) but soon realized that for the type of water we were fishing, this line setup was the wrong choice (we were fishing the close pocket water). But from a casting and testing point of view, it was beatiful to see at what distance I could hit some pockets with all the line off the water. This will be a very promising technique on the South Platte and bigger rivers once it warms up a bit (hello Spring!).

Graham in action 

Both Graham and I pounded the water blind casting for a while before we found two nice fish in the 18-20" range and started sight casting to the fish, but after half an hour and no interest of the big bow we packed-up and started heading downstream to escape the usual Deckers crowd.

At Pine Creek, we (well, ok, I) spooked maybe a dozen fish from under the ice shelf (go figure) but continued our efforts, oftentimes thinking that the bump we felt was a fish (turns out it was just ice that got snagged on our flies). I switched to a baby bugger on my Amago (what a difference after casting the Ito) and managed to get a flash of a fish but no take.

The day ended for us just after 3.00pm, feeling cold but happy having escaped a day stuck in the house or office. There is hope that this skunk is not an omen of the new year but only for our Winter tenkara fishing. And I think I am about to repeat myself by saying that maybe I should focus on skiing in the Winter.

River Statistics:
Weather: sunny, no wind
Air Temp: 12F at 10.00am with a high of 48F in the afternoon
Flow: 130 cfs, clear (slightly off color in the afternoon due to warmer temps and snow melt)
Day on the water in 2012: 1
Fish: 0

Tying with a new hook

I found an interesting looking hook at one my local fly shops, the Gamakatsu C15-BV: a vertical eye, light emerger barbless hook.

The most interesting feature was the shape of the hook and I thought it would be interesting to see what I could come up with it.

Well, after tying and finishing a fly (it took me 5 attempts to finish a fly) I have the following conclusions:

• light wire hooks are great, but if they bend under the slightest pressure/pull of tying thread, they are a major PITA to tye with
• the hook eye is tiny - I wonder how I will be able to get some 5x through that hook eye

Here is the fly I tied with it with different backgrounds. Interesting how each background highlights the fly differently.

Also, since I was at the vise, I thought I'd tie some micro buggers - you never know when they come in handy.

Happy New Year and tight lines!

-K