March 1st. is here at last and time to try the Tenkara rod in anger, if indeed anger has any place in such a Zen pastime.
The river was running beautifully clear today if a little low and I decided to start close to home at Knockan Bridge which has a nice pool and riffle.
I selected what was basically a size 14 black and silver spider tied Tenkara style with the hackles sweeping forward. The first experimental cast took me by surprise producing a splashy strike as soon as the fly kissed the water. This was quickly followed by a couple of hook ups which didn't quite make the net.
Before long half a dozen small trout were landed and quite a few tugs and rises. What was evident from the start was the sensitivity of the technique to very gentle takes. I would probably have missed most of them on a conventional rod.
Would I ever go completely Tenkara? Maybe not. But it's nice to explore another aspect of fly fishing and I'll definitely give it an outing from time to time.
I proudly photographed my first wee trout taken on Tenkara in the belief that this was probably the first trout caught on the Braid using this method. Then I bumped into Club regulars Alan and Jamesie who informed me they had spotted a bloke upstream also using Tenkara. Have to look for another claim to fame.
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