First Fruits

In the previous post, I wrote about sharing the experience of tenkara with others. This past Saturday, I got to do just that. Not every tenkara trip is worth sharing but this one is. This trip was spent introducing it to a new angler. Getting to share someone's first catch let alone his/her first fish on tenkara is worth almost anything you have to put into it. 

When I plan for a trip, I check fishing and weather reports the entire week before I go to make sure I am setting myself up for success. However, sometimes it doesn't matter how much I plan and devise. Sometimes efforts are thwarted by the conditions I let slip past my mind or even by the trout that seem to laugh at me as they swim 6 inches from my wading boots. Saturday, my friend and I set out to Clear Creek as the reports were decent. We hiked down to a few spots I like to fish and the water was raging. I watched the reports all week and flows seemed to decline, but apparently not enough. So we left and rushed to Bear Creek just 15 minutes down the road. The flows were great, yet the water appeared as Willy Wonka's chocolate river in his factory: muddied. We made do the best we could. My hopes for the day weren't gone, just diminished for the tenkara newbie. 

I started out teaching him proper casting techniques and moved on to presentations. Eventually we got to the point where he was self-sufficient to go on his own. 

Once he started understanding where the fish were, he walked out of sight. Really just on the opposite side of a large pine tree where I could not see him. I began casting and getting strikes, shouting out of excitement as the fish were at least somewhat active! Hope grew. It was actually the first time I was able to field test my Oni rod. (Another post on that.) Moments later, Jon comes walking around the pine tree hoisting his prize up with a grin from ear to ear.

The grin was still evident on the picture he posed for (above) as the fish was attempting it's feeble escape. 

You will never forget the experience of someone's first fish on tenkara when you share it with them. It's the first fish that hooks you and what keeps you hunting for the next.

When we changed spots and drove down a little, I asked him what he liked about tenkara now that he had tasted for himself. His reply: "It's just so simple. Like the way it (fishing) was meant to be. I don't have to deal with all the gear." Jon had the privilege of experiencing this first rather than hearing about it for months before. Experiencing the first fruits produced the above statement naturally. Nothing I idealized to him, something he came up with. His statement is the centrality of the American, tenkara experience: joy out of simplicity. 

I'm sure there are many tenkara trips ahead for Jon. He's be bitten by the tenkara bug; infected by it's addictive poison. I'm sure of it.