More Sakasa Kebaris

Man is it cold in New York. I feel like we've been in this "deep freeze" forever. Walking the streets of Brooklyn, the usual construction, slush, and ice make for a depressing combo. Thankfully there's always someone to provide some comic relief just when you need it most...

I'm really looking forward to escaping this cold and getting to Japan for some more typical Spring weather. Forecast calls for mid 40's and into the 50's for the next 10 days and I couldn't be happier, even if there is a bit of rain too. (Hopefully not too much!)

I've been using a lot of peacock herl for the most recent Kebaris I've been tying. This is mostly because I stumbled upon an amazing post, somewhere on Adam Trahan's forum - Tenkara-Fisher.com, and it linked me to a Japanese tyer's site:

 http://www.hi-ho.ne.jp/amago/b-streams/flytying/tenkara3.html#top

This amazing site shows the local patterns by region, historically speaking, for Japanese fly fishing. Pretty cool. I urge you to take some time to look at this slightly old but VERY useful resource. Its amazing all the work this gentleman has done to research, re-create, photograph, and reference many flies from different regions in Japan.

My attempt at a Kumazaki Kebari - a dry fly.

I've been using mostly silk threads, purple seems popular. Hard to choose a color, but a few videos I watched suggested darker colors. The above fly was created by Shintaro Kumazaki, and was featured and named in a video made by Daniel Galhardo of Tenkara USA. This is a dry fly, unlike most of the others I've been tying here.

This version, above uses a Persimmon-dyed silk cord for an eye. Tied on a Gamakatsu eyeless hook I got from TenkaraBum.

Here I tried using some striated yarn and more peacock herl, which also came from TenkaraBum

Another Takayama Sakasa Kebari.

I'm a HUGE fan of Fran Betters' patterns, especially the "Ausable series." I spend too much time fishing in the Adirondacks, and I've come to trust and love his flies. The flies above and below are both tied with Fran Betters' orange-died Australian Opossum. Let's see how the japanese trout like it... the Brookies over here sure do. 

Much credit is due to Kiwi of American Sakasa Kebari Blog for turning me onto his "Ausable Kebari" and it got me into using this stuff for my Kebaris as well.

Here's a fly I took right from the Japanese site I linked to above. Given that I'll likely be fishing in the Tenkawa area instead of the original plan to hit Takayama area, I found some flies on the site and tied one up on a size 18 Gamakatsu barbless scud hook, readily available at a few fly shops I frequent (unlike most of the other hooks which I buy online.)

Hopefully they'll catch me some fish! Keep your fingers crossed for me that the water levels are not too high, because I need a lot of luck this early in the season.

So goodbye for now, snowy New York... 

Stay tuned for more when I return from Japan, there will likely be lots more to share!