Just got some flies (in trade) from fellow blogger and tenkara enthusiast Karel over at Tenkara on the Fly. They’re pretty sweet and just in time for tomorrow’s trip.
|
|||||
 |
It is the time of year when a young man’s thoughts turn to…sulphurs. Well, at least if he’s an eastern fly fisher. Again I’m presenting an experimental set of flies. This time I’m focusing on the sulphur hatch through a tenkara colored lens. Make it what you want, but in my opinion tenkara angling really shines for fishing unweighted (or lightly weighted) wet flies and nymphs, after all that is how it evolved. Sure you can fish heavy nymphs – but the wispy tenkara rod tip is just not great at handling these, it can be done but it is not aesthetically pleasing (it’s sort of a round hole/square peg thing). I don’t prefer it for dry flies – although tenkara handles dry flies beautifully and I don’t hesitate to fish dries with the tenkara rod. Some tenkara anglers may disagree with me but I find t difficult to create the “snap” necessary to really dry out a soggy dry fly with the tenkara rod. Sure that’s a small complaint, and you can always squeeze the water out with a shirt or whatever – but nonetheless…I will stick with my assertion that wet fly fishing is my favorite application of tenkara. With that in mind I turned an eye to my sulphur box and tried to create some tenkara inspired flies based on old favorites. These are not tried and true patterns but I have no doubt that they’ll fool a few fish anyway. Once I give them a try on the hatch – I’ll report back on the results.
I’m never one to tout flies that I haven’t tried, so let me make it perfectly clear that this fly is still in development. Hopefully it will get field tested very soon (rain, rain stay away…). The driving force for this nymph is to get a natural mottled effect for my sulphur nymphs. I’ve tried hand blending dubbing, but I just don’t like doing it that way, it doesn’t feel elegant enough. Some shades of pheasant tail provide a very nice effect for sure – but I didn’t happen to have any of that on hand, so I dug into what I had and this is what I came up with – mallard dyed wood duck, mixed with turkey tail. I think it gives a nice looking mottled body. Is there a need for a new sulphur nymph? Probably not. But as you fly tyers know there doesn’t have to be a practical reason to try new things at the tying bench. Coming up with new combinations of materials to tie on a hook is it’s own reward, and if it actually catches fish, well that is bonus. Turkey Mallard Sulphur Nymph:
Grizzly Quill Paradun This pattern came to me in a flash as I was sitting at my tying desk tying up some standard Parachute Adams dries. I had just stripped some hackle fibers from the stem to use as tailing when I looked at the hackle quill that was left behind and thought “That might look good as a body”. Of course, quill body flies, and quill body parachute flies are nothing new – but I hadn’t previously seen this particular combination before. However, knowing that fly tyers are an innovative group – I’m sure that this pattern has been independently created many times over – and I claim no credit for “inventing” anything new. I am a parachute fly convert from way back , when I sit down to tie mayfly dry flies I almost always tie parachutes. There are exceptions of course, but I’d say 90% of the dries that I fish are parachute patterns. There are several reasons for this: 1) I was a victim of the “parachute-pants” fad of the mid-eighties and this brings back fond memories of childhood, 2) I love the image of the parachute – it makes me think that the fly is slowly drifting down and landing on the water delicately, 3) The construction is easier than those pesky Catskill style flies, with tail and hackle proportions not being quite as crucial – there’s a little wiggle room, 4) They work. As to point 4 above – They Work – I personally believe that the parachute fly is primarily an emerger pattern. The body rides below the surface of the water – like a dun stuck in the film or a drifting nymph exploding from the shuck. The subsurface impression of the fly is quite different from a high-floating standard dry. The look of a standard dry fly from below is basically an image of refracted light, a pattern of bright light and shadow where the hackle and tail are resting on the water. The parachute fly presents a completely different view to the fish. Because the body of the fly is subsurface, the fish sees the body and not just a pattern of light and dark.
My neighbor works for an orthodontist and I asked if she could get me some of those little rubber bands that kids put on braces. I originally wanted them for rod building (you know to hold the guides on while wrapping), but when I saw the colorful selection she got for me I started thinking about flies. I tied a few midges with the things. Although maybe some look more like tiny caddis larva. Whatever they look like they look good to me (and hopefully to the fish). The pattern is simple, just wrap the little elastic band around the hook (these are size 20) and you have an instant segmented body. Finish with a thread head and call it done.
Just saw these tenkara dry flies on Yoshikazu Fujioka’s My Best Streams website and I thought that they were intriguing. What I find particularly interesting is Fujioka’s interest in the fusion of western and eastern fly fishing.
Little did I know when I posted my last post on Micro Sakasa Kebari that there was another person out there that had already done so. There is nothing new under the sun… So I thought in spirit of full disclosure I’d give Karel of Tenkara on the Fly props for the awesome minute kebari that he featured on his blog. And if you don’t already visit Tenkara on the Fly regularly you should add it to your list of tenkara must visit sites.  Tenkara on the Fly micro sakasa kebari
|
Need some Tenkara flies? Check out the TenkaraBum for flies by myself and others, as well as Tenkara lines, nets, other accessories, reviews, how-to and more... New Product Designs at CastingAround Zazzle store
 |
|||
|
Copyright © 2012 Casting Around - All Rights Reserved |
|||||
