Furled Yarn Kebari's

[letumgo]

Domo Arigato, William-san.

[Mataura mayfly]

William, just curious as to how you intend to fish these? The wool will waterlog pretty quick and pull the body under...... (unless you dope it up with floatant). That coupled with the soft hackles I am presuming you are aiming at sub-surface.
I was thinking of using a stiffer hackle to help the fly sit in the film..... (at least the upper hackled section) without ginking the main body. Should give a very inviting profile with the forward facing hackle and the body suspended below the film. May even benefit from a small hot spot where the furled body joins the hook.

I might try some in that small diameter darkish brown yarn, would be a killer night pattern to imitate our wee mayflies instead of the Dad's Favourite stripped herl fly I normally use.

[William Anderson]

Jeff, I would expect to drift these the same as any of the other unweighted softhackles or sakasa kebari. I have yet to have the pleasure of drifting a fly tethered to a tenkara rod, but most of my fishing is done with unweighted softhackles and a10' 3 wt so I'm not expecting the transition to be terribly difficult. One concern I do have is I suspect on a lot of mountain, tumble steams the tapered thread body and reversed hackle drop quickly and make the active manipulation of the fly easier...just speculating. The initial entry of these flies, even soaked will be a little different than standard traditional kebari flies...but I really wouldn't expect that to make any difference. I'm just looking forward to finding out for myself.
Anybody care to weigh in on the likely fishability or performance of these or any others? I'm dying to play with these. Any pointers might ease my learning curve.

[letumgo]

William - I am curious to find out how the little extended body behaves when the fly is fished, cast repeatedly and chewed on by a number of fish. I wonder how prone the furled body is, to getting twisted around the hook point. If fouling is an issue, it could easily be solved with a simple horizontal loop of mono at the bend of the hook.

Please do not take this as a knock against the design. This is the sort of thing I live for. New fly designs require field testing to observe how they work. A perfect reason to head to the stream. Tweaking the design, based on field experience, is half the fun. Let us know how you make out.

EDIT/ADDITION - The mono loop could also serve as a tye on point for other flies in series. Might even allow for quickly swapping out pre rigged flies. Hmmm. This has me thinking (dangerous I know).

[Mataura mayfly]

My offering......



Has a hackle of the remains of a Jungle Cock feather, minus the eye and as such will be a much stiffer dry fly style of hackle.
Did a water test on it, 8 hours in a glass of water, body went under pretty quick, but the fly sat with the hackle in the film for the rest of that time. Even with some mild swishing back and forth. Had soma attractive air bubbles attached to the yarn as well.

I know that is not really what Tenkara is about, but it helped satisfy a curious mind.

[William Anderson]

Jeff, that ought to do it. Cool little pattern. Nice use of the feather as well. I know there are a few examples of patterns that call for stiffer hackles, assuming they will behave in some lively manner in rough water. It won't hurt to have a few on hand and it could work out really well for a pattern like this one. The yarn you've used is almost exactly a match to the Lion 403. Here is a pic I shot of the sample you sent. I just call it NZ Merino Yarn #2. It comes from a great family.





This one too is one of my favorites.








Ray, that extended body might get wrapped into the hook bend. I really like the sakasa patterns where the yarn is wrapped conventionally around the shank, but even with a needed adjustment or two, I would expect these to fish well. (or I would have to just fish them really hard until they proved I was right. ) Your comment was exactly the kind of feedback I was looking for. Fouling on the hook actually hadn't occurred to me, and now that you mention it, it seems like an obvious...attribute. Something to watch for. Thanks so much.

w

[Mataura mayfly]

Hook wrapping might be less of a problem with casting them on a true tenkara rod?, the action just looks smoother and less prone to the body wrapping itself around the hook.

To negate this and any hinging of the body at the tie in point you could thread a fairly stiff wire inside the body. Wire like they sell in craft shops for threading beads on, 36 gauge wire, but stiff. Way stiffer than Uni-wire. Would add weight, but not much.