Post by Simon on Apr 24, 2011 7:00:36 GMT
Click link below to view photos.
picasaweb.google.com/111125497759840168513/TenkaraWithJon?authkey=Gv1sRgCIOIo6GrsfnNYQ&feat=directlink
This is a story of a very interesting day on the river Alyn. A few weeks back Jon Beer had been invited to fish our river with the auction winner from last years wild brown trout auction. Jon has appeared on TV hosting fishing school with Nick Hancock, he also has two books in print and has written the daily telegraph fishing column, along with many articles in Trout & Salmon.
Our chairman Howard mentioned during a pre visit phone call the word “Tenkara”, a light bulb lit at the other end, Jon had just acquired a rod from diawa to try, but he had little idea about the technique and how it was being used in this country. Rossett fly fishers to the rescue. Looking back to the first post on our forum showed that I first mentioned it in May 2009 with some very interesting comments! Conor acquired the first rod in our club that July and has never looked back. Anyway Jon on his first visit, got his first try at Tenkara but as he was with the winner of the auction he had little time to absorb everything about Tenkara on our river Alyn.
A phone call later that night, Jon wanted to write an article about our river and Tenkara for Trout & Salmon. Small problem, the deadline was the end of April. After talking to Howard to arrange the visit, Friday 22nd was pencilled in for the long day.
A call on the evening of the 21st to confirm everything was OK, another problem, I was very, very ill after eating lunch with Sonia in Chester. Fishing on Friday at this time was not on. But the article had to be written! Sonia said she would stand in if I was incapable, So she arranged to for Jon to come to our house first.
Friday morning arrived, I could not believe how well I felt! Very weak and run down after a bad night but rearing to go. Jon arrived around 8am we had tea in the summer house and then left to meet Howard at the river for 10am. The long day started, never having someone follow you with a camera and notebook is a very unnerving thing when normally you are along on the river; even through Jon said to fish and carry on as as you would, pressure is on! The day was just about perfect for photographs though as a fisher it was hot, still and the water was low, surprisingly no other anglers on the river most of the day. Jon followed Howard and I up the river, Howard fishing with “conventional rod” me with the “Big T”. All the info about the background to the river and club was provided by Howard as we made our way upstream.
Howard caught the first small smolt. I was at this time unable to keep fish on the hook. Jon told us to shout if we hooked a fish, not a normal thing to do while fishing but we agreed! First fish for me came to hand after taking a small upstream dry. I hope our fish are not camera shy? Loads of photos from many angles, probably at least 1000 were taken during the day, Jon says that they may only use 4 or 5 out of those.
In the straight cut Jon had a go at a rising fish with his Tenkara, he sucessfully hooked his first fish on his Tenkara rod, he was no longer a Tenkara virgin. There was only one minor issue, as Jon wanted photos and I was downstream, it was a reluctant Howard to the rescue. Against his better judgement he was enticed to act as if he was fishing with the rod, Jon can be very bad. Hearing the commotion I turned up with camera so Howard is surrounded, smile for the camera Howard. We tried to get Howard to cast the Big T but he was having none of it. Another good fish was caught with the T on an dry just above the Corn field, again star treatment was provided to this brown. Jon wanted some shots from Worms wood so a quick stroll back to the cars.
Fishing upstream we met Eddie who had plundered the wood before we had arrived, 20 plus fish, had he left any for us? Made our way up to Pont-y-Capel, 2 out of season Grayling decided that they also wanted to be stars. With time getting on Jon said that he had enough photos and info for the articles. He hopes to do two articles, one on Tenkara and the other on our club and river. When they will be published I'm not sure, One thing is that this exposure to Tenkara and to our club can only be a good thing! For those of you that have your own views on Tenkara, one thing to remember is that our club may have the UK's nucleus of Tenkara fishers in the UK? With Conor maybe the first in the country with a rod. Hope you enjoy the photos that I managed to take, they were a great Easter present for Sonia! Will Howard will be offering Tenkara lessons in the near future, stranger things have happened?
