Tenkara Presentation Delayed

Tenkarausa©

Tonight Sensei Eric and myself (Tenkara kid) were scheduled to give a presentation to our fly fishing club on Tenkara style fishing.  We had gadgets, rods, flies, and a power point presentation all set up to go.  But we got bumped out of our meeting room at Schroeder's by some other riffraff group that went by the St. Paul Winter Carnival planners or something.  So our presentation has been rescheduled for next month.

Regardless, it was good to see the guys and finally meet Eric's very nice wife.  In fly tier's fashion, we made due and quickly conducted a business meeting in the bar in preparation of the upcoming Great Waters Fly Fishing Expo in two weeks. Minutes were taken down on a napkin and then we were back to swapping stories and generally enjoying not being trapped our houses.

I'm looking forward to another great fishing season and with Wisconsin C&R open, I wish you all the best for in your fishing adventures and hope to see you at the Expo!

www.critters-corner.com

My last weekend with Ed.

Saturday morning:

So for our last weekend hanging out together before Ed moves to Texas for his new job, we started off early Saturday morning.  We started off with breakfast over at the San Padro cafe in Hudson.  I highly recommend it to anyone and will be back there again.  We basically found it by accident as we were fifteen minutes too early to the nice cigar shop we wanted to check out called the St. Croix Cigar Company which had a large variety of products from my current favorite cigar brand, Perdomo Cigars. We were very impressed, and the guy behind the counter seemed to be an encyclopedia of cigar knowledge.

 

Then we moved on to River Falls to check out both the Kinni Creek Lodge fly shop and the new Lunds Fly shop out of curiosity and to maybe get some insight on what the fish have been hitting on.  We eventually did make it to fishing.  We started out fishing Lost Creek and worked our way up on the Rush river to El Paso.  Ed borrowed one of my bamboo rods to see what fishing one was like and I strung up another for myself for the weekend.  We had some success with sulphur parachutes #18 and comparduns #18, and white parachute BWO's.  Word on the river was that others had good luck using caddis patterns, but I did not have any success using them.  The trout must not have appreciated my artistic interpretation of the caddis flies I tied.

 

Saturday evening:

The reason for our fishing up to El Paso, WI was that our club was celebrating its 60th anniversary and the dinner was being hosted at the El Paso Bar & Grill.  We had a great turnout with many members and their spouses and significant others.  Everyone seemed to be having a good time.  Denny even set up a banquet table with some old club memorabilia, which I thought was a very nice touch.  To save us a lot of driving a few of us spent the night at the local Super8 motel; which sadly has been the nicest motel room I've had in a long, long, long time.  But it's not my fault, it's the fishes fault for not having better places for me to stay at when I go visit them.   



Denny's Table





Amy, Angie, and Jen



 

 

 

 



 

social hour

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Sunday morning:

Ed fishing bamboo for brookies

Sunday morning Ed and I had breakfast with Yoda and his saint of a wife, Sandy.  And we were off again fishing the Rush river.  The trout pretty much took to Sulphur parachutes and comparaduns, white post parachute BWO's.  Ed mentioned that it was kind of fitting that we fished at the Stonehammer bridge to catch his last Wisconsin trout before moving to Texas as it was the first place he caught a trout on the Rush when he moved here to Minnesota.  We had rising fish and the fishing was good until the bikini hatch broke out.  We had six girls in two piece bikinis and one guy in shorts trying to float the river on little black inner tubes.  While the scenery was appreciated as they all modeled their swim suits very well, they put the fish down dammit.  The last gal who was a little behind the rest of her group was not so impressed with the decision to float the 40 degree water and said she would rather be fishing with us then floating in the cold water.  I told her that this was the first time in the ten years of fishing this river that had seen anyone try to float it.  Too bad, I didn't have an extra set of waders for her.  Anyway, Ed and I adapted and we sat on the bank of the river and lit up a couple of cigars and waited for the fish to come back.  It didn't take too long and they were back rising. 

 

Sunday afternoon:

After a good morning on the river, we left for lunch at the Silver bridge in Martel.  The club was having one of our monthly fishing outings and grilled brats with sour kraut were on the menu!  I think we had around 15 people or so attend.  After lunch, one of our newer members, Eric, was showing us his new Tenkara rod he bought the day before at Kinni Creek Lodge.  While showing us how to fish it on the section that goes by the park, he hooked five fish.  They all got off before he could land them....but he's still working on figuring that part out.  :) 



And that was our weekend.  Not bad if you ask me.  I wish Good Luck to Ed and his girlfriend Angie on thier new chapter in thier life in Texas, even though I warned them numerous times that Texans live in Texas.

Doe and a fresh fawn

 

 

www.critters-corner.com

Official News Report..........

My wife's life is about to change.  Tonight, after a bad day of work, she bought a new fly rod (Sage Flight 5wt) and a reel (Ross CLA 2) and Scientific Anglers Mastery GPX fly line (WF-Floating) from The Fly Angler.  Guess the house will never look the same as she will be out on the river with me...for the most part.  She already has  found a substitute for me as she has set up a tentative fishing date with a friend while I am out on vacation fishing in Montana.  I know Right!  Good by old life, goodbye semi-clean house, helllllllloooooo FISHies!!!  I'm so proud.  Unless of course she makes a habit out of catching trophies.  Then we may have to have a little chat for my ego's sake.  ;) 

http://www.critters-corner.com/

A Cold Tuesday Night.

I made it up to the Fly Angler tonight for their first Open Tying night of the winter.  Several of us showed up and we pulled up a chair and our sense of humor upstairs in the middle of the rod shop.  We had a variety of flies being manufactured from Gotcha's, to soft hackles, to the Ultimate Meat Whistle Fly.

Some of us ordered delivery from Jimmy Johns, and they delivered speedy-quick!  I did my part to support the night by purchasing some 8/0 red thread as mine kept breaking a little to easily and must have been a bad spool.  Oh, and I bought a fly rod on my dad's behalf for this coming year.  I had two choices for the price range he was looking at, and I of course, I got the more expensive of the two.  But I won't tell him that and only charge him what he thought he wanted to spend.  He is getting a 9' 4-piece 5-weight Ross Essence FS fly rod with a soft case and rod tube.  I thought it was a fair deal, and added that to my spool of thread.

Later this week or next I will double check the extra 5wt fly line I have, and if it is good I will spool it on one of my former Orvis reels.  I just need to remember he is a south paw and to have it spooled backwards for him.  I think he will like the set up.

We tied from 6pm to 8pm and it was a great way to spend a winter night.  Tying with buddies (and The Jen who showed up with her glamorous haircut, fresh coloring, and big curls), terrible karaoke to the radio, and talking about future fishing trips (real and fantasy) to come.

Recycled Waders

Pretty much everyone on the planet is aware of the movement of "Going Green," from the auto maker trying to use it for gimmicky marketing purposes, or the guilt ridden office worker in a cube farm, or true conservationist. Well, for those who are riding the "Green" train and don't know what to do with their old breathable waders there is a new company in town that can help you out. The company is called RECYCLED™ Waders.

They take used breathable waders that are no longer functional and transform them into wallets, backpacks, etc. You can donate your waders or be on the cutting edge of your Green friends and own your own recycled accessory. Check it out for yourself at http://www.recycledwaders.com/.

(This is an FYI only, and does not constitute an endorsement of any kind as I have not had any interaction with the company as of yet. I just found it interesting and thought I would share.)