Stocker Trout Fishing News

Rain and cold weather has us indoors but still able to do fishing related things. In this case a quick update from the Team and a fishing fly give away… two Olive Near Deere and a Tenkara Fly. Comment in this video, and next Wednesday 2/12/20… will randomly pick a winner. Valid email address to coordinate shipping and a US mailing address along with a comment to this video gets you in the Giveaway! Good Luck and Good Fishing!

Variant of the Simple Tenkara Fly that we wrote an article about. This one uses pink tying thread, a size 12 streamer hook, white saddle hackle, and UV Glue. Does not take long to tie, is effective on Bluegill and Trout, and uses minimal material. Do give it a try!

Fished Bethany Lakes Saturday morning. Brought the Cabelas CGR 2-weight fly rod and the 2/3 Echo Ion fly reel. Fished a “The Simple Fly” (TSF) – a very simple fishing fly made with a hook, pearl chenille, and white chenille. If desired, add a bead head. Also, fished the Marilyn Monroe Tenkara Fly, a Red/White Tenkara Fly, and a Foam Spider (was a Grasshopper but the tail broke off). Caught Bluegill and Sunfish, and one Bass… then had one Bass take a little Sunfish that went for the Red/White Tenkara Fly. Just in case caught another little Sunfish and tossed it in the same spot. Managed to get another to take! Got some video but missed hook sets. Went back today – Sunday, and used a Micro Fly Rod and downsized the hooks. Caught more bluegill and sunfish. Also, brought the Water Wolf Camera and spinning gear and live-lined several bluegill and sunfish near Waterfall. Still working on the video but did catch one and missed others. Will post the video when...

Fished the North Pond at Celebration Park yesterday. Brought the two-piece Micro Fly Rod and the Spinning Rod. Hoped to catch a few scrappy Bluegill and Sunfish while setting out the Water Wolf Camera on the Spinning Rod. Fun stuff!  

Stopped by Celebration Park this evening and fished for Bluegill and Sunfish with the two-piece Micro Flyrod. Caught several Bluegill and Sunfish using a Tenkara Fly. While fishing for the little scrappers, put out the Water Wolf Camera and fished for whatever would bite. Had a number of strikes but no hookups. Still working on the video but did post a short clip of one Catfish stealing our bait! PS: Video was lost in the web migrations; here is another video of a nice size Catfish being caught and released!  

Made a quick trip to Bethany Lakes today. Started with a Near Deere but only got a Frisbee Golf frisbee(?) with it. Switched to a Foam Grasshopper and hooked a few until losing it to a “tree fish”. Looked in the fly box to see what other goodies were available. Lots to chose; settled on an Orange/White Tenkara Fly. In short order the Tenkara Fly was getting bit. Ended up catching a few more Bluegill before we had to go. Left them biting though… Fun stuff!  

Posted a new article online – “Simple Tenkara Fly” , that demos how we tie the Tenkara Fly. It’s the pattern we have been using lately. Have tied it in Olive/White and Orange/White variations and have had god success! Really like the pulsing action imparted by the reverse hackle; keeps things looking lively!

Was able to get a round of fishing in today. No Bruisers but had lots of fun catching them using the two weight fiberglass rod. Fish went for tenkara flies initially, but shifted to striking “flying insects” landing on the water. So, put on the foam grasshopper and started catching them with it!

Fished Bethany Creek Park pond yesterday and caught a number of Bluegill using a Foam Grasshopper, and then later using an Orange/White Tenkara Fly. Went with the Four Weight and had a blast catching them. Today, went kayak fishing at Brockdale Park (Lake Lavon). Windy with waves to deal with but the action was fast paced initially when the White Bass were feeding on shad in the shallows. Lost count of how many were caught but did get five Keepers. Would have been six but lost one while putting it on the stringer. Got lots of video to edit but below is a short clip that gives an idea about today’s action! Fun stuff!