Simon.
picasaweb.google.com/111125497759840168513/TenkaraWithJon?authkey=Gv1sRgCIOIo6GrsfnNYQ&feat=directlink
This is a story of a very interesting day on the river Alyn. A few weeks back Jon Beer had been invited to fish our river with the auction winner from last years wild brown trout auction. Jon has appeared on TV hosting fishing school with Nick Hancock, he also has two books in print and has written the daily telegraph fishing column, along with many articles in Trout & Salmon.
Our chairman Howard mentioned during a pre visit phone call the word “Tenkara”, a light bulb lit at the other end, Jon had just acquired a rod from diawa to try, but he had little idea about the technique and how it was being used in this country. Rossett fly fishers to the rescue. Looking back to the first post on our forum showed that I first mentioned it in May 2009 with some very interesting comments! Conor acquired the first rod in our club that July and has never looked back. Anyway Jon on his first visit, got his first try at Tenkara but as he was with the winner of the auction he had little time to absorb everything about Tenkara on our river Alyn.
A phone call later that night, Jon wanted to write an article about our river and Tenkara for Trout & Salmon. Small problem, the deadline was the end of April. After talking to Howard to arrange the visit, Friday 22nd was pencilled in for the long day.
A call on the evening of the 21st to confirm everything was OK, another problem, I was very, very ill after eating lunch with Sonia in Chester. Fishing on Friday at this time was not on. But the article had to be written! Sonia said she would stand in if I was incapable, So she arranged to for Jon to come to our house first.
Friday morning arrived, I could not believe how well I felt! Very weak and run down after a bad night but rearing to go. Jon arrived around 8am we had tea in the summer house and then left to meet Howard at the river for 10am. The long day started, never having someone follow you with a camera and notebook is a very unnerving thing when normally you are along on the river; even through Jon said to fish and carry on as as you would, pressure is on! The day was just about perfect for photographs though as a fisher it was hot, still and the water was low, surprisingly no other anglers on the river most of the day. Jon followed Howard and I up the river, Howard fishing with “conventional rod” me with the “Big T”. All the info about the background to the river and club was provided by Howard as we made our way upstream.
Howard caught the first small smolt. I was at this time unable to keep fish on the hook. Jon told us to shout if we hooked a fish, not a normal thing to do while fishing but we agreed! First fish for me came to hand after taking a small upstream dry. I hope our fish are not camera shy? Loads of photos from many angles, probably at least 1000 were taken during the day, Jon says that they may only use 4 or 5 out of those.
In the straight cut Jon had a go at a rising fish with his Tenkara, he sucessfully hooked his first fish on his Tenkara rod, he was no longer a Tenkara virgin. There was only one minor issue, as Jon wanted photos and I was downstream, it was a reluctant Howard to the rescue. Against his better judgement he was enticed to act as if he was fishing with the rod, Jon can be very bad. Hearing the commotion I turned up with camera so Howard is surrounded, smile for the camera Howard. We tried to get Howard to cast the Big T but he was having none of it. Another good fish was caught with the T on an dry just above the Corn field, again star treatment was provided to this brown. Jon wanted some shots from Worms wood so a quick stroll back to the cars.
Fishing upstream we met Eddie who had plundered the wood before we had arrived, 20 plus fish, had he left any for us? Made our way up to Pont-y-Capel, 2 out of season Grayling decided that they also wanted to be stars. With time getting on Jon said that he had enough photos and info for the articles. He hopes to do two articles, one on Tenkara and the other on our club and river. When they will be published I'm not sure, One thing is that this exposure to Tenkara and to our club can only be a good thing! For those of you that have your own views on Tenkara, one thing to remember is that our club may have the UK's nucleus of Tenkara fishers in the UK? With Conor maybe the first in the country with a rod. Hope you enjoy the photos that I managed to take, they were a great Easter present for Sonia! Will Howard will be offering Tenkara lessons in the near future, stranger things have happened?
Simon.
