Tenkara and My Favorite Time of Year to Fish

[DanMarino]

I love everything about fishing in our Maryland streams and rivers in August and September. I go for multiple reasons: solitude, natural beauty, low, clear, and cool water, and willing fish. Saturday morning I hit a local flow about 12 minutes from my home for a wet wading trip with my Tenkara rod. I have claimed this stretch as my own. Over the past 10 years I have never encountered another person fishing here. I like this spot because the wading is generally easy, there is no fishing pressure, and this stretch actually holds a few smallmouth bass. While I enjoy catching all fish, smallmouth bass is the ultimate joy for me. I can't get enough of them. The habitat on this flow isn't the best, and the smallmouth numbers are low. By far, fallfish are the dominant species, followed by red breasted sunfish, then green sunfish.

This morning I caught over 30 fish. I easily had 15 each of fallfish and red breasted sunfish. The largest fish for the day were several fallfish in the 12 to 13 inch range. They fight well, are heavy, and a few even made some jumps. A couple of the largest red breasted sunfish gave really spunky efforts on the light Tenkara outfit. But the gem of the day was an 8 inch smallmouth, which didn't come until almost 2 hours into the trip. All fish were caught on a black leechy buggy thing that had a pink bead on the head for some weight. All fish were caught while dead drifting and letting the current take the fly. If fish were near to where the fly was cast, one was on the hook within seconds. I'm guessing I spooked a bunch of fish because of the low, clear water. For some reason, top water flies never work great in this stretch. I waded for about 2.5 hours and didn't get much deeper than my knees.

[dsaavedra]

That looks serene. You're lucky to have a place like that close to home!

[Mark]

Beautiful photos as usual, Tom.

Great description of the fly -- "black leechy buggy thing". That's probably exactly what the fish were thinking when they snatched it. Yum yum...Tom is back.

I also am looking forward to the fall (and the winter too) for some of the best fly fishing of the year.

[DanMarino]

Thanks guys. I'll post a photo of the fly when I get a chance. It's amazingly simple. This fly has worked everyplace I've used it. Species I've caught on it are. Red Breasted Sunfish, Green Sunfish, Bluegill, Fallfish, Smallmouth Bass, Largemouth Bass, and Black Crappie. I guess the fly also looks a little like a hellgrammite or black bead head wooly bugger.

Yes, it is great to have a place like this close to home. There are other flows I can fish within walking distance of my home, but the fishing is worse and more difficult. This place offers the possibilities of catching a few tiny smallmouth bass, is a close drive, offers easy wading, and solitude. I have been fishing this flow at different locations for 20 or 25 years. This particular spot was found with the aid of Google Maps, some internet research, and a couple of scouting/hiking trips in the winter. I've taken my 24 year old son fishing with me here a few times, but not shown it to anyone else.

[J.A. Veil]

Tom - It is great to have local spots that few others know about or visit. I have a few of those spots and treasure the times I get to fish there.