Tenkara Fishing In Amawalk Outlet and the Croton East Branch（Ⅱ）Monster-size Walleye

My wife and I fished the Amawalk Outlet and Croton East Branch yesterday.
We fished only a short section in the downstream from Wood Street bridge in Amawalk Outlet.
The stream flow and water temperature are good even in summer.
It seems each pockets of water hold a fish or two, though most of them are tiny.

We failed to hook many, but we caught a few small brown trouts.
This stream has plenty of small fish and is beautiful.  It is surrounded by many tall trees.



In the late afternoon, we went to the Croton East Branch.
I caught one brown trout . It seemed yesterday the trouts were in hiding  although the water temperature and the flow were okay.




A spin fisherman, fishing some distances from my wife upstream, caught a monster-size fish with his minnow lure.
He told my wife it was a walleye and the largest one he had ever caught in the East Branch.  My wife took some pictures and scaled it at least 27 inches long, 6-7 lbs.
When I saw the fish in the pictures, I was really amazed by its size. I have never seen such a big fish there except carps, and I have fished there over 20 years.
Just a thought:  This monster-size walleye probably ate a lot of trouts.  Thanks to Walter, it is gone!
 

   

Tenkara Fishing in the Farmington River, CT

We fished in the Farmington River, CT yesterday.
As summer is advancing, the condition of most streams in the Croton Watershed has become not so good for fishing.
Then Farmington River has come to my mind.  Why shall we not fish in the Farmington with tenkara rods?
We used to go fly fishing there quite often and had a good time, even in hot summer days.
The water was cooler than the water in the Croton Watershed, and there were an abundant of insect hatches.

I tried to fish the section of water between the Hogback Dam and the Beaver Pool, which is the first major pool downstream from the Dam. This section consists of mostly rapid and riffle with a lot of large stones which make good pockets of water.  So it might be a great place for tenkara fishing.  Many brookies are supposed to be there too.

In this section, a lot of tree branches hang over the bank.  It caused big problem for casting near the bank, so I had to wade to the middle, but wading was difficult because of the large volume of fast water.

The flow of Farmington was more than usual and the water temperature was higher than what we had experienced in past summers.

I will try this section again when the condition is better.



We fished some other rapid in the downriver, and I managed to catch  a few fish.

We had a great expectation of good fishing in the Farmington yesterday.
Let's hope for a better day next time.
                                                            

Tenkara Fishing in Amawalk Outlet and the Croton East Branch

My wife and I visited the middle section of Amawalk Outlet for the first time.
However, we did stop by this stream just below the Amawalk Reservoir more than 20 years ago.
At that time the stream looked not much better than a small ditch to my eyes and I never gave it a second look until now.
Since I have started tenkara fishing, I get more interested in small mountain streams.
So I read the TU guide book, "FISHING THE CROTON WATERSHED" about Amawalk Outlet again.
I realized the image of this stream in my head seemed not the same as the descriptions in the book.

Though it was raining last Saturday morning, we went to see the stream.
Once it caught my sight, I felt I wasted 20 something years not knowing such a nice and beautiful trout stream exists in the Croton Watershed.  It is also the closest to our home among other streams we often visit.
Well, I had this feeling of loss even  though only recently we have been interested in these types of streams.

I caught a small brown trout downstream from the Wood Street bridge.
We were late for lunch, so we left.  But we have to explore this stream more next time.

















In the Croton East Branch, we caught several trouts.
I used Nissin 13-foot tenkara level line rod which has a very soft action.
This rod can be casted with the fluorocarbon level line to its maximum length when one can cast the line with the right casting speed and right timing of the start forward cast.

Also, because of the line's light weight, the level line doesn't pull the fly toward the fisherman when the fly is drifting.  The fly can keep drifting in the far distance current.

But the rod's softness can cause big problem.  It is difficult to control a hooked fish, especially a larger one.

I lost my last and the largest fish of Saturday when I grabbed the line, and the tippet broke off.
I guessed the tippet became weak when I couldn't net the fish right away, and the fish was struggling wildly to escape weakening the tippet.
To grab the line and land a larger fish is like a gamble to me.  I don't know if the tippet is strong enough or not.  I must find some good ways to land a larger fish.