DAVID WEST BEALE

FEATURED ANGLER PROFILE

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David West Beale

Facebook: David West Beale 
Blog: TenkaraTales

Tell a little about you:
As far as my angling persona goes, I’m a jack of all trades. I love to explore different ways to fish and different species to chase, but tenkara has a special place in my heart. I think I’ve lived some of my finest moments fishing tenkara. I’m very much a level line tenkara fisher. I like to fish the lightest line and longest rod I can get away with, and prefer traditionally inspired kebari patterns.

The trout fishing in England is super-technical, the fish often very very spooky, so it’s maximum stealth and fly-only presentations a lot of the time.

If I was based somewhere like Colorado, I would probably fish tenkara pretty much exclusively, but I don’t. I live in a shire in southern England, and I have rivers, chalk streams, canals, lakes and ponds right on my doorstep - with many different fishes to enjoy trying for. So I’m a multi-species, multi-approach angler, I make no apology to purists, and after all, “a jack of all trades is a master of none, but often times better than a master of one.” At least in my world.

How long have you been fishing tenkara?
I have been fishing tenkara since spring 2016. On my very first outing I chanced upon another angler, a bait fisherman. He was Japanese. He looked at my rod and asked what I was doing. Tenkara, I told him. He said he had never heard of it.

Favorite place(s) to fish
This is going to chime with you Dennis, the Krimmler Ache in the Austrian Alps must be right up there, particularly that pool! At home I seek wild places with wild fish - like the Atlantic southwest peninsular of England where tea stained streams drain down from the high moors and out into the ocean, and also the more landlocked streams of my country’s northern high peaks. You’ll sometimes find me fishing a quintessential English chalk stream but my true heart lies with the wild and unkempt lesser known rivers. I’m particularly fond of small streams that run through woodland and forest, they have a special energy, a special magic.

Favorite fly 
Like most anglers, I find myself cycling through a cast of old favourites, but the one I come back to
again and again is this iteration of the Ishigaki. My version is very full hackled and tied with a tip of Schlappen with the fibres stripped from one side of the midrib. This allows me to tie a tightly
stacked hackle which rides very well when I want it to.

Favorite rod
Karasu 400. I’ve tried other rods in this length but they only serve to remind me how perfect the Karasu is, for me at least. It is very accurate, can cast very light lines with delicacy and poise yet somehow manages to boss big fish when they put in a show. I love this rod so much I bought two.

Favorite fish
With tenkara there are a handful I like to fish for - brook trout, brown trout, rainbow trout (we do have some wild ‘bows over here). Of the non-salmonid species, my favourites on tenkara are grayling, chub (ours grow big) dace, roach and rudd. I can’t say I have an absolute favourite, but ifpushed, I was recently introduced to brook trout, and they are very high up on the list. I admire their prehistoric swagger and bold colouring. But to name my one true all time love I have to step outside of tenkara, for it is the “biggest fish of all”, the fish that in England swims in so many young angler’s dreams - the mighty perch.

Favorite book
The Lord of the Rings by JRR Tolkien, because it inspired so many of my childhood adventures exploring the fields, woodlands and rolling hills of my own ‘shire,’ and it inspires me still.

Favorite Quote, Motto or Personal Saying
Well I have a few, but the one that I try to always carry with me, because it weighs virtually nothing and fits all occasions is “Do as you would be done by.”

A message to anyone or everyone!
Merry meet and merry part and merry meet again!