I thought it would be interesting to have sort of a video equivalent of the Today on the water thread. In other words, a running thread of videos (if you don’t want to post the video as its own thread). Either post your own fishing videos here or other tenkara videos you come across and find interesting or valuable.
I try to make weekly tenkara videos. Here’s my latest (and here’s the direct link to the video on YouTube):
It was a great little rainbow trout stream in northern Utah. It was mostly steep and shallow, but there were these great little pools every so often. I had only a couple hours to fish but was able to land 11 fish and miss a few others.
GEAR USED
Zen Tenkara Suzume rod
8(ish)-foot #3.5 level line
Fly: Utah killer kebari (basically a Utah killer bug with a soft hackle)
Tristan, fun video. Wow, that’s a lot of water flowing in that small stream.
Maybe that is one of the reasons a friend’s son after moving to Utah several years ago shows little inclination to move back home closer to his family.
Also I like your posting of the “Gear Used” in your post.
Most articles in Japanese fishing magazines have a place where they post the tackle used.
Or if you are familiar with Ajari’s tenkara blog. In his post that are actually about fishing - at the bottom of each post he has a section for “tenkara tools of the day” [ 【当日のテンカラ道具】], wherein he list ; rod model, line & tippet brand, and length, and kebari used (hook size & color). It’s, I think, helpful or at least fun to see what set up skillful anglers use in different stream environments.
This is his most recent post from about one month ago:
Thanks David. The stream definitely would be lower in summer, but it was still plenty fishable in the spring. Utah has pretty unbelievable tenkara fishing. Many lifetimes of fishing to be had!
I like listing the gear I use because that’s the kind of thing I wish other people did more. It’s just fun to read about
Here’s this week’s video. It’s from eastern Nevada’s Great Basin National Park. Not exactly the kind of place you think of when you think of fishing, but I really loved it. The creek I fished (Lehman Creek) was a perfect little tenkara stream and had a ton of fish in it. I’d love to go back in the summer sometime (this was in the spring) when water levels are a bit lower and I can fish a couple of the other creeks.
GEAR USED
Zen Tenkara Suzume rod
8(ish)-foot #3.5 level line, couple feet of 5x tippet
Fly: #12 Utah killer kebari (basically a Utah killer bug with a soft hackle)
I live in Idaho, so meeting halfway between here and Bishop would actually still be roughly Great Basin National Park (~5.5 from each of us). A bit of a drive! I do make it to the East Side of the Sierras every 2 or 3 years, though.
In this week’s tenkara video (filmed a few days ago) I head to a couple of new-to-me mountain streams in southeast Idaho. I was hoping to hook into some native cutthroats but got a few rainbows instead. Oh well. At least I caught something. I lost a LOT of fish this day.
Zen Tenkara Suzume rod, used mostly in its longest (11-foot) configuration.
11(ish)-foot #3.5 level line, 3 feet of 5x tippet
Fly: #12 Utah killer kebari (basically a Utah killer bug with a soft hackle)
Side note: The rainbows were all pretty rough looking, i.e., lots of missing scales. This is especially visible in the third fish I catch in the video. From some quick Google research, apparently pesticides or lack of nourishment can lead to this. Any other thoughts?
The trout’s rough looking appearance might be the result of spawning. Rainbow trout spawn in late spring to early summer. When water temperature raise.
From the below website:
“… Rainbow trout spawn earlier in their lives than most other trout species (at roughly two years) and their spawning season occurs in the late spring and early summer as water temperatures rise. Brown trout spawn in the fall, …”
I’ve seen videos of trout spawning and they are into rough sex. The males often fight, biting one another to be the lucky guy that gets to pass on his dna to the next generation. Other species of trout will often bite the spawning female on the stomach to try to force her to release her eggs. So they can obtain a quick high protein meal.
I cannot find the video I recall seeing that better captures that behavior. It may be in one of the three Underwater Oz trout videos. But this video shows a bit of the rough and tumble of spawning.
Links to the youtube upload of the Underwater Oz videos were posted to this forum a couple of months ago. Viewing them again may find better video of the fighting and biting during the act of procreation.
Ah, I found the segment of the Underwater Oz video showing spawning behavior. However, they Brook Trout spawning in Oct. A rainbow trout does make an appearance, biting the spawning female on the stomach in an attempt to obtain a quick meal. Oz notes the biting will remove some of the protective mucous covering which could result in the fish becoming infected. My bet is that rainbow spawning behavior is similar. The females will also bite other females that try to move in on her selected spawning site.
Anyway, this behavior might account for missing scales and other damage causing the rough appearance.
I think @dwalker is on the right track. I agree it could likely come from spawning. However, if they were recently stocked by the state, it could be from that too. A lot of fish that have just come from the hatchery often look like that. I don’t know for sure, but those would be my best guesses.
Another week, another video. This one is the same creek system as the previous one. It’s in southeast Idaho. Caught a couple of rainbows, including my PB!
GEAR USED
Zen Tenkara Suzume rod in its longest (11-foot) configuration
11(ish)-foot #3.5 level line, 3 feet of 5x tippet
Fly: #12 Utah killer kebari (basically a Utah killer bug with a soft hackle)
This was the first of your videos that I listened to with the sound on. I couldn’t get over it, at least in the video you sound just like my brother. If I hadn’t seen your face, I would have thought it was him!
This week’s video is from a new creek about an hour away from me. I was pleasantly surprised by how many fish were in there. Ended up catching 15 rainbows and finding a clear little pool absolutely full fish. It was a great few hours on the water.
Another week, another video. This was a new stream to me, and it’s a Yellowstone cutthroat stream. I didn’t see or hook into many fish, but all of the ones I did hook into were 12+ inches. In this video, I land my biggest cutthroat yet!
Tristan, beautiful clear small stream. Looked quite windy on the second day.
Out of curiosity. You mentioned beaver dams. Are they still occupied by beavers or abandoned?
Occasionally I come across beavers while out fishing, (or less frequently a black bear) mostly I see them swimming in the river, but no beaver dams in sight. Ever since reading a story about some young girls being attacked by beavers in N.C. a few years ago. Which of course lead to finding other online stories of people being attacked by beavers. I am pretty leery of them as they it seems they can be quite territorial. And eager to send a clear message you are not welcome in their area. When they swim to close to the water’s edge near me I figure I might be glad later if I were quickly elsewhere.
