From 09/11/2025
I woke up in the parking lot around an hour before my alarm, which was 0600, and I sat around and just contemplated. I thought about the day, which was September 11th, and I thought about all the life there is ahead of me. What an adventure this trip already is. I am writing this on day three of my trip and I thought this day was going to be thrilling. Just wait til day four…
27th State
Idaho is my 27th state to catch a fish with on a tenkara rod. I ended up getting to the trailhead much earlier than I needed to. Which isn’t a bad thing, but I ended up starting 2 hours early as I didn’t catch a fish until it was near noon. It was 1144 to be exact. Or, that is what my phone time stamped the picture of my first yellowstone cutthroat.
Yellow Stone vs Fine Spotted Cutthroat
I am still unsure of these differences and look forward to understanding more of these fish. Here are a few pictures to give you an idea of the same stream producing and having huge cutthroat trout thriving at above 6000 feet. I cannot imagine this back home, but I guess my new home will possibly have some of these fish where I am going. Only time on the stream will tell.
A friend
I got to the trailhead around 0730 and watched a man with his rifle and dog hike up into the woods. I ended up waiting for him to continue on as I only have with yellow and no hunter’s orange on me. I really didn’t want to get caught hiking and fishing in the woods without it, but ended up meeting up with him anyway.
I started the hike into this Idaho creek around 0845. I ended up meeting up with the man, whose name I think was Dave, at about the point where I wanted to start fishing which was over a mile up from the trailhead. We exchanged words about tenkara and how he also has a tenkara rod. I hope to send him some pictures of the day since there was some fabulous fish caught!
Feeding Fish
Starting just before noon until 2pm, I ended up catching fish throughout each hole I fished for them or missed the hooked set, but that counts right? I ended up starting to hear thunder, but saw no lightning or felt/saw rain so I hiked up until I saw a beautiful blue/green hole. The honey hole.
I had never witnessed a hatch or whatever was occurring, but wow. Fish were literally launching themselves into the air in waves. One would go and then they all would! This happened for over 30 minutes. And, guess what? I couldn’t catch a damn thing. I even saw the mayfly and still couldn’t get the size or color right. I had never truly “matched the hatch”, so I knew I was outnumbered on this one.
Well, after finally feeling defeated by switching flies 5 times and nothing working, I ended up staring and watching. These fish weren’t even scared when I went and stood right at the bank and watched. Astounding. I said that I might as well try one more thing and tied on one of my size 14 soft hackle sakasa kebari. THIS WAS THE TRICK. That and keeping the fly in the water and dead drifting for no more that 3-4 seconds at a time in this open pool. I caught 3 fish back to back to back. The fish continued to surface and rise as I caught and landed fish.
RV Living
The day ended with me driving over 2 hours to get to meet up with my friend, Tom Leeming, in Pecabo, Idaho. This would take me towards the Idaho Tenkara Camp Out and I was excited to sleep in a bed! Dinner was good and the company was even better!
Tomorrow is another story for another time.
My Tenkara Journey 