Fished Bethany Lakes’ Lower Pond and caught a few Bluegill and little Bass. Then, fished the Back Pond by the Feeder Creek. Normally see a lot of activity after it rains as fish tend to lurk where the creek enters the back pond. This round saw a number of fish, caught several but no Bruisers. Did see some nice ones lurking in the area. Was able to get video of some of them moving about. Do check out the video; we counted three possibly a fourth (may have been one we saw earlier) in the video!

Was able to get a round of fishing in yesterday morning at Kroger Pond. Went with the Two Weight Fly Rod again, and fished with an Orange/White Tenkara Fly and a Foam Grasshopper. Bite was steady with several nice Bruiser Bluegill in the mix. Did see several nice sized Bass chasing after little Bluegill but none went for out fishing fly. Overall, another fun time fishing…. Good thing we were able to fish yesterday, big storm is hitting our area currently. Stuck indoors today.

Fun time this evening catching Bluegill, Sunfish, and Bass on the Micro Fly Rod. Started with a Foam Grasshopper but then switched to a Tenkara Fly. Had a number of bites with the Foam Grasshopper but kept missing the hook set. After switching to the Tenkara Fly, had a better hookup rate. No Bruisers save for a run on some nice size Bluegill that were making a nice bend in the little fly rod. Sure glad to have made use of that broken 8-Wt to make this rod. Fun stuff!

Fished the Olive/White Tenkara Fly this evening at the local lake. Started fishing the Back Pond, then moved on to the Lower Pond after catching a few. This round dusted off the Tenkara Rod and used it to fish. Forgot how simple it is to pack up and go fishing with a Tenkara Rod. Really liking the ability to “pulse” the Tenkara Fly with the up/down twitching of the rod. This round it was 24 fish in a mixed bag of little Bass, Bluegill, and Sunfish. Fun stuff!

Liked the Olive/White Tenkara Fly; decided to try Red for the body and White for the Wing… end result is another simple but effective fishing fly pattern. Tested the pattern at Bethany Lakes this evening. Really windy day but did get enough casts to catch 12 fish this round  – two Bass and ten Bluegill! May need to tie more of these guys!  

Made it out to Bethany Lakes today for more testing of the Olive/White Tenkara Fly. So far, liking the results – 20 fish this round! 1 Bass, 1 Rainbow Trout, and 18 Bluegill! Go figure a Rainbow Trout in May! Today’s Catch! Rainbow Trout in May!  

Fished Russell Creek and tested the Tenkara Fly. Caught one with it, then caught the remainder on a Foam Grasshopper. Green stuff clobbering the area made it tough to use the Tenkara Fly. Fun stuff catching Bluegill on their beds!

Tied a Tenkara Fly in a reverse hackle Olive Body and White Hackle pattern. For ease of reference, calling it an Olive/White Tenkara Fly. Tested it out a Sonic Pond and caught a Bass with it. Bite seemed slow, so headed to the Lower Pond at Bethany Lakes. Pond was clobbered with lots of green stuff but did see one nice Bass lurking in a clear spot. Casted the Tenkara Fly, got the Bass’ attention, got a strike, and then broke off. Tenkara field test ended… oops! Should have tied two instead of only one. No worries, put the scaled down Foam Grasshopper on the line and went back to fishing. Ended today’s round with eleven fish – one on the Tenkara Fly and ten on the Foam Grasshopper. Fun stuff… will get more Tenkara Flies tied for another round of “testing!

From the Field Team to our Readers, we would like to wish everyone a Merry Christmas! It has been a great year for the Team, we hope our Readers have enjoyed the same in 2015! As today is the day before Christmas, what better way to celebrate the Holidays then to go fishing! That said, we went fishing! NucLaroche arrived yesterday from Oklahoma. And, Fshng84 is always ready to go fishing. So, after work, the Team headed to Waterloo in Denison. We are still working on the video and will post it later… till then here is a picture of today’s catch and a brief message from the Field Team posted in the embedded player below! Update 12/25/25: Merry Christmas everyone! Here is the video of the action at Waterloo. We used a Five Weight Fly Rod and a Kiyotaki 18 Tanago Rod. Lots of fun catching them on the fly! Although most of the fish were caught with the Five Weight Fly Rod, we did get one Trout and two Bluegill using the Kiyotaki 18!