Tying With Zenmai

Zenmai is a traditional tying material commonly used in tenkara flies (kebari), you might hear Americans (including myself) referring to it as "fern fuzz," since that's really all it is. In spring, when fiddle-head ferns sprout they are covered in a light cottony fuzz that makes a great natural fly-tying material. 

I collected a small supply of zenmai this spring to experiment with, but found it quite difficult to work with. The stuff just wouldn't behave and twist nicely around the thread like the wool dubbing I'd gotten used too. My results weren't bad, but the material wasn't easy to work with. I'd also been puzzled by the look of traditional tenkara flies with zenmai bodies, since mine just didn't come out quite the same. My efforts to use zenmai as a dubbing generally created fatter, fuzzier bodies, while most traditional tenkara flies have smooth bodies without many stray fibers. I was curious about this since Japanese tiers were obviously doing something different with the material, however I didn't really investigate it since between tying my own flies, and sending samples of zenmai to a few other tiers, I quickly ran out.
 

Zenmai I collected in Massachusetts this spring

However, back in July I was fortunate to recieve a small sample of zenmai gathered in Japan at high altitude late in the season. It's a bit different than the New England zenmai I collected in the spring; for one, it's a bit more fragile (the fibers crumble easily), and it's much rustier in color.

Japanese zenmai

For a long time I've been hesitant to try it out, and with all the other things going on in my life it's been on the back burner. That is, until yesterday, when I had an idea. I remembered that while the fibers won't readily twist around a thread as a dubbing, they will twist around themselves, making a loose little piece of yarn. To get the yarn twisted a bit more tightly I decided to try wetting the fibers, which worked amazingly well, resulting in a relatively strong and more tightly twisted yarn which can be wrapped around the hook shank. The result is still very loose since zenmai is just not as strong as wool or synthetic yarn, so an overwrap is neccessary to hold it together. I've used wire and thread, and found that since the zenmai is so compressible, a thread overwrap is really invisible. Wire sets in deeply as well, but is still  visible enough to give a bit of flash to a fly. 

I might be reinventing the wheel here, since I really don't know what techniques are traditionally used in crafting zenmai-bodied flies. However, this was a neat discovery that allows me to more easily tie flies with zenmai. If anyone has any further thoughts or experiences with this, I welcome your comments!

I'm still working out some kinks, but here are my results so far: 

Nikko Kebari - modelled after flies featured on My Best Streams

Hook: Mustad S82-3906B (a shorter wet-fly hook would work better)

Body: zenmai, overwrapped with thread and gold wire

Hackle: hen pheasant

Another kebari -  tied after one by Yoshikazu Fujioka featured on TenkaraUSA's blog

Hook: Mustad S82-3906B snipped a bit shorter

Eye: loop of 3x tippet whipped to the hook shank

Body: zenmai,  over-wrapped with thread

Thorax: peacock herl

Hackle: hen pheasant

Road Trip Photos

Here are a few highlights from all the photos I took on the trip:

Early Morning in Montana

Mount Shuksan

Looking over the edge at Grand Coulee Dam

Reef-netting for salmon

Sunset over the Salish Sea

A Little Fishing in the North Cascades

Mount Shuksan, North Cascades National Park

Last Friday my dad, my grandparents, and I took a drive into the North Cascades to check out Mount Baker and Mount Shuksan from Artist's Ridge. On the way down the valley we stopped at Nooksack Falls, where the North Fork of the Nooksack River plunges 88 feet into a narrow slot. I found out later from the interns staffing the Nooksack Salmon Enhancement Association table at the ranger station that trout are present above the falls, although they didn't know much about the population since their organization is dedicated to restoring threatened salmon runs. That piece of information, coupled with the tenkara-perfect water I'd spotted above the falls was enough to tempt me back for a fishing trip.

Nooksack Falls

North Fork of the Nooksack River above the falls - fast, pocketed, and clear

Sunday morning my cousin Sam and I headed back up the Mount Baker Highway to see if we could find any fish in the Nooksack. This was Sam's first time out fishing in a long time, and his first experience fishing with flies (and tenkara too!), so I was pretty happy when we got into fish fairly quick. We found the little stream bread rainbows to be quite ready and willing to take a sakasa kebari once we got a little farther upstream from the crowds at the falls. As it worked out Sam got the first fish - incidentally his first on a fly, and his first with tenkara! 

We had a blast of an afternoon boulder hopping, fishing, and soaking in the scenery. The river was absolutely fantastic for tenkara, with an ideal mix of plunge pools, shallow bouldery runs, deep slots, and pocket water. As mountain streams go, this was probably one of the most beautiful that I've had the good fortune to fish. It was great to have the chance to teach Sam a little fishing, and having some plain old fun in the outdoors with my cousin.

Sam fishing the tail of a long pool

Western Road Trip, 2010

Greetings from Wenatchee, WA! I've taken off on a cross-country road trip with my Dad to visit family out West before leaving for Ukraine. It's been a great drive, and I'm looking forward to the doing this trip again someday when I can really take my time and explore the sights. So far we've followed US 2 fairly closely across the Upper Peninsula of MI, MN, ND, MT, and ID with detours for Glacier National Park (Logan Pass is just surreal...), Grand Coulee Dam, and Dry Falls. Tomorrow we'll be going up to Highway 20 and heading west over the Cascades to Puget Sound.

Tenkara & Smallmouth

This Sunday a friend and I headed out to a local smallmouth bass hot-spot, and this being the first time I've fished for smallies in years (and the first time ever with flies), I just had to give tenkara a shot with them. We arrived at the river around 8am to find it running low, and relatively cool:

Little bit different scenery than what I've gotten used to on the small streams...

Lot's of stoneflies had recently hatched

After going fishless in the first riffle I spotted a big boulder with a deep pool behind it. In the tail of the pool I landed probably the largest, hardest fighting fallfish I've yet to encounter. Then, on maybe my third cast to the right of the boulder something hit the fly hard, and immediately lept clear of the water. A few more leaps later and I landed my first tenkara smallmouth (incidentally the first on a fly as well). I'd forgotten how much fun these guys are!

The fishing slowed down over the rest of the morning. I did manage one more smallmouth, and maybe 5-6 more little fallfish, but unfortunately my freind was skunked.

Overall I have to say tenkara seemed to work great for the smallmouth - I'll be giving it another go. These hard fighting river-bred smallies are really a blast to catch with tenkara tackle and technique. Next time I may try a larger more colorful fly, and see if my catch rate improves, although the one I fished did seem to work ok:

The fly for the day - a sakasa kebari

Hook: Mustad C67S, size 12

Hackle: dyed black male pheasant

Body & collar: black 6/0 uni thread & peacock herl