I've known super-talented Brighton street artist Req all my life. He's my brother from another mother. His mother is my mother's sister. That makes him my cousin. I'm told we're quite similar, which is a bit of a worry but probably true. Except that Req's lifestyle features way more naked women.
Req has followed this blog for a while and we've been talking about getting out on stream together so that he can try his hand at tenkara. Req has made many working visits to Japan, and has a natural curiosity in tenkara, so this morning we are visiting the Emerald Stream for his first tryout.
It's not classic tenkara water by any stretch, but it does hold some wild brownies and more importantly today - grayling. There is nothing quite like the thrill of taking grayling off the top with kebari and tenkara, and this stretch holds some good fish. As well as introducing Req to the delights of horsehair and bamboo, I'm keen to see how my newly built horsehair line and rod will work with the tricky grayling here.
Req seems to have a natural affinity with the rod and line and is soon master of the dead drift. The going today is as hard as nails though - low summer flow, gin clear water, blazing sun and school holidays make for super-spooky fish.
The deeper pools and runs which I know would be productive have become natural swimming pools for bathers today. I have the surreal experience of missing a take from a nice trout while distracted by bouncing bikinis dive - bombing the water next to me. It's more trouble than it's worth and we move on.
We look for shady runs, drifts under the willows and through channels in the weed beds, searching for fish. We find that feeding the fly down from an upstream position gets more takes today than an upstream fly. A few hits from salmon parr, and Req narrowly misses juvenile grayling, but the better fish remain resolutely switched off. Until the closing minutes of our visit that is, when I wet wade up to my waist to try a last run overlooked by the summer hordes.
A dazzling glare on the water serves to disguise me from the grayling pod finning about down stream, and I feed my stiff hackle kebari down the feeding lane, letting it pause at the end of the drift, pulling it back and feeding the kebari down again on a new line. An emphatic take as a grayling turns on the fly and it's on - careering and a leaping, twisting and turning on the end of the line as only grayling can. Adrenalin spikes as hours of zero convert to hero in a few seconds. I'm really happy how the bamboo rod absorbs the lunges, cushions the horsehair line and tippet. I bring the grayling to the net twice but it's strong and not yet aready. A good trout and a much bigger grayling have followed it in towards the net, out of curiosity I guess, fading back again as my fish makes another run.
I'm fishing a line longer than the rod and I'm hand lining the grayling in to the net now, keen to show Req. He's never seen a grayling before and I'm keen to inspire him with this Narnian-looking fish. But the grayling twists right at the net and wins just enough slack that the hook drops free. I'm happy enough though. Maybe I did rush it a bit but I'm not a fan of playing a good fish to a standstill, particularly in such hot weather.
A second cast and this time a really walloping take off the top, I fancy from the big grayling that just followed my last one in. A long broad back and sail-like fin breach the surface as the fish rolls, easily my biggest grayling to date - by any method, but that image is short lived. The rod thumps round, cane flexing into its fighting curve, side strain applied with rod held over.. the big fish kites for a second just under the surface and across the flow and.. twang! .. the fly pings skyward back towards me and all is quiet and still again.
Game over today but I've learned some good things, not least how it feels to play large hard fighting grayling on the bamboo and horsehair. But most importantly its been so good to hook up with Req, great to see him enjoying tenkara, and already we are hatching plans for future adventure.
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