Drawing Flies 52_33 Takayama Sakasa Kebri

Drawing Flies 52_33 Takayama Sakasa Kebri

Original status: SOLD

Swing by Jason's blog to check out his rendition of a Tenkara fly!

Tech Info- Watercolor stock, Bamboo pen, sepia ink, gouache and watercolor.

Jason through down artist choice on a Tenkara fly this week. I have to admit that I did not know that much about Tenkara. So I went to the web to do a bit of research. I was fornutate to come across the Tenkara USA site, which is chock full of information and videos. For those who are not familiar with Tenkara, the site states - " Tenkara is the traditional Japanese method of flyfishing which uses only a rod, line and fly. Tenkara is a category of fly fishing particularly well-suited for fishing streams and for fishing while back packing. It's a very effective, simple and enjoyable method of fly-fishing small streams."

I scanned the page that had the flies listed on it and chose the Takayama Sakasa Kebri. According to the site - "The Takayama Sakasa Kebari are thought to be one of the older "sakasa" (reverse hackle) patterns used in tenkara fly fishing. It's an "elaborate" fly compared to some of the other tenkara patterns, for this one has a peacock herl collar, and a "butt". We'll never know whether it really is one of the oldest sakasa flies,but it's a beautiful one.

These are tied with the softer part of a hackle, which makes them a great mix of soft-hackle wet flies, and the stiffer hackle sakasa flies. They can be very effectively fished as a wet fly (swung), or by giving it some life by light twitches on your rod."

I really like the look of the reverse hackle, and I am always a sucker for peackock herl and a bright butt! I was not quite sure which painting approach I should take with this fly. At first I thought something similar, like the fishing style itself. Then I thought about something with an oriental flair. I scanned my arsenal and decided, I had to use a bamboo pen! I layed down some sepia ink, then folowed it up with the color. After reading more about these flies, I was curious as to the idea behing the reverse hackle.Since the hackle is more of a soft style, I imagine that it flows back when swung, creating an inciting look! Swing by Tenkara USA and check all there is to offer about Tenkara.