Tenkara Fishing In Croton, NY （Ⅱ）

I fished the West Branch of Croton with my wife yesterday.
It was her first time to fish pockets of water one by one while walking upstream of this type of small stream.
She caught a beautiful brookie, her first fish of the season.
I also caught a small brown, but no more fish was caught by us.
We fished for about two hours,  then we saw a  fisherman coming down from upstream. He must have fished these pockets of water before us.
We thought we had better moved to the East Branch instead of going further upstream.

The flow of the East Branch was very high.
But I managed to catch a few browns and rainbows.


The long tenkara rod is good for heavily weighted nymph to fish the bottom of the fast water.
It is like "dipping the fly" although Tenkara USA advertisement says: "Tenkara is not dipping".

Tenkara Fishing in the Catskills Mountains

I fished the upper section of Vernooy Kill in the Catskills yesterday.  It was further upstream than where I fished last week.
I caught several brookies.
It seems only brookies in this upper section of the stream.

Then I visited Rondout Creek above Rondout  Reservoir in the evening.
As I didn't see any public access outside the state forest, I guessed only inside the state forest section of the Creek I could fish.
In most cases the road runs along the Creek in this section.  I looked down from the road to see any good pocket of water possibly holding some fish, but there were only few.
The Creek is basically a fast shallow water, average about 25-foot in width, in the bottom of a steep valley.
I caught only one beautiful 12-inch wild brown in a rare good spot.

For tenkara casting, I feel comfortable in the Rondout Creek because of its wide width.
As a small mountain stream, some good fishing spots of Vernooy Kill are covered with trees.
Even though this makes tenkara casting difficult, they are too good to be bypassed.
I would like to try a shorter line for these types of spots in my next tenkara outing and see how it works.        

The upper Rondout Creek 

Tenkara and Fly Fishing in the Catskills

I planned a bit ambitious 4-day fishing trip to the Catskills. I wanted to explore some small streams for tenkara fishing during the day and fly fishing the West Branch of  "D" in the evening.
However, the water of  the West Branch was too high  for wading in these several days, I fished Barnhart's Pool of the Beaver Kill near Roscoe instead.


Beaver Kill was in great condition.
The flow and temperetue of the water was ideal.
A lot of all kinds of bugs were in the air and on the water.
Although the fish were not as large as  those in the West Branch, I enjoyed catching several fat browns of 14 and 15 inches in two evenings of tricky dry fly fishing.
The most fun was fish still jumped for green drake flies in the dusk even though only few of them remainig as their season almost expired.

I really didn't have enough time to explore many of the streams for tenkara because I spent a bit more time for the fun of fishing in the Beaver Kill.

Some of the streams I visited for tenkara were:

   Vernooy Kills:

This stream is a tributary of Rondout Creek, located north of Ellenville.
I fished the short stretch of the mid section .

This section is in the State Forest with State Forest signs posted on the trees and at the bottom of the steep valley.
I used to fish in this similar type of stream in Japan with a fly rod a long time ago.  Tenkara fishing was developed by commercial fishermen in this type of stream several hundred years ago.
I caught some brookies and one brown.

I didn't go all the way to the end of the dirt road. If I go there again next time, I will go to find out what it is.                        

   Russell Brook:

The guide book, "Good Fishing in the Catskills", mentions this stream,
so I looked forward to visiting there.

I walked about 2 miles upstream from Russell Brook Campsites and fished at each good looking spot.
But I didn't get even one bite.
I guess the population of trouts there is very small if they are there.

Beyond the Campsites is all public land.
The stream and the surrounding forest  are beautiful.
I was disappointed not able to catch or see any fish in such a nice place.                                      

   The Upper Willowemoc Creek:

I like to fish this stream with a tenkara rod because it is well suited for this stream with a lot of open space.
I really had a good time swinging the tenkara rod in this section of the Willowemoc.












      The Upper Beaver Kill:

I went straight to the state camp- sites by the stream because there is very limited public access on this stream. I didn't catch any fish in this stretch along the campsites, but I got few tiny stocked browns in a small pool upstream.
The character of this stream is similar to the Upper Willowemoc with a lot of open space.


I leaned few things about tenkara fishing in this trip.

• In the tree covered tight spot, I can shorten the rod to 9-foot or shorter, and cast exactly like a fly rod making narrow U-loop to avoid hanging trees.    

• All kinds of flies for fly fishing can be used with a tenkara rod.

• Sometimes a tenkara rod can work better than a fly rod because it makes the least line slack. 

During this trip, I did tenkara fishing in the day time, fly fishing in the evening and early morning, were very exhausting physically. But I enjoyed every bit of them.

There are many nice mountain streams in the Catskills good for tenkara fishing waiting for me to explore.
I can't wait to go again.

Democrat Point, Robert Moses State Park, Long Island

I fished in Fire Island inlet from Democrat Point side of Robert Moses State Park from early morning till 10am yesterday.
It was only the second time I fished there.
I got nothing. I need to learn more about this area.


Democrat Point looks wilder and larger than Breezy Point where I usually fish at this time of the season, but it is still close due to damage caused by Super Storm Sandy.
Therefore instead of getting a 4WD permit for Breezy Point, I got one for Robert Moses.
At Robert Moses, I saw many fishermen camping with their RVs on the beach.
I guess that's the way to do surf fishing by enthusiasts.

When I was leaving, I encountered a couple of foxes, probably a mother and a child.
They weren't really afraid of people.
I could enjoy watching their intimate time together at a close distance.