MichaelKDell

Andy, I have found that trial and error is the best teacher. The wire is usually twisted up so tight that if you only use part of it on a fly, it is easy to cut off and it stays tightly twisted for your next fly. Sometimes I get 4 to 5 flies out of one dubbing brush. It depends how close you wrap the wire and what size of hook you are tying. You can also pick off some of the dubbing from the twisted wire to make it look more sparse. Michael

Lovely Usuals Lornce. You tie them even more sparse than I do. I first discovered them in the book "Fish and Tell and Go to Hell." Later I bought Fran Betters' book, and learned more about them and his other patterns.

One more of my tenkara fly experiments. Usually the Sakasa Kebari style hackle is tied sparse so the fibres wiggle and pulse in the current. A way of achieving this is to remove the fibres from one side of the stem. But I thought what if the hackle was overdressed? What would happen? It wouldn't wiggle as much, and would be a definite mistake in terms of the standard way of tying soft-hackle flies. But would it push more water and work as an attractant that way? Here I have tied three grouse soft hackles to make the reverse hackle. I couldn't imagine tying all three at once, so I tied one, then another, then another so they were all bunched up in a short space. Simple thread body. I am looking forward to trying this out next summer to see how it works.

One more of my tenkara fly experiments. This is tied with a gold wire in tight wraps to make the body (like the Copper John) and two hot spots with fluorescent orange thread. Hen hackle. Tied on a ring eye wet fly hook.

Assuming that Bron is asking this question about my tenkara flies, I will answer. You can fish them in a few different ways depending on which rod and line you are using. Using a standard fly rod and line I swing them down and across, but I also cast them upstream and retrieve a little faster than the current speed. Using a tenkara rod and line you are limited in how far you can cast them, so I tend to work them in short pulses through a likely drift. But having said that the actual motion is a combination of dead drift to let the fly sink, pulsing the fly to make the hackles flutter, and swinging at the end of the drift. I hope this answers your question.

I realize that these tenkara flies that I am posting are really simple to tie, and that I am just complicating them by adding more or different materials. My additions may be unnecessary but satisfy a need I have to see what else can be done with a simple variation. Here I have added a white bead for weight and a little flash. And added a tail. When I use beads I always build up the base with thread wraps so the bead just barely fits over the thread. Then I build up a head between the eye and the bead to cover the front opening of the bead. I could whip finish, but instead I hop the thread over the bead and build up wraps behind it to hold it in place. When there is a little space left between the thread wraps and bead opening I put some head cement (or superglue depending on what is on hand) so that it runs into the space. More head cement on the head and over the exposed thread on the bead, and then I finish wrapping so the larger hole in the bead is covered. I do this with all my bead head flies because I have found that if you just let the beads rattle around on the hook shaft then they push on the body and the fly starts to come apart. It has also been pointed out to me that I could just put superglue in the space between the bead and the hook shaft and it would achieve the same result. The tail on this fly is just the tip of the grouse feather I use for the hackle. The thread body is Pearsall's Gossamer Silk thread in antique gold, covered with cement.

Another one of my tenkara fly experiments. This one has a double Sakasa Kebari hackle. Partridge in the front, a little too thick even for my taste, and then a sparse grouse hackle in the middle. Some errant grouse fibres sticking out in the wrong direction. (I don't think the fish care.) Red thread body.

I will try posting some closeups of my tenkara experiments. This first one is not all that unusual. I used a hen hackle, and a chartreuse Uni 8/0 thread. The body is done like a "low water" style whereas my usual tye has the body curved down the bend. I covered the thread wraps with head cement to make it glow a little.

I've been experimenting with tenkara flies by saying what if I were to add multiple hackles, try a fore and aft, trying grouse or hen hackle, use different materials or colours of thread for the body, add a tail, use wire to add weight, etc. I was using up the bits and pieces of scrap materials on my tying desk to see what effects I could achieve. Here are the results of my experiments.

Ok, I will rise. 1. how is he going to get down, it's not a step, it's a jump, when he jumps that wire is going to bounce up and catch him 2. wire can get caught in boot and trip him into a faceplant 3. rod is going to break if he tumbles 4. landowner is going to be annoyed that he stretched top wire Personally, being of a shorter disposition, I always try to roll under barb wire.