Wildcat Canyon Zen Fish

Mike shooting some line

It's been almost a year since I've been back to Wildcat Canyon. It's such a beautiful canyon and from what I can tell it does not receive a lot of fishing pressure. It's a bit of a hike (3 miles) to get back to public water but it's an easy hike (easier on the way in) and it's a very peaceful walk in early in the morning.

Larger bow

The last time I fished this water I packed in my gear but this trip I just wore my hip pack and an old pair of running shoes. You don't need a ton of gear to fish this water. I brought a 4 weight but a 3 weight worked well for Mike and we all actually caught fish on Ben's Tenkara rod which was a fun experience.

A #18 flashback Hares Ear worked great all day. San Juans were the preferred attractor fly. The best water is from where the trail dumps you out on the river downstream about a mile. After that it gets pretty rough. There are plenty of runs in this section though and each run seemed to be good for at least a bite. Most fish that we caught were 8-12" but I did land one rainbow that was 15-16". I'm sure there are even bigger fish in this stretch.

Had a cool zen moment fishing the Tenkara rod with Ben. I'm not sure where we got the term but Ben and I have talked about "zen sets" where you just know you have a bite and set the hook. Some runs are just so good and some drifts feel so right that it has to equal a fish. I was watching Ben cast the Tenkara rig and in the middle of a perfect drift in a perfect run I said, "Man I just got that zen feeling. I can't believe that wasn't a fish". Ben went to pick up to cast again and..... fish on.... We both looked at each other and laughed. So when in doubt, zen set! Doesn't cost you anything and it could score you a fish.

Zen Fish

Speaking of Tenkara.... I haven't really paid it much attention till this trip. Cool concept but I like my gear so I haven't put it down long enough to give Ben's Tenkara rod a shot. This weekend I took the time to give it a shot and it was really a lot of fun.You'd be surprised what you can reach with a 12 foot rod. We were actually fishing a two nymph rig (sacrilege!) on it and we were getting silky smooth runs with 0 fly line in the water.

Everything was very familiar until the indicator went under. What the hell do I do now!? It was a fleeting feeling that I needed to do something more. Then I realized the beauty of Tenkara. You don't do anything but keep even pressure on. Nice! No fly line to get on the spool or drag to worry about. Just keep even pressure. Fun way to catch a fish. Now it's just a matter of how big of a fish we can land on the ol' bamboo telescope rod thing. :)