February: often full of hints of spring, but not this year.
Snow on the beach, like ice on the pond, keeps the tenkara trip just out of reach.
Spring begins in just a few more weeks. Then, perhaps, the real thing when fixed line fishing in close quarters can begin.
— rPs 02 28 2021
There is a “no” in snow, and that no means no fishing, tenkara or otherwise, for the time being.
There is a “now” in snow as well, and that time now is ripe for reading, fly tying, and the other comfortable indoor aspects of the fishing life.
Anticipation can inspire preparation!
— rPs 01 31 2021
On Ice . . .
Early rise and an eager hike to the park for a final fishing trip found its goal foiled by that signature of the season: ice.
True, the new lid on the lake was “Hielo fino” with a few teasing openings, yet not enough free water presented itself for practical angling. The season is now . . . on ice.
So, 2020, a year to remember – not so much – comes to a close. Those days of bluegill and bass, the elusive trout and carp, and exciting new experiments in the salt – fluke and more – the silver linings to an unexpected, challenging, trying time, remain to warm the imagination over the winter.
Farewell, 2020.
— rPs 12 30 2020
The fall season may not be the most productive time for angling; it depends on the fish species you pursue, but it sure is a pretty time to take tenkara to the water.
Perhaps it’s the clarity of the air, the thinning of the colored leaves, the change of the light, which fades so much more swiftly at end of day by the time Thanksgiving arrives.
I have explored back bay salt and city pond banks this November, and both locales have offered slower fishing, yet given me great views:
The Pond
The Back Bay
Freshwater or salt, the late fall is a time to exalt Ebisu, the Japanese god of fishing, before the inevitable ice-over of the coming winter.
Go fishing . . .
— rPs 11 30 2020
October Surprise . . .
Autumn in the salt paints images of bluefish and striped bass in the fly fisher’s mind. So, imagine my October surpise when in the chilly rain my olive and white Clouser conjured up another new, and unexpected, tenkara species:
Hickory Shad
– rPs 10 31 2020
Waiting . . .
Waiting by the Bay
(02 28 2020)
February for the local fisher can be a time for fly tying, reading, or simply cleaning and organizing tackle in anticipation of the new season. Throughout all these pastimes is a central principal: Waiting.
Waiting for the thaw
Waiting for spring
Waiting for opening day
Waiting for fishing
Leap year adds one additional day to this, the shortest month of the year, so we’ll all be waiting just a little bit longer.
— rPs 02 29 2020
The End of the Regular Season . . .
Basepath Around the Pond
(NYC 09 2019)
Evening falls fast for the tenkara fisher now that the Autumnal Equinox has passed. The lingering, almost lazy, evening hours have been replaced by a quick race into darkness that can add a bit of urgency to a fishing trip taken after work.
The local ponds have begun to turn over, weedy waters turning clear, and the fish appear paler and more actively feeding, which, if one is lucky, can result in a grand slam:
Bluegill
Bluegill
(NYC 09 28 2019)
Black Crappie
Black Crappie
(NYC 09 28 2019)
Largemouth Bass
Largemouth Bass
(09 28 2019)
The largemouth bass came at last light, making it a grand slam, an appropriate finish alongside the final weekend of the regular MLB season.
— rPs 09 30 2019
Summer Flush . . .
Solstice Shower Passes Meadow Lake
(NYC 06 21 2017)
Meadow Lake, shaped like a peanut, perimetered by tall phragmites, has again proven to be a place where fish confounds fisher.
The fish of Flushing-Corona Park are there, but when and where, mystery remains. The bite becomes regular, as all fishes feed, still Flushing’s finned inhabitants hold the cards.
The southern end of this shallow brackish lake has undergone substantional reclamation. Indigenous wildflowers bloom now along its open bank and litter to one eye has been reduced by 80%.
Evidence of species other than carp and white perch can be found. Two large yellow perch, large enough to believe their passing was caused by natural older age, revealed the only fish kill found around the entire water body, one minor enough to cause no concern.
Retired Perch
(NYC 06 21 2017)
No snakehead species have been spotted despite a conscious attempt to find one. What was a scare in the spring of 2013 may well have been an isolated incident.
These fish are tough, and so can be the actual fishing. Wind has the ability here to foiled the best of casters. The lake seems to draw down the atmosphere, forming a vortex, a kind of reverse funnel, forcing, blowing air at once in all directions facing the fisher. There are breaks in this steady breeze, pauses measured in minutes, and this is when calm water may be read. Bubbles surface in scattered spots; turtles, a few, and carp, grazing the bottom in loose schools that resemble grazing sheep.
“Careful casts now!” is my whispered mantra at such times.
Numerous marsh birds, redwing blackbirds, cormorants, ducks, and gulls abound. Fishing birds are another good giide to the fishes’ whereabouts.
Mulberries have ripened with the arrival of summer. Flush with the fruit of the tree, birds are fed and so are their counterparts in the water. The tenkara carp challenge continues around an interesting and improved urban natural environment.
Solstice Sweetness: Mulberries
(NYC 06 21 2017)
— rPs 06 30 2017
Salad Days . . .
Modest Largemouth (NYC 06 2017)
. . . of June.
Pond shallows, turtle banks, all is lush.
The largemouths chase small fry.
Feathered bright as the white sky.
Herons all angle up modest luck.
(3) – a three-pound athletic bass was wrestled to the shaded green bank, the two of us tethered by 6X (4 lb.) monofilament tippet of a kind ideal for tenkara. Two runs had just bent the TUSA Yamaha rod into a bridge arch over turmoiled topwater. There had been a witness, Jesse Valentin, who earlier, with, together we watched the tall white bird spear pinch a brace of bluegill.
June = Bass
King Sunfishes.
Jesse; “Heron 1, Bluegill 0” (NYC 06 2017)
Heron Approved.
— rPs 06 05 2017
I learned of C.A.S.T. for Kids from my fishing friend named Morgan. My appeal to you directly regards the event, a morning of city fishing, to be held on Sunday, September 18 at Harlem Meer in Central Park.
My reasons are founded on several strong personal connections:
1) My wife’s twin brother, Louis, is a special needs citizen.
2) I am the author and illustrator of two books on fly fishing. The second, Small Fry: The Lure of the Little, includes a chapter on Harlem Meer as well as fly fishing with younger anglers.
3) I work part-time at Urban Angler, Ltd. on 5th Avenue and have independently guided several clients along The Meer, so I know the lake and how to fish there well.
4) I maintain an ongoing blog on tenkara, a simple form of Japanese fly fishing, great for Harlem Meer, which requires only rod, line, and fly. Physically challenged anglers have found the more simple style to be a godsend that allows them to keep fishing despite challenged limbs.
I’ll be there. Will you?
C.A.S.T. for Kids at Harlem Meer
8:30 a.m. -1:30 p.m. Sunday
September 18, 2016
Dana Discovery Center
Harlem Meer, Central Park
New York, New York
– rPs 09 14 2016
ron P. swegman is an angler, artist, and author whose writing focuses on those times and places when and where nature and the city intersect.
