TENKARA FLY-FISHING: Strategies, Tactics & Flies
Tenkara Flies: Traditional and Adaptations “Presentation and precision, once you have that skill down it really doesn’t matter what flies you choose to use.” John Vetterli
If there’s one area of fly-fishing – in general – that stirs the pot of emotions, it’s the flies that we use. Traditional tenkara flies are very simple to tie and are minimalist in the amount of material they consume. So you will not see an overdressed fly pattern used in traditional tenkara fly patterns. There isn’t a traditional Japanese pattern that hasn’t caught trout almost anywhere in the United States. If you focus just on the traditional Japanese patterns available, you’ll find that once again simplicity and minimalism have been applied. Compared to the seemingly endless number of Western fly patterns available (with “new” patterns introduced almost every day), the number of different Japanese patterns is a mere fraction of Western patterns. With minimal fly selection comes the notion from traditional Japanese tenkara anglers that you can and should fish with just one pattern at all times. Traditional tenkara anglers put more emphasis on the delivery and manipulation of the fly than agonizing over which pattern to use at any given time. It goes right against the Western fly-fishing grain of “matching-the-hatch,” for sure. So, with tenkara anglers there are basically two schools of thought. The first school of anglers uses traditional Japanese fly patterns. Of that, there is a group that will use only one Japanese pattern consistently and another that will change Japanese patterns as they see fit. The second school uses both Japanese patterns and Western patterns that have been re-designed in the minimalist kebari (trout fly) way. These Western-originated-but-tenkara-adapted fly patterns are fast becoming popular. 45
