In tenkara, there are a variety of preferences when it comes to fly selection. Some anglers choose to take the “one fly” approach, and others stock their fly boxes full of patterns for any situation imaginable.
When it comes to my personal preferences regarding flies, I’m neither minimalist or maximalist. I like to have a little variety, but I’m not looking to carry multiple fly boxes with me to hit the creek for an hour. That’s not to say I don’t find the appeal of either approach. I did try the “one fly” approach for a little while. And, I used to have a lot more random patterns in my fly box, from one-off ideas to flies that friends gave me. But, somewhere in between is a balance that I like to keep. If you’re curious as to what flies I stock and use the most, check out my post on the subject from earlier in the year…
What I didn’t like about only having one pattern was that sometimes it just didn’t seem to work. What I did like, though, was how much I learned about being able to change the presentation or tactic to try to entice a strike. As I’m writing this, I do think it may be fun to revisit this idea in the future, but for now I will continue with stocking a variety of flies…
The thing I don’t like about having too many different patterns is the mindset that comes with it - that is thinking “I can change my fly to find something that the fish will take.” The thought isn’t necessarily all that bad, but what comes with it is the constant changing of flies when you don’t get a take, and the amount of time you spend without the fly in the water. Of course, having a few patterns on hand helps out in situations where maybe the fish simply don’t like what you have on the end of the line.
Somewhere in between those two schools of thought, the “one fly” approach, and being “well-prepared,” there is a list of little tricks that I found help when fishing mountain streams - as well as ways to make subtle changes without having to change a fly.
Whether it’s a change in tactics, or changing something about the fly, there are a few things I will try before completely changing the pattern at the end of my line.
Change The Presentation
This is one of the first big changes, and there are a few other changes that stem from this idea as well. Changing the presentation of the fly is probably the easiest thing you can do without committing your fly to any modifications.
It can really be as simple as changing the depth of the fly in a dead drift. Sometimes adding a bit of animation to the fly is the thing that will garner a strike. Whether it’s adding a bit of a swimming motion, tapping the rod to vibrate the fly on the surface, or even swinging the fly at the end of a drift, whatever the fish start to react to is how you should change the presentation as you move into more sections of the priority waters as I described in a previous post…
Depending on what was working when changing the presentation, you may even consider changing the appearance of the fly to best suit the presentation. Which brings me to my next move…
Thin It Out
There’s a reason why I like my futsu kebari. The stiff hackle gives me a lot of options for presenting, or even modifying the fly. Over the year, I have experimented a bit with tying some of my futsu with a little more bushy hackle so that it allows them to float a bit more, but then it also gives me the option to adjust them for a different presentation by plucking some of the hackle fibers from the fly.
Thinning out the hackle on the fly can allow it to sink more in the water when depth is the key to success. There are some other ideas that I’ve played around with regarding this, mainly plucking fibers from either the top (where the eye is) or the bottom (the side closest to the bend of the hook) of the collar to try to influence how the fly sinks, or how it looks in the water. I’m not so sure it really makes a huge difference, but it’s something I play around with on occasion.
These modifications are most conveniently achieved by using your forceps while on the water. In fact, your forceps become more useful in the next couple ideas that I wanted to talk about, starting with…
Bend The Hook
I will admit that I’m a little wary of the ideas I mention in this section. I’ve been trying them out a bit, and on streams with smaller fish they don’t seem to present any big drawbacks. On the river, though, I am a little more hesitant to use them.
Using your forceps to bend your hook in certain ways can offer a little more function depending on the way you're fishing the fly.
The first one is the more tricky one, but bending the hook point inward a bit can help to keep the fly from getting caught on submerged logs or rocks. It’s not a perfect solution by any means, but can help at times. I personally like hooks with wider gaps, but sometimes my preferences have worked against me. Doing