My friends first Tenkara day

Started the day by picking up my buddy Daniel Hayes around 9:30am and heading up to South Boulder Creek.  We get to the creek around 10am to a nice sunny low 40's with just a touch of a breeze.  I give Dan the Iwana 12' rod and tie up a egg to a purple Le Bug for him, while I use the Motsugo 9' rod and tie on a san juan worm to a mysis.

Dan has fished before but never fished for trout or used a Tenkara rod, so as we walk to the creek I explain a few things about where the fish will be and how we will have to approach them.  I don't tell him how to cast but tell him to false cast a few times to get a feel for what the line will do and where it will land.  Then I leave him to fish.  We fish behind a couple boulders but neither of us get a bite so we move downstream.  I find a nice spot where there was a deep pool for him to fish and after telling him the strategy for catching the fish we were using with the flies he had on, I leave him to fish.  I set the rod down and go to take some pictures of him when I hear that he has one hooked.  To my surprise he has hooked a rainbow on the Le Bug and not the egg, but who cares, my buddy just caught his first trout on Tenkara!  The added cool factor was that the Le Bug was one of my self tied flies.  

We move downsteam a ways to another big pool beside a huge boulder and leave him to fish as I go further downstream.  Before I get twenty feet away he has hooked another rainbow on the Le Bug.  I walk back up to him and see his second Rainbow of the day in hand before releasing it back into the water.  We move downstream a little and find a spot right before the first bridge.  Dan takes an area in the sun to warm up a bit, while I fish a couple pools in the shade.  Second pool I try and a small rainbow hits a olive bead head nymph I switched to behind the san juan worm.  I'm on the board!  The day has officially become a great fishing day!

We continue to move downstream and fish the deep pools we come across.  I find a cool section of fallen trees with ice on them and rocks with ice formations to take pictures of while Dan fishes.  Before I can finish he has hooked his third Raibow of the day on the Le Bug!  I couldn't be happier that Dan is cathcing fish, and I have given him almost no instruction.  He has figured out how to cast good enough and can approach an area in a way that lets him catch multiple fish on what was probably a little tougher day with the flows dropped from 100cfs to 10cfs.

We fish a few more holes before calling it a day and head back to the car.  In all we fished for about four hours and landed four fish, but both of us had a fantastic day in the mountains on the water!  Plus the coolest thing was my friend caught his first trout on Tenkara with a fly I tied!

Rod:  Iwana 12'
Line:  Riggs Floating Line 12'
Fly that worked:  Purple Le Bug