Flies From Around the World
28 April 2006 By Dan Bachman • Flies • Comments (1)
I began a collection of flies recently and have been trading with different tyers from around the world. This week I received flies from both Scotland and Japan.
The Scottish flies are ‘Clyde Style’ after the River Clyde that runs through Glasgow. From the tyer:
Hooks are light wired, body length no more than half the shank, hackle of hen or upland game bird, 2/3 turns only. Wings are tied upright & set at a “jaunty wee angle”. Lightness of construction is the keyword & hooking properties are good. Other than a touch or two of tinsel sometimes, a lack of embellishment & a general more sombre hue is it’s marque.
The Japanese flies are “Tenkara” or the traditional Japanese flies. An interesting feature of the flies is the lack of an ‘eye’ on the hook. The tyer uses kevlar thread to tie-in an eye that you use to attach the fly to the tippet.
Most of the flies will go in a shadow box on my den wall, but I will certainly try out a couple of the patterns on Idaho trout.
Drop me a line if you are interested in swapping flies.
29 May 2006 The Continental Op
Though I’d seen photos of Japanese Tenkara flies before, I never realized that they were tied on blind hooks. Interestingly enough (given your juxtaposition of Scottish and Japanese flies in this post), when eyed hooks first gained popularity in the 19th century, they were widely distrusted, and “denounced by O’Gorman in 1845 as ‘another Scotch invention’” (according to this history [http://tinyurl.com/pgx85]).
If you’re interested in Japanese fly fishing, here’s a nice site (http://tinyurl.com/o57uk) that includes some Tenkara patterns (http://tinyurl.com/lv9oy).