Tenkara Guides Urban fishing trip, Part I -- May 2014 Browns!

Early in 2012 I decided to go on a guided fishing trip with Tenkara Guides, LLC of Salt Lake City, Utah. On that trip I fished with Erik Ostrander and learned a lot about fishing small mountain streams and larger tail waters with a 13' tenkara rod.

Erik Ostrander on the Provo -- 2012

Well, its been over two years and although I have fished quite a bit I still need instruction, redirection, and encouragement. In no way do I consider myself an expert, or for that matter, even very proficient in the techniques of tenkara. I think I'm coming along, but I have a ways to go before I reach that level of proficiency that I would like.  I am, however, enjoying the journey!

Recently, I decided that I'd like to try something a little different when it comes to tenkara. I decided that I'd like to try some urban fishing in the heart of Salt Lake City. Therefore, I contacted John Vetterli and arranged a time to go fish.

Inside REI

I met John near the REI on 3300 south and we drove to our first destination. Instead of driving up one of the many canyons in the Salt Lake area, we drove right up State Street to the Utah State Capital building. This area of Salt Lake overlooks the valley and is used by many recreationalists for cycling, mountain biking, dog walking, and running. Yet most, if not all of these people just barely notice the beautiful little creek in the bottom of the canyon. This is City Creek.

The mouth of City Creek canyon and the Salt Lake City valley

City Creek is a historically important watershed. Early in Utah's history, when Mormon pioneers first entered the valley (1847), the mouth of City Creek canyon became the base camp for the fledgling community of worn out and persecution fatigued pioneers. What is now Salt Lake City grew out of that small encampment and City Creek still plays an important role.  As a matter of fact, City Creek flows along side the headquarters of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints (Mormons) and right through an upscale shopping mall. As a boy growing up in northern Utah, I had heard of City Creek, but I didn't know where it was (since it had long been diverted and paved over),  but I had always wanted to fish its open reaches. Here was my chance.

City Creek (complete with trout) flows right through City Creek Center, an upscale metropolitan shopping center.

Like many urban streams, the signs of humanity are all around the creek. Roads, trails, houses, trash -- they all add to the mystique of this culturally important stream. Getting there was easy; we walked. After parking right across from the Utah State Capital building we donned our waders and walked down a one-way paved road. After reaching an overlook where the creek could be seen down in the canyon, we walked downhill into the canyon and found a good spot to enter the stream.

Since I was a client, John did not fish. Besides, City Creek is not large enough the handle two fishers side by side. It is a classic mountain creek that has been tamed by "improvements" to try to keep it from flooding and/or washing out its banks. Still, it retains some of its freestone, pocketwater character from days gone by. The streams is about 4-6 feet wide and has numerous lies for trout. Cottonwoods, willows and other riparian vegetation overlie its banks.

John carefully watching over his client.  Note the "improvements" to the stream.

A typical reach of the creek

As I worked my way upstream, John watched, chatted, instructed, and did his best not to let me hook him with my fly. I used a short rod, the Shimotsuke Kiyotaki 24, but a probably could have gotten away with a longer rod. I like this little rod on small streams. It casts precisely and has plenty of power to pull the fish out of snags. For a fly I used a beadhead.

You might ask, "Why did you use a beadhead on such a small stream?"  Well, I'll tell you. Because I wanted to! I could have just as easily used a Utah Killer Bug or kebari, but I like beadheads. I think they produce quicker and more reliably than other flies in certain circumstances.  Yes, they are a challenge in the shallow waters of a small stream, but they sink quickly in pockets where they only have inches to drift. You do have to pay more attention to them than kebari, as they tend to snag the bottom more -- but that just increases your skill -- IMO.

I took many trout, all but one were browns. They ranged between 8-13 inches and were lively and full of fight. We fished just a little over 2 hours.

The Kiyotaki 24 and a representative brown trout.

John netting one of the fish

I had a great morning and thoroughly enjoyed John's guidance, instruction and friendship. He is really good at what he does, but he in no way makes you feel dumb or inept. Being a fishing guide is hard work (as I understand, since I am not a guide myself); it takes great effort to keep your clients happy and yet not offend. John did this marvelously. I highly recommend him!

John and I in the ubiquitous, poorly executed "selfie"!

After lunch at Five Guys, we headed to another urban destination -- as John calls it, "a little slice of heaven." That's coming up in part II. Stay tuned -- it's not your classic Japanese version of tenkara -- tenkara purists be forewarned!!


Here is the POV video of fishing City Creek.