designed for life


I'm following up on my earlier post 'the truth will set you free'. I talked about an alternative approach to fly selection that isn't driven by 'matching the hatch' - instead a fly is designed and selected for its take-inducing properties, rather than for its resemblance to any particular insect. This for me is the true essence of tenkara.

So with this in mind I thought I'd show you a pattern from my own fly box. Occasionally I tie up flies in hand, stream-side, but more often (like most of us) I'm back at the bench when I tie up new patterns. Here I like to imagine the scenario I might be fishing with my fly - the weather, the water, the type of fish and their mood, the colour of the stream bed, the lighting, prevailing wind, even perhaps the line and rod I'll be fishing with. All of these factors make up the environment and the scenario we may lucky enough to be part of. I like to believe that thinking about these things steers my choices while fly tying. Certainly when I tie a kebari I'm visualising the approach I might adopt to catch fish with it.

With the kebari pictured here, I'm thinking about a tumbling high-elevation freestone stream carrying a tinge of colour. It may be breezy, even blustery, and the fish will have only a short time - perhaps a couple of seconds, to decide  whether to commit to a take. It's a warm day in high season and the trout are really active and looking up. But they have also seen a few other anglers by now, and picking ever smaller pockets in the more challenging flow mosaics will be needed to keep the fish coming.

This kebari is from a stiff ginger rooster hackle with a darker lower section to each barb. This creates a bi-colour hackle with good contrast, accentuated by the purple tying thread. The white body dubbing (from trimmed stiff rooster hackle) adds further to the contrast. I'm planning to fish this fly on the surface to tempt the fish that are looking up, hence the stiff hackle which will anchor onto the film - especially useful for holding the fly in those little pockets around rocks and boulders. In this river much of the trout's natural food source is blown in from the surrounding high moorland. So the trout are accustomed to looking up for their dinner. I'm taking advantage of this knowledge and habituated behaviour, but I'm not setting out with this fly to match any particular local bug, in fact I'm designing this fly to contrast with the natural items and to stand out - while still looking and behaving enough like a natural insect to elicit a take from the trout. 

In the earlier season I would probably go more drab, but now in these later months in the fast lane, where drifts last just a few seconds, I'm figuring the contrasting colours in the hackle and body will help these more aggressive fish to spot the fly and intercept. Because of the open futsū style hackle wraps, 90 degrees to the hook shank, the fly should sit in the surface film something like a klinkhammer, which means the dubbed body hangs down beneath the surface making the fly highly visible to the trout as it drifts along. The shaggy texture of the body dubbing will trap some tiny air bubbles too and serve I hope to further convince the trout to strike, and should the wind get up, this is a perfect fly with which to enjoy aerial presentations.. (for more on that you might enjoy my other post here).

Fish in another river on a different day would perhaps call for different approach and  fly, and figuring this is all part of the fun.  

    




Comments

  1. Great read David. I will have to tie up some. Are you primarily tying on #14 hooks?

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    Replies
    1. Hi Dave, thank you! Yes I mostly use size 14 hooks for trout and vary the hackle size rather than the hook.

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