Dave’s Basic Three

MINI-BROWN TROUT

Hook: Orvis 1524 2X or equivalent in sizes 10, 12, 14 Thread: Black 8/0 Tail: Brown hackle tips Rib: Narrow gold tinsel Body: Orvis Cream Spectrablend dubbing Wing: Cream bucktail, Olive bucktail and dark brown squirrel tail

MINI-RAINBOW TROUT

Hook: Orvis 1524 2X or equivalent in sizes 10, 12, 14 Thread: Black 8/0 Tail: Light green hackle tips Rib: Narrow silver tinsel Body: Cream Orvis Spectrablend dubbing Wing: White bucktail, pink bucktail, green bucktail

MINI-BROOK TROUT

Hook: Orvis 1524 2X or equivalent in sizes 10, 12, 14 Thread: Black 8/0 Tail: Light green hackle tips Rib: Narrow silver tinsel Body: Cream Orvis Spectrablend Throat: Orange hackle tips Wing: White bucktail, orange bucktail, green bucktail Notes for all three flies (Dirks): Start the thread at the rear of the hook shank. Tie on a piece of narrow silver or gold tinsel (depending on pattern). Wrap the tinsel up the shank of the hook. Tie it off and clip off excess thread. Then tie a sparse bunch of the recipe bucktail on top of the hook. Do this for each individual color of bucktail, stacking each on top of the other. Trim the excess bucktail and make a clean and neat thread head. Coat the head with cement.

Fishing Notes for mini-streamers (Dirks): The thought of throwing big heavy streamers into the water with a tenkara rod is neither pleasant nor practical. It’s not that you can’t do it but tenkara wasn’t designed to lug heavy bugs and streamers forward. That doesn’t mean that streamers have no role in tenkara fishing. On the contrary, it’s the size and weight of the streamer in my book that makes the difference. I don’t lug big heavy streamers with a tenkara rod but I’ll gladly use mini-streamers to do the job. Mini-streamers and bucktails can be fished all year round and through all kinds of water – high, low, clear or murky. These patterns are tied on 3X and 4X long streamer hooks in sizes 12-14 and on standard wet-fly hooks in sizes 10 through 14. Before tying these patterns, I’d recommend determining what types of minnows inhabit the waters you are going to fish. This data will help you determine which patterns will be most effective for you. Identify your forage fish and you’re ready to tie.

Like tenkara itself, mini-streamers and bucktails are tied sparsely. That’s because most forage fish are streamlined and trim. Regardless of water

conditions, a good streamer/bucktail pattern has some type of flash to attract fish, so I invariably will wrap the body with gold or silver tinsel. My experience has shown that the shape, flash and action of a fly are the most critical to the tenkara angler. Durability is another consideration and tying these patterns so they can stand up to multiple beatings from trout is important as well. In terms of colors, less is more. Some basic color combinations work very effectively on most waters including the following color combinations: red and white, red and yellow, brown and yellow, black and white, and brown and white. If you want a pattern with a bit more color elaboration, you can add a third color in the mix. Some three-tiered combinations are yellow, brown and white as well as black, brown and white.