I think I'm doing it wrong but I'm having fun

by Steve Brockwell
(Elgin, Oklahoma)

I've been fishing "Tenkara" style for a couple of years. I put Tenkara in quotes because I use a cheap Chinese knockoff collapsible rod 12 feet long without a cork grip. I usually use 10 feet of a red thin monofilament and 4 feet of #6 leader line. The fly I use the most is a home-tied Utah Killer Bug size 10. Sometimes I use a tiny black gnat but its rare. I have about $30 dollars in my rig. Add a necklace of para cord with medicine bottles for flies and a set of fingernail clippers and cheap forceps and I'm ready.

I like to fish ponds here in Oklahoma like the 3 little ponds at a roadside park not too far away. Yesterday I fished there for 90 minutes and caught 90 fish. I quit when I lost my fly. Its not unusual for me to catch 100 or more on a decent day. I catch crappie, largemouth bass, catfish, bluegill and sunfish. Most are small but when you start getting one pound Rock bass or a 2 pound largemouth you can really have fun.

No expensive rod (couldn't justify the cost when I started) very little variety in flies.

Like I said, I think I'm doing it wrong but I am having fun. To me its just fishing. Quiet, fun, genuinely relaxing.

Steve Brockwell
Elgin, Oklahoma

“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.