The Single Fly

[W I S N E R !]

We'll see how the tenkara/kebari setup works for me soon enough….looking to get up to Hot Creek next weekend if the weather holds.

[Marko Botsaris]

There is a whole Japanese "thing" recently of trying to catch the smallest fish (I'm afraid yours would be a whopper on that scale)You can find some discussion of this over on the tenkara bum website. These involve such absurdities as #32(or even smaller) hooks – basically fishing for minnows. I saw a hilarious (to me) video interview with a guy that "fishes" for minnows in a little bowl (with decorative gravel, bonsai and so on) in his living room. Obviously there are many part of the culture that leads to this type of thing that escape me, but this seems to me to be taking thing TOO far. LOL

here is the video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Hxf1oAS72fE

starting at about 10:20 they show some of the small fish fishing with the ultimate absurdity starting at about 12:20.

Greg, that guys "tenkara rod" looks like a pole vaulters pole! Reels are for p****s!

[W I S N E R !]

I could've done well in that game today….lots of strikes and attempts at my #14 but it was way too big for most of them.

If the CA water crisis keeps going the way it is, fishing for minnows in tiny creeks is going to be the name of the game. And I'll be years ahead of everyone! Maybe I should get into the USA micro rod/tackle market before someone else does.

[Greg Mihalik]

A variation on "Single Fly" is the "Simple Fly" –

"Charlie is the first to admit that his flies aren’t fancy — or even pretty for that matter.

“I tie fly to catch fish, and I always tell the shops they tie the flies to catch the fish and the customer.” As with any genius, Charlie has a rhyme to his reason behind turning out flies that many would consider unattractive. “If you are a bonefish trying to catch a shrimp and you are gaining on it and it looks crippled, you are going to keep going after it.”

"He swears that his sloppy version, sitting right next to the beautiful version bought from the fly shop, will be picked up by a bonefish every time. “It’s because my fly doesn’t look too fancy or too pretty; it always looks rough and I keep it like that. I could make it fancy and pretty but I’m not selling; I just tie and give.” Do Charlie’s flies display a few external imperfections? Absolutely. However, his rationale reveals the inner beauty of Charlie’s Charlies, and when you understand it, you realize that the finished product he holds in his hand is not merely a roughly tied fly but rather a true masterpiece."

Full Article

[Marko Botsaris]

Greg, agree %100.

Everyone who has fly fished a lot has seen this in one form or another – fish that go for a fly, even a pretty realistic one, and then when they get a better look at it suddenly turn in apparent horror. On the other hand these same fish can be utterly fascinated by a bit of fluff on a hook.

I have a theory there is something like the "uncanny valley" effect that is sometimes in operation with fish – not only humans. If you haven't heard about this it is the "aesthetic" reaction to various levels of strangeness in objects and images intimating life. The basic result goes like this, between an ultra-accurate realistic image of a person, such as an actual film of a person, or a VERY good CGI which we find "attractive" representations of life on the realistic end of the spectrum, and on the other end humanoid robots that in some cases we can find "cute" or may be something we feel perfectly comfortable with, though they are only impressionistic representation of human life, there is a "valley" of revulsion where the imitation gets just real enough to start to be a realistic representation. Instead of our comfort level going steadily up as realism increases there is a certain level of realism that causes revulsion – the uncanny valley. There are a bunch of plausible theories about why this is so. My on personal example is that I find wax museums incredibly creepy, which I guess inadvertently may be one of the reason some people actually go see them.

The point here is that for fish it may be similar. For example the tiny fibers on the main fibers of the pheasant tail used in a teeny nymph might intimate hairs insects have on their appendages, or the gill structure of aquatic insects – all stuff we as human can't see but that fish are very familar. Another one that is probably the most important is motion. If you have ever seined a stream and seen how nymphs, for example, move – they swim like a little snakes in short little spurts, their antennae twitch and gills ripple. So a fish (as my theory goes) is likely to be highly repulsed by a very imitative fly when it gets up close and doesn't see small scale feature is knows very well, where as something that had the right small scale structure (killer bug) or some micro motion (bugger or other marabou streamers) is likely to be much more attractive to the fish, even though they look like nothing specific the fish usually eats.

[W I S N E R !]

That was a good read Greg, thanks.

"I tie fly to catch fish, and I always tell the shops they tie the flies to catch the fish and the customer."

The Nasty Charlie sort of reminds me of many experiences I've had saltwater fishing; I used to be pretty into chasing tuna and yellowtail.

The boats would load up with a dozen fishermen that each carried $2000 dollars worth of shiny equipment…and every single time, the captain would come down at some point on the trip with some ancient rod with a cracked and peeling handle wrap, a crusty reel as old as me, and an iron lure from the Iron Age, and proceed to immediately outfish every other person on the boat.

[Adam Klags]

I tend to fish with one fly that I tie myself at least 90% of the year on all kinds of water and for many different kinds of trout. Its not a kebari, its a bead head. I don't even know what to call it. Image attached here. I've hooked fish in the Alps, The Rockies of CO, the Adirondacks of NY, The Catskills of NY, the White Mountains of NH, and all over New York and Connecticut with it. I always finish the fly by brushing it hard with a soft-bristled toothbrush to make it ugly on purpose, just in case it doesn't have enough stuff sticking out at all angles…

[Paul Vertrees]

It’s entirely dependent on the water and trout that you’re targeting.  I’ve fished backcountry and wilderness trout a lot, and it truly didn’t matter which western dry fly or traditional sakasa kebari I used.  On many occasions I’ve tied on a #16 Parachute Adams or #12 Takayama Sakasa Kebari and fished them until the darned things unraveled and I was down to a nearly bare hook.

However, and this is a big “however”, this doesn’t always work, and I’m convinced that leaving yourself open to non-traditional tenkara fly patterns will get you into fish that you’d otherwise miss.  A good case in point is my local Arkansas River.  I recently wrote a blog post about using a decidedly western fly fishing tactic, a hopper-copper-dropper rig.  Using this type of rig on the Arkansas in October means very successful fishing because they fish are keying in on specific bugs.  Using a traditional Japanese pattern and technique, not so much.  I know, I’ve tried both.

I can’t always fish for those backcountry trout..I have to hit my local big water freestone year-round or <gasp!> the local tailwater in the winter.  I let the water and fish tell me what fly patterns to use.

Besides, I like to tie flies!  :)

 

[Christopher W]

Good thread. +1 on the Adams, probably caught more on that pattern than any other, fished both wet and dry. I enjoy tying my own flies even though I am not particularly good at it, and usually tie something that I think will work more than I tie a particular pattern.

Catching  fish on a fly that I tied with a european starling feather, invasive here, that was killed by a slingshot that I made myself is about as good as it gets.

[t.darrah]

My focus for sometime now has been on one fly tenkara fishing, I’m hooked. My best results has been with the simple “killer bug” fly.

[W I S N E R !]

Forgot about this thread, but not tenkara!

I’ve done a good deal of fishing since I posted this.  In the High Sierra I tend to fish for what I plan on eating, then I stop.  I haven’t caught anything I’d consider a “trophy” fish, but plenty to fill the pan.  All on one fly I tie myself and a minimum of gear (Iwana 9′ handle version, Tenkara USA braided line, 6X tippet, and a sakasa kebari fly).  In my mind, this is what fishing is about.  I have a 7 day high country trip coming soon, I plan on fishing for one meal/day.

Dr. Ishigaki style sekasa kebari. Photo from Tenkara Bum.

[Adam Klags]

Also, there’s something I wanted to comment on last year here and I’m going to comment on it now. You say:

“But as I read blogs and websites, it appears that tenkara, while promising simplicity, falls victim to the exact same traps. Much of what I see appears to be absolutely no different or less complicated than Western fly fishing, save for the absence of a reel.”

So I think its important to point out that “Tenkara” does not promise simplicity, although some merchants of the gear do. In fact, there are plenty of anglers who carry more or make it more complicated than necessary.

Sounds like you’ve discovered your own way, which is great. But Tenkara is about stripping away unnecessary things for catching fish and getting strikes, its not about minimalism or simplicity in what you carry any more than each individual angler decides.

The key with one fly is not minimalism. The key with one fly fishing is to learn how to fish. Once you stop imagining your fly choice as some “magical” element of fly tying, you are going to catch fish.

I also disagree with some of the other posts above that talk about the fly pattern mattering a lot on bigger water, tailwater, etc. I couldn’t disagree more. The difference is that when you are casting to rising fish that are either rising to emergers or dries, THOSE fish are keyed in on a specific meal. Not ALL the fish are keyed in on that. So when you don’t catch all those risers, my advice – STOP CASTING TO THEM AND MOVE ON. Because I guarantee that you’ll waste more time changing flies trying to match that fish’s momentary, fickle eating habits than you will walking another 100 yards to a new spot where the fish are going to take anything you have tied on in a reasonable size.

Tenkara is about how you approach the water and about covering ground, finding fish below the surface, and catching a lot of fish. It is not about standing in one place casting to a hatch or a rise and matching the hatch. That’s one aspect of western fly fishing – and while it can be done with a Tenkara rod with any line or unnecessarily complicated combinations of line and leader, that’s not really how many of us who use fixed line rods think.

Then again, there are many ways of looking at this, and if someone wants to take a Tenkara rod and fish it like a western angler would, no harm no foul. But its not how I would teach others, IMHO.

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