Saturday, April 10, 2021

You Can't Make This Stuff Up

My little baby, the Tiny Ten was given some rough treatment on a recent outing. The rod was dropped into the stream in the process of landing a brook trout. Here's the story. While fishing this stream I was blessed with several nice brookies. The fish were taking the orange soft hackle, which is actually a dry fly. It is a tenkara fly that I can never remember it's name. As it turned out it was the only fly I used.

Well in the process of bringing a brookie to hand I managed to drop the rod in the water not so bad right. Well the rod got filled with tiny sand grains, which I found out later was a "big" problem. But it did not stop my fishing because I didn't know about it until I got back to the car and tried to collapse the rod. It did not move, the sections were sounding gritty. More on that later.
 

 

In almost every little pocket there was a brookie. You had one shot to hook them and quite a few I missed.
 


 This one came from that pocket in the last photo, I think you can see it.

Pretty simple...hook, thread, and 3-4 turns of hackle.

 

Here I was upstream in the fast water. I worked my way down to where I could drift the fly at the head of the pool. As I lifted the fly towards the surface the fish hit. He made a run upstream towards me. As he got close he somehow managed to get between my legs. I had two choices, one was to fall on my ass into the stream, the other was to attempt to grab the fish. I chose the second option. As I tried to hold the fish by the hook in his lip that's when the rod fell in the water. After some fancy leg work I managed to grab the rod and low and behold the brookie was still on.
 

Here he is. Pretty fish. Well when I got home the TT got taken apart section by section. Each was rinsed in cold water and allow to dry. I'm happy to say it's perfect.

 

 

17 comments:

  1. The Tiny Ten’s one vulnerability exposed! But no worse than a reel needing a bit of attention so all good. Club opening day today for me up in the Poconos, one stocked brookie and 4 wild browns in about 2 hours (late start for me), the last brownie on a dry fly as they were rising to blue quills (my guess). I prefer the wild fish anyway and the stream has a Class A + population. Next time it is the headwaters for brookies and some simple soft hackles. Glad COVID is subsiding and time to fish again! Kevin

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Ned Zeppelin
      Thanks
      Kevin success on opening day. Wild trout are such a gift and with PA protecting their waters can help they will remain wild. To find wild brookies most times it requires headwater streams. But it's worth it. Brookies are for the most part not fussy what they eat so go with simplicity.

      Delete
  2. Yeah, all Tenkara rods need to be taken apart and dried if they get wet. But it's a fun way to fish!

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. billp
      Thanks
      Bill I've had that rod in the water a few times but I think the fine sand gave me the problem. It all worked out.

      Delete
  3. A quick wipe down from cork to Lillian after every dip has almost completely negated the ill effects of a bath for me. I am the kind of guy that carries a bandana and in this application it shines.

    Land the fish, what else matters?

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Nathan Camp
      Thanks
      Nate I'm pretty careful when it comes to rod care on stream. I carry a couple of microfiber cloth pieces one for rods and one for the camera. It really surprised me that fish was still on.

      Delete
  4. Alan.
    You sure have had a lot of success with your TT. Good to hear disaster was averted.
    JJ

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Beaverdam
      Thanks
      Joe, it's worked well for me in certain streams. But I'm not about to abandon my conventional rods and reels. It cleaned up OK.

      Delete
  5. Hi Alan,

    That was quite an adventure and well told. I'm looking forward to tenkara fishing with my grandson this summer.

    On another topic, wonderful news yesterday from Wareham, MA. 85% of the voters at the town meeting voted "no" on the zoning change to permit a huge "entertainment district" that would have threatened Red Brook and its sea run brookies. I'm very grateful to the citizens of Wareham and all those worked to save this irreplaceable resource. And, thanks to you as well, Alan, for publicizing the issue in your blog.

    Warmest wishes to all,
    John

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. John Strucker
      Thanks
      John you and your grandson are going to love fishing tenkara.

      That was a show of support that made it clear that sometimes big money will not destroy. The folks of Wareham no the value of wild and undisturbed land holds more value. Thanks to all who supported this effort.

      Delete
    2. I've never been there and never will but that just made my day!
      JJ

      Delete
    3. Joe the same thing happened to many of us upon hearing the "good" news.

      Delete
  6. Alan,
    In case you haven't seen this, here is an interesting video from your neck of the woods.

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=t1V4qs4nGKI

    JJ

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Beaverdam
      Thanks
      Joe I have not seen that one but will check it out.

      Delete
    2. Joe...it's to technical for me. I recognize the areas they were fishing and they are prime.

      Delete
  7. Alan
    So much punch in a little tube, that is the excellent little trout rod for all the streams you fish. Thanks for sharing

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Bill Trussell
      Thanks
      Bill it really fits in certain situations.

      Delete