My first tenkara (keiryu?) steelhead!

by Sean Rooney
(Marquette, Upper Peninsula of Michigan)

Hit the Carp river today (Lake Superior tributary in Marquette, Michigan) with my Kiyose 42SF, targeting steelhead. Saw a couple nice ones but they weren't interested in eating today. Caught this one that is young enough and far enough from the lake that I think it's an example of natural reproduction.

The rod handled this steelhead no problem! I was using this beadhead wooly bugger mostly as a weight for my egg fly because I forgot to bring split shot today.

I learned today that a zoom rod could be pretty useful. This is a small river with frequent overhead branches. I spent quite a bit of time untangling my rod and line and flies and there were a few places I just couldn't cast effectively because my rod was too long to fit.

“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.