OK lets get started - Minnesota Driftless

[mspaddler]

Hi All
Well I know plenty of folks have been fishing Tenkara Overseas, so why the reluctance to put fingers to keyboard?

So here goes:

I just got back from 5 days camping and fishing in the Driftless Region of Minnesota.  Camping in  two State Parks, both of which have several Trout Streams.   The streams/rivers/creeks are ideal for Tenkara and once you have a state fishing license you are able to fish any of the water which flows through the parks.  It's not my intention to go into a blow by blow of the fishing but basically I got up early and fished until around noon chilled in the afternoon and fished from around 7pm until dusk.   No blanks!  All 3 species of trout to hand and beautiful scenery and wildlife all around.

[orangeotter]

well done mspaddler - a better trip than mine.

In the first week of June I went with fellow forum member 'moccasin' to Croatia and Slovenia. 9 years ago I'd been to Bosnia which was superb so we had high hopes. Unfortunately, they'd been suffering floods and even snow in May with the result that the rivers were only 8 degrees and running about 8" up.We spent the first 2 days in Croatia on the Gacka which was like a massive Test and up to 20ft deep so no wading or tenkara there. We caught a few trout (no grayling there) on dry sedges in the evening but pretty poor. Moved on to Slovenia with higher hopes to fish the Kupa and tributary Kupica and the rivers looked magnificent, although large and fairly dangerous wading.Again, the fishing was poor although we did catch quite a few amazingly coloured grayling,but only up to 15/day- so different to ours and these pics don't do them justice.Fins as red as Perch.




The waters were very clear and you could see grayling easily. The fish population was 80% grayling. I fished tenkara every day and it was wonderful so see fish coming up from depth to take the fly. I missed and lost a lot through poor timing ,often the case when you see them coming.Hatches had been extremely poor so dry fly wasn't a great idea so I caught most of mine on the ever reliable GRHE sakasa kebari.I have to say that it was super fishing but not as good as hoped.Although there were plenty of grayling, the general size was 12" or less but great fun all the same.The scenery was amazing, mountains and forests with always the chance of meeting a brown bear. The Kupa was essentially the border so we moved countries just by crossing the river.



At some points we had to drive through border control + guns. Cold high water we could have lived with but the biggest problem was that the river was infested by what our guide called 'cormorants' and I don't mean the feathered kind.



I don't wish to offend any members but you couldn't find a spot that wasn't full of Italians and French, up to 20+ in most stretches.Apparently the fishing was poor in their countries so they invaded Slovenia.The one picture shows how they positioned themselves. All the time we were fishing over water previously thrashed, but still everyone caught. Apparently,all european rivers now suffer the same fate. This made future trips out of the question which is a great shame.
It's always lovely to fish abroad but this was a poor trip. Has anyone else experience of Slovenia. We weren't in the right area for Marbled trout.

As Tommy Cooper once said 'just been on the trip of a lifetime - never again'.

Rather than ruin the post I'm asking Simon to post some pics.