My Version of the San Ron Worm

Here is the worm pattern I usually fish. I've tried all different patterns, but this one seems to be the most durable of the plastic worm patterns, at least in my hands.  It's my variation of the San Ron Worm.

Hook: Tiemco 206BL
Thread: Umpqua Super Floss (although I put a small thread head on those that are tungsten to help me tell them apart from brass bead ones in my fly box)
Body: Trout Legend Worm 2.0 Material

It's easy to tie and quite durable. Here is a short video of how I tie the fly. Sorry for the less than ideal quality of the video.

Tenkara - May 27, 2016

Memorial Day weekend -- a time in which I usually don't venture into the mountains, mainly due to all the people. But today I decided to risk it and go to the hills to fish a stream that is overlooked by many.

I've fished it before, I fished just a few weeks ago. The water was high and off colored. Still, I did pretty well with a worm pattern. I wanted to see how the water was shaping up and to see if I could still hook a few cutthroats.

When I arrived I was very pleased to see that no one else was around. Again, this stream is overlooked. The threat of thunderstorms may have something to do with it as well.

The water had dropped and was just starting to clear up. Despite this, I decided to go with a worm pattern again. I'm sure I could have fished with a more traditional pattern, but it's still spring in my part of the world and the worm pattern seems to out fish most anything. It didn't let me down.

Most of the cutthroats were on the small side. And they were no match for the Suikei 39. But that didn't matter. I love these fish, large or small. They are my native trout and are precious evolutionary survivors.

Here is a video of a few of the fish I took:




I hope you have a safe and fun Memorial Day weekend. Remember our veterans. Remember your ancestors. Happy summer!

Higher water, bigger fish and no video camera

I drove to an area stream today with my wife. I wanted to see how the water was shaping up, although I suspected it to still be quite high. As we drove into the mountains I watched the stream, and sure enough, it was high.

We parked on the side of the road and I went down to the water. It was relatively clear, flowing with force and speed...but fishable. I went back up to the car and put waders on.

This stream has always had the promise of a nice sized fish. It's relatively small, being about 10-12 feet across in many places. It has brookies, rainbows and cutthroats. But it's the rainbows that can surprise you. I've taken some rainbows in the mid to upper teens on this stream. It's hard to fight them due to the fast current and the limited room in which they can run.

Still snow.

Lots of beaver activity

My first cast yielded a nice rainbow... no picture taken because I had decided not to photo-document this outing.  A few more casts, a little upstream, and I took a really nice brook trout; it was about 12 inches. Again, no photo.

As I worked my way up stream I took another rainbow, from a current seam. It was bigger than the first, coming in at just under 14 inches. He was a fighter and made a number of dashes towards the under water snags that are plentiful in this stream. I got him to net, but again, I decided no photo. I'm trying to simplify my fishing.

Through the next section, I had to collapse the rod numerous times, due to the heavy brush. But as I walked upstream I came upon an open area. A large log jam broke the current and the water, after coursing over and under the log jam, swept downstream around a bend.

I worked the red worm pattern upstream of the log jam when my line stopped. I set the hook and up rose a large trout, which had taken my fly. It was larger than any fish I had ever taken or even seen in this stream.

It shot around the log jam and into the current. I was able to steer it out of the current into an area of slower water, then quickly get it into my net. The fish barely fit in my 30 cm net. It's head was in but the body and tail were hanging out. The Suntech Suikei 39 with 5X tippet had worked perfectly helping me control this fish despite the heavy water flow.

It was a beautiful cutthroat, 22 inches long, full bodied and very healthy. I left it in the water, took a few pictures, then watched it swim vigorously away.  What a beautiful fish.

After that, I drove upstream a ways and checked out the water. I caught one more rainbow and that was enough to me.

I'm not a big fish fisherman. I get most of my thrill in being outside and in the water. I relish the art of the presentation and getting it just right. I love the thrill of the take after a perfect presentation. If it's a 6 inch rainbow or a 22 inch cutthroat it makes no difference to me. But I must admit, that large cutthroat (and the other one that I hooked and lost) was pretty special.

It was a wonderful 1.5 hours on the stream.

Tenkara -- May 5, 2016

I visited a high mountain stream the other day. Run off hadn't started quite yet, although the water was up a little, yet the water was still clear.

The stream holds wild, native cutthroats, which are my favorite trout. Here's a video of a few of the fish I took. No music, only sounds of the rushing water. Arrows show the drift and ovals show the take.

Fishing during run off -- April 29, 2016

April and May (and sometimes June) are hard times for me to fish, since that is the time when the spring run off occurs in my part of the world.  As the mountain snow melts the water levels rise and the turbidity increases. On some of my favorite streams the water levels rise to a point where it can be dangerous to wade. So either I fish spring creeks or I don't fish at all.

The maze -- willow, dogwood and black hawthorn.

Yet, there are a few creeks near where I live that arise from lower elevation mountains that have less robust run off flows. I visited one of these today.

The stream I visited is a cutthroat stream. The cutthroat spawn is just finishing so it's less of an issue to fish now.  The water today was fairly high, for this little stream, the color was off, and the turbidity was high. Yet I caught trout. I'm always amazed that the fish can see my fly -- even when my fly is a worm pattern.

I was alone on the stream, unless you count a visit from a moose (and a couple of geese). There was a lot of Black Hawthorn that made getting to the stream fun. I hope my waders survived the army crawl on the way out!

I used the Suntech Suikei (medium action) keiryu rod, but I could have used the TenkaraBum 36 just as well. They cast about the same, but I like the various length options provided by the Suikei.

My Suntech Suikei.

Black Hawthorn -- go under, but don't go through!

My moose friend -- on his way out. 

I fished for my usual 1.5 hours and took 10 fish -- not bad given the water conditions. The air was 52°F and the water was 40°F.  All fish were wild, native cutthroats. Most were around 10 inches. The last one came in at 14 inches -- it was a beauty!

Last fish -- a real mountain treasure!