Since making these items is just a hobby for me, I intend for Eclectic Angler to be a resource as much as a store. I’ll show people how to make a horsehair line, sell them the hair, or sell them the completed line. My goal is to develop a community around making and using your own fly fishing equipment. The site is no where near complete but I wanted to get the framework and basic design started so I can get feedback and start automating orders.

I’m handling all of the design, development and e-commerce myself using a combination of Open Source, RapidWeaver (all I can say about it is “wow”), GoDaddy, and PayPal. Putting the site together is almost as much fun as building the items themselves! This process has also given me a great perspective on what a new small business must go through to launch a web presence. There are lots of decisions and options and pricing alternatives. I can see why new business people are perplexed!

So, without further adieu, I give you The Eclectic Angler.

This morning I got an email from CM_Stewart (the fellow who introduced me to tenkara and told me about Dr. Ishigaki’s presentation). Here is what CM_Stewart had to say:

I thought about sending this when I first saw your description of Dr. Ishigaki’s flies, but decided it wasn’t important.

I still think it’s not important, but decided you might want to know. Your instructions for tying one of  Dr. Ishigaki’s flies will produce a fly just as good as his, but that’s not the way he ties them. He starts the thread just behind the eye, wraps back to the point where he will attach the hackle and then back to the eye. He ties in the hackle by the stem, concave side up, without stripping one side, with the stem pointing toward the eye, reaching to just behind the eye. He wraps back and forth enough to securely attach the hackle and build up the head to his desired thickness. He pulls the hackle straight up and then takes a few thread wraps behind it. He wraps the hackle with five full wraps and traps it behind the hackle (toward the bend). He wraps thread over the base of the hackle enough to give the hackle a slight forward slant. He then wraps the thread back and forth between the bend and the hackle enough to build up the body to his desired thickness (neatness does not count here, it detracts from the segmented look of the body and also slows you down – he ties very quickly). He finishes with a couple half hitches and a spot of cement AT THE BEND. He says to tie off at the bend to make sure you don’t get any cement on the hackle (remember, he ties very, very quickly).

Your way is just as good, and even if you did see him tie and knew that your description is different, it still falls within the “poetic license” of how to tie a fly. Still, I thought that if you didn’t know how he tied them himseslf, you might want to know.

Actually, now that I think about it, there may be a meaningful difference in the two methods. You specify two or three turns of a hackle with one side stripped. He specifies five turns of an unstripped hackle. Yours is much more sparse, and his much bushier (assuming you both use the same hackle). Since he uses rooster hackle, the bushier tie makes a more effective “sea anchor” effect, creating more resistance in the water and allowing you to fish a slightly tighter line. I don’t know if it is enough to be significant.

So there we have it! CM_Stewart was there and saw how the fly was tied. I scrutinized the flies Dr. Ishigaki gave me, exchanged several letters with him, and did a little research on some Japanese Web sites on tying this fly to come up with my recipe. I am going to give this technique a try myself!

(email posted with CM_Stewart’s permission, thanks!)

These engines were used to make horsehair fly lines. Modern Atlantic Salmon fly tyers like to use them for twisting silkworm gut to snell their flies.

Here are some construction photos:

It starts out a lot like a reel; brass plates cut in to squares, octagons and finally round:





With a lot of gears:





These are small, at 2 1/4″ diameter:





The hooks were actually fairly difficult to reproduce because they are tapered and the tapered section is bent. It is tricky enough making nice bends on straight sided brass rod!



And here is the finished twisting engine, polished and ready to ship. You can see my new logo and maker’s stamps.

The woodcuts I’ve seen show the gears enclosed but I decided to keep mine exposed. It is fascinating watching all of that motion when the engine is in operation! Plus, lubricating the mechanism is much easier. This twisting engine is going to my friend Paul at Historic Angling Enterprises. Apparently, he uses his engine every day to make horsehair snoods. He has worn out several “inferior” engines. I hope mine is over-engineered enough for him!

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.

As you can see, this is the same fly in different colors. It is an extremely simple but effective fly when fished tenkara. It only requires a hook, thread and rooster hackle to tie! Dr. Ishigaki always fishes barbless hooks (as do I). It is fished in all four tenkara techniques: on the surface, mid depth, deep, and “streamer like”. This last is a presentation where the fly is animated by twitching the rod. 

I’ll be tying some of these and posting a simple step-by-step, so stay tuned.

I looked around and noticed little black stoneflies laying eggs on the water. The female hits the water with a splat and skitters across the surface – upstream, downstream, with the wind, against the wind – what ever direction they want. One even landed on my thumb, so I took these photos of her:

I also noticed a trout on the opposite bank rising to these stoneflies – coming out from under a log. I slowly waded out being as quiet as I could. Once in my spot, I selected a little black stonefly pattern that I had tied earlier this week – size 16. I tied it on and readied to cast. I like tying flies on while I’m in the stream, the extra couple of minutes it takes lets any fish spooked by my wading to settle down.

On my 3rd cast, I hooked and landed the Rainbow Trout that was eating the stoneflies! The bait fishermen watched incredulously. I slowly backed out of “my” spot and hiked further upstream to fish a more out of the way area!

Basically, here is how a swap works:

• First, a tyer (the “host”) advertises the swap on the fourm. They may limit the number of entrants (tying 50 flies for a swap is a lot work!), and pick a theme for the fly like “salt water flies”, “foam flies”, or “wooly buggers”. They will also pick a deadline – make sure you can finish your flies and mail them BEFORE the deadline.
• If this is your first swap, make a post to the swap thread and say you would like to join (if the swap isn’t closed) and that this is your first swap. The other swappers and host will help you along! Many times, swappers will say what they are tying for the swap. It helps to see what others are doing and pick something unique.
• Tie your flies! If the swap has 10 entrants, you usually only need to tie 9 since you do not need to include one for yourself. Sometimes the host will state this or say that they want you to tie all 10. I always tie the total number plus 1 or 2 extras to make sure I send the best flies to the swap. Usually, all of the flies are good, so I’ll either send them to the host as a gift or keep them to donate to Casting for Recovery or another organization. Sometimes the host will announce that s/he will send extras to Casting for Recovery.
• Something to consider is whether you will squash down the hook’s barb. I always do since I practice catch and release. Some swaps ask that you do. If in doubt, ask! In fact, during the swap, it is a great idea to post to let people know you are working on your entry and to respond to other’s posts and photos.
• Once your flies are completed, you need to tag each one with your name at a bare minimum. I like to include the name of the fly, the date, hook size, and even a recipe on how to tie it. It also helps if you put your forum “handle” on the tag so people can relate it to you. Here is an example of a swap I entered a few years ago. Also, you can see from the photo above, you attach 1 fly to each tag at the hook.

• If you can, photograph your fly/flies. Some swaps don’t want you to post photos until after the swap so it will be a surprise when entrants open their packages. But it is great to keep a record of what you’ve tied and swapped.
• Package the flies for shipping. I usually use an Altoids tin but if you have a lot of big flies, you might need to use a small cardboard box. Whatever container you use, make sure to write your name on it! That way the host will know who’s flies are in the box. Also, the host will mail your swapped flies back to you in the box you sent.

• Now you need the host’s mailing address. This is usually done by sending a private message (PM) to the host to ensure their address is not plastered on the Web!
• The way the swap exchange works is this: you put your flies in a box and make sure they are tagged and your name is on the box. You then need 2 padded mailing envelops big enough to hold the box – one of them needs to be big enough to hold the box AND the 2nd envelope. You put your name and address in the “TO” field of the smaller envelope – make sure to include the host’s return address in the “RETURN” field. Put your box of flies into this envelope but DO NOT SEAL IT! Your host will mail your flies back to you in this envelope. On the other envelope, you put the host’s address in the “TO” field and yours in the “RETURN” field. Now, take everything to the post office. Wait in line. Wait some more. Then, when it is your turn, hand the clerk the envelope with the box in it (the one with YOUR address in the “TO” field. Ask for postage on that envelope and NOT to seal it! When the postage is attached, have the clerk hand it back to you. You then place this postage paid envelope inside the outer (and sometimes larger) envelope, seal it (it has the host’s address in the “TO” field), and ask for postage on this combined package. I usually say that I am doing a fly tying swap and the postal workers now know what that is! The package can be kept by the clerk and sent.
• The host will be collecting packages of flies up to the deadline. The sooner you can get the flies to him/her, the easier it is for him/her. It is actually a lot of work hosting a fly swap (try it after you have entered a few as a swapper). Once all of the flies are in, the host will take 1 fly from each entrant and put those back in your box, put that in the POSTAGE PAID envelope, seal it, and mail it back to you (when he mails all of the other swappers’ packages).
• Wait until your package comes in the mail. It is a bit like Christmas! 
• It is good practice to post on the swap thread that you got your flies and to thank the host and congratulate the other swappers for their great flies!

Here are some flies I’ve tied for swaps:

So, last night I did a bit of research and decided a March Brown Comparadun might be a good choice to try again. I tied up 4 on #14 hooks.

Today I went back and quitely snuck up on that spot. As I was tieing on a March Brown, I heard and saw him again – sipping from the same spot. I quitely waded in a bit upstream and worked my way down stream. I made 3 casts, each actually hitting the log and dropping right in to the zone. On the 3rd cast, he took it! I hooked him and he put up quite the fight. Here’s a mug shot before I let him go: