Following on from last month the guys from Discover Tenkara take a closer look at some of the "must have" flies for Tenkara fishing
In last month’s article we looked at the “one fly” concept, both in its original context bred from the frugal necessities of Japanese peasant life and its modern (growing) popularity among new tenkara anglers who are eager to experience the simplicity of fishing with a single fly pattern… admittedly with the safety net of carrying a well stocked fly box in many cases. Regardless as to whether you intend to fish with a single fly pattern or not, understanding what makes a good tenkara fly and a little of the history behind it will enhance your enjoyment of the method and more than likely provide you with a few welcome (and productive) additions to your fly box.
In our last article we covered some of the practical factors that shaped the development of Japanese tenkara flies or “kebari”. Historically flies were tied on homemade hooks fashioned from sewing needles and used a silk loop eye for connecting tippet. Many tenkara enthusiasts continue to use silk loops even with the widespread availability of eyed hooks; it could be a source for endless debate as to whether eyed hooks or silk loops offer any significant advantages over one another but one thing many would agree on is the fact that silk eyes can be very pleasing aesthetically .
Most kebari patterns can be tied on a suitably proportioned eyed hook and if you’re a regular fly tier chances are you’ll have plenty of suitable options in your collection on which to get started. If you’re interested in tying traditional silk eyed flies the good news is you don’t need to start making your own hooks! There are several styles of eyeless hook to choose from; some manufacturers make eyeless hooks where the shank simply ends but these can be difficult to locate outside of Japan. The best solution in the UK is to use hooks that the Japanese often term “bait hooks”… what we would recognise as spade end hooks. There are a huge range of spade end hooks available and a quick browse in your local coarse fishing tackle shop should provide an amazing array of shapes and wire gauges to choose from. As we mentioned in last month’s article, historic tenkara flies would probably have been tied on significantly heavier gauge hooks than our modern fly hooks but the market for heavy specimen fishing hooks aimed at carp and barbel with stepped up wire gauges provide us with the opportunity to tie a significantly heavier fly without the need for any additional weight.
The ideal material for the silk eye itself is 100% silk bead cord in 0.45mm diameter (aka No. 2). A small loop of cord is simply whipped onto the hook as the first step in the tying process. If you’re worried about the security of the eye you can apply a drop of superglue at this point but we’ve landed quite a few fish of 3lb and over on silk eyed kebari and have never felt the need for the additional security of glue. The use of silk at the eye gives the opportunity to add a “hot spot” to your kebari with the use of a bright colour or alternatively blend the loop with the rest of the fly by using a muted/drab colour.
On early kebari thread or tying silk would have historically been whatever thread was available at the time and that was normally sewing thread. Many modern tenkara practitioners continue to use ordinary sewing threads in preference to any of the more modern tying threads and for kebari patterns with thread bodies the thicker sewing threads with “high build” properties often produce a better finished fly.
Hackles are a staple of fly patterns the world over and tenkara kebari are no exception. Just as with our western fly patterns there is a multitude of variety with the use of both cock and hen feathers for their respective stiffness or mobility depending on the requirements of the fly tyer. One of the most characteristic uses of feathers in kebari has to be the sakasa style with a reversed hackle; while this style is fast becoming the stereotypical tenkara fly to the casual western observer it is far from the only style of kebari. In addition to the use of reversed hackles there are a few other uses of hackles in Japanese kebari which are not commonly seen in the west. One example of this would be the use of stiff cock hackles in wet fly patterns; in the west wet flies tend to be most commonly tied using soft hen hackle but, in tenkara, kebari intended for wet fly applications can be tied with either soft or stiff hackles. A stiff hackle could have many subtle advantages when applied in the right situation; two distinct advantages would be the anchoring effect of a stiff hackle in flowing water and the extra disturbance that is generated as a fly with stiff hackles is manipulated by the angler (more on this subject at a later date).
The use of other materials in tenkara kebari patterns varies greatly and the availability of modern tying materials has brought with it a great deal of cross pollination. Western tenkara enthusiasts now fuse their familiar home grown patterns with the traditional tenkara kebari patterns and it can sometimes be difficult to work out whether a fly is a traditional Japanese pattern or a hybrid invention. There are two other notable ingredients seen in traditional tenkara kebari. The first is a familiar sight in most fly tier’s kit – peacock herl. Used as a thorax or body material in much the same way as in the west, peacock herl adds that magic “insect iridescence” that makes it as popular now as ever. The second ingredient is a little more obscure – zenmai dubbing. This cotton-like material is gathered from the flowering ferns growing along many streams in Japan and its use probably reflects the practicality of tenkara’s origins where the dubbing would have been gathered streamside while out fishing.
So, when you are looking to put together a sparse collection of tenkara flies, there is quite a range of prototypical patterns that you could choose as your go-to “one fly”. Within that variety, there is a good chance that you should find the generic “impression” that is most suited to imitating the majority of food forms in your own stream. Do also bear in mind that the same pattern could be tied in both a pale-bodied and a dark-bodied form (a good example is Dr. Hisao Ishigaki’s only kebari pattern that he fishes). It is remarkable what a multitude of sins can be covered by one dark and one light version by applying many different presentation styles. This is the essence of tenkara for many people.
For more information on Tenkara fishing please visit the Discover Tenkara website