Happy to report that the 1st ever NYC Tenkara Angler's Club trip was a success, and well attended at that! It was really reassuring to see so much interest and from a broad range of people. We had a really nice group of 8 people and met at the river at 10:30AM on a Sunday.
We started as a group near the bridge. This run can be productive and I found a fish within the first few minutes. It was a decent size rainbow, maybe 14 inches or so.
What nice colors on this rainbow. I assume it was a hold over stocked fish.
Nick Park tries out his new Tenkara Rod Co Mini Sawtooth rod with a Furled leader. It casts much better that way than with a level line. Go for at least a #4 level line if you don't use furled leaders.
Bruce and Connie fished above us in the run, and had made the Trek from NJ to join us on the water. Connie ended up landing a nice fat rainbow farther up the river after we split up to find more good water to fish.
Chris (of Tenkarabum) was hunting for some of the broodstock landlocked salmon that are stocked in this river each year. A 20-foot carp rod would certainly have little problem landing the fish. There is plenty of overhead space to allow for the longer rods on this river. Single barbless hooks only, with no extra weight on the line make for difficult deep water salmon fishing.
I was using the Suntech Grayce II, which zooms from 4.7-5.2 meters. I spent a lot of time practicing my cast... having a good early stop is important when fishing with a long rod... the rod does so much of the "work" for you. Its wonderful to see all the line shooting out in front of you, almost like the "spey casting" of fixed line fishing.
This shot shows how high the water was... usually you can see plenty of rocks in those plunges. This made for difficult fishing. The weather was nice, getting into the high 40's when the sun came out. These berries were lingering from their late fall birth and grabbed the eye... a maze of blue and grey amongst the leafless twigs.
My favorite run was flooded out... in fact the entire river was running crazy high. The water was extremely cold, around 39 degrees. Usually this run is good for a few fish, but there was nothing biting on this particular day. Even the heaviest of flies wasn't doing the trick.
Below, Nick drifts a fly through a notorious Salmon lie. We likely weren't getting deep enough for them or the trout, given the fact that the water levels were so high. The long walk in from the parking lot leaves some of these spots with slightly less pressure, but the fish didn't seem like they were feeding much anyway.
Walking along the trail there's always a lot of debris and unfortunately, more trash than most rivers I fish. In many spots one can see the damage done from ice dams, floods and civilization alike. Nature attempts to reclaim but alas, we've come to naming areas like "Car door run" and "shopping cart pool..." you get the point. I always carry some trash out when I head back to the car.
Although only a few of us landed fish, it was a fun day and a great opportunity to meet some new people and fish with a new group. I am looking forward to our monthly club outings. If you're interested in joining us on the water, send an email to info(at)nyctenkara.org and we'll get you on the mailing list. Or find us on facebook at - www.facebook.com/groups/nyctenkara/
That rainbow has been in the river for some time, very nice.
ReplyDeleteLots of small streams near.