Tying the simple Tenkara fly

EclecticGuy June 25, 2009 fly fishing, fly tying, tenkara 7 Comments

Several weeks ago I made a quick post about the tenkara flies Dr. Ishigaki gave me at the Catskill Fly Fishing Center and Museum. I’ve had a couple of requests to follow up with the recipe, so here goes.

Materials

Hook: Tiemco 100 – sizes 16, 14, 12, 10

Thread: any large nylon or polyester thread will do. Dr. Ishigaki uses cheap nylon thread from a discount store. I have been using Danville 3/0 fly tying thread.

Hackle: India Hen, Partridge, or Pheasant soft hackle

Tying

Notice that I did not specify colors for the thread and hackle. That’s because you can use most any color you have available. I like to tie these in several sizes (16, 14, 12) and colors for the small brookies that inhabit my local streams. I usually tie these colors:

  • all black
  • black body and brown hackle
  • black body and grizzly hackle
  • red body and grizzly hackle
  • cream body and ginger hackle
  • cream body and brown hackle
  • ginger body and grizzly hackle
  • olive body and grizzly hackle

That’s basically a spool of black, red, cream, and olive thread and black grizzly, brown and ginger hackle.

Smash down the hook barb and clamp in your vise. Tie the thread in right behind the eye and wrap in tight turns back to the point opposite to where the barb point was squashed down. Build up a slightly tapered body to a point about 1/2 the length of the hook shank – check these photos for the correct proportions.

  1. Prepare your hackle by stripping off the barbs on one side of the quill. This allows you to make wraps with the barbs standing up nicely.
  2. Brush the remaining barbs through your fingers to stand them up and separate them.
  3. Tie in the tip end of the hackle at the 1/2 way point with the concave side of the hackle facing forward.
  4. Position the thread forward a few turns.
  5. Wrap the hackle forward 2 to 3 turns making sure that the concave side stays facing forward and the barbs stand up and are not squashed down by neighboring wraps.
  6. Tie down the hackle with 2 turns of thread and trim the excess off.
  7. Wrap the thread forward to the hook eye and form a small thread head.
  8. Whip finish or double half hitch the thread and trim.

That’s all there is to it. If you are in a hurry, tie some all black, red body with grizzly, and cream body with ginger hackle. I’ve caught most of my fish on these few colors.

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7 Responses to “Tying the simple Tenkara fly”

  1. tap21 said:

    Jun 30, 09 at 4:00 pm

    This may one day be the first fly I ever tie. Thanks for posting this.

  2. fflutterffly said:

    Jul 26, 09 at 10:05 pm

    So. You do not weight the fly to sink it to a nymphing depth? How do you use it as a streamer? By lowering the tip so the fly stays low in the water? I have never tried this type of fly fishing but am very interested. You say Dr. Ishigaki only uses one fly size, but you have given three, why? I have tied up about 20 of these fly and will use them on my conventional rig until I can purchase a Tenkara.

    Thank you.

  3. EclecticGuy said:

    Jul 26, 09 at 10:14 pm

    No, as best I can tell, Dr. Ishigaki’s flys were not weighted. I use either a fluorocarbon level line (heavier than water) or a furled line (from Tenkara USA) and both of these do a reasonable job getting the fly down. I do think a little weight on the fly would help get it deeper.

    You fish it like a streamer by casting across or up stream and then “twitching” the rod back towards yourself. I usually try to make the fly go directly across the current.

    One thing to keep in mind, the line is only the length of the rod or maybe a little longer, so there is only so far it can go! Lowering the rod tip to the water is effective. I don’t think I said Dr. Ishigaki uses 1 size did I? If so, I meant to say 1 style. He does use different sizes and color variations of this style.

    I use these flies on my reeled fly rods and they work well. They are basically a wet hackle fly. This type of fly was very popular many years ago.

    cheers,
    EG

  4. John Coleman said:

    Aug 26, 09 at 11:23 pm

    Hello,

    I have looked all over for a site that sells these flies and except for Tenarka USA can not find one. Would you sell me 3 each of the all black, red body with grizzly and cream body with ginge hackle in sizes 16, 14 and twelve. I will be glad to pay in advance. This will get me started fishing and I can use them to start learning to tie my own.

    Like you I will be fishing for small brookies but in the high country of the Graet Smoky Mountains National Park.

    John Coleman

  5. EclecticGuy said:

    Aug 27, 09 at 7:57 am

    Hi John, I sent you an email but I would be happy to tie some flies for you. The red body, grizzly hackle is my personal favorite Brookie fly!

    Cheers,
    EG

  6. Kirby said:

    Sep 10, 09 at 11:14 pm

    In step three, do you mean base of hackle or the tip?

  7. EclecticGuy said:

    Sep 11, 09 at 8:08 am

    Kirby, tie the hackle in my its tip. I will edit the description to say that. Thanks for catching this!

    Cheers,
    EG

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