Dan from Wisconsin

by Daniel McDowell

Hello all,

I'm a recent tenkara angler. I started fly fishing around four years ago, and I began fishing with tenkara last summer. I'd say it was the simplicity that drew me to it.

Anyway, most of my fly fishing before last summer had been for bluegill, bass, and pike. I had never lived near enough to trout water to make trout fishing possible on a regular basis. When I did take trips, I rarely caught anything without a guide present.

Last summer, my dad and I went fishing on the headwaters of a northern Wisconsin river, the Little Wolf. We fished for about three hours or so. We each caught one fish of any real size, which I know is pretty poor. But there it is, I caught my first wild brook trout on a tenkara rod. I was using a Tenkara Rod Co. Sawtooth, with a 13ft furled line, 5x tippet (I think), and a size 14 bead-head hare's ear nymph. The ease of casting let me focus on the water (and my wading, which I now believe is why I didn't catch more fish, I waded like a blind elephant with a trick knee).

That's my story. I've spent the winter tying up tenkara style flies, and I cannot wait to hit the streams come January.

Thanks

“The bitterness of poor quality remains long after the sweetness of low price is forgotten” - Benjamin Franklin

"Be sure in casting, that your fly fall first into the water, for if the line fall first, it scares or frightens the fish..." -
Col. Robert Venables 1662

As age slows my pace, I will become more like the heron.

We've all had situations where seriously chewed up flies kept catching fish after fish after fish. It is no sin to tie flies that come off the vise looking seriously chewed up.