I've been wanting to try Tenkara fishing (Japanese fly fishing) for some time now and finally got around it to it. We've been experiencing very warm weather with lots of fires and lots of smoke, so this weekend didn't look very promising. As luck would have it a cold front moved in Friday night, shifting the wind from the west to the north and cleared out the smoke. My wife and I packed up post haste and headed for our local Big Belt Mountains. As we neared the trailhead I couldn't help but notice the temp on my truck mirror!
As we headed down the trail it was obvious snow had fallen, as they say in Montana- if you don't like the weather, wait ten minutes!
we decided to camp at Grace Lake, a very nice alpine lake with a good population of cutthroat
took care of a few chores and broke out the Tenkara rod; both my wife and I are avid fisherman, but have never fly fished (Japanese or otherwise), so this would be new territory for both us.
Thom sent us some links to read up on and a few videos to watch, seemed straight forward enough :4: as luck would have it, two casts in......
my wife not to be outdone
we kept two fish, but caught dozens (we lost a fair a number too though)- I brought my pack rod, but we we were having too much fun the Tenkara and it never even got opened My pack rod/spinning outfit is very light, the Tenkara outfit is roughly a fourth of the weight, this was one of the reasons I've been wanting to give it a go
I brought our little grill with the hopes of some surf and turf; my wife thought it was appropriate for the turf side to have Kobe steaks
in addition to steak and trout, we had seasoned mash potatoes with cheese (AlpineAir) and cheese cake (Packitgourmet) for dessert, needless to say, supper was wonderful!
our home for the night
the next morning after breakfast and coffee, we caught (and released) several more trout. We still had plenty of time and decided to hit Hidden Lake on the way out; this lake also has a good population of cutthroat and we weren't disappointed
I think we're going to like this Japanese fly fishing
As we headed down the trail it was obvious snow had fallen, as they say in Montana- if you don't like the weather, wait ten minutes!
we decided to camp at Grace Lake, a very nice alpine lake with a good population of cutthroat
took care of a few chores and broke out the Tenkara rod; both my wife and I are avid fisherman, but have never fly fished (Japanese or otherwise), so this would be new territory for both us.
Thom sent us some links to read up on and a few videos to watch, seemed straight forward enough :4: as luck would have it, two casts in......
my wife not to be outdone
we kept two fish, but caught dozens (we lost a fair a number too though)- I brought my pack rod, but we we were having too much fun the Tenkara and it never even got opened My pack rod/spinning outfit is very light, the Tenkara outfit is roughly a fourth of the weight, this was one of the reasons I've been wanting to give it a go
I brought our little grill with the hopes of some surf and turf; my wife thought it was appropriate for the turf side to have Kobe steaks
in addition to steak and trout, we had seasoned mash potatoes with cheese (AlpineAir) and cheese cake (Packitgourmet) for dessert, needless to say, supper was wonderful!
our home for the night
the next morning after breakfast and coffee, we caught (and released) several more trout. We still had plenty of time and decided to hit Hidden Lake on the way out; this lake also has a good population of cutthroat and we weren't disappointed
I think we're going to like this Japanese fly fishing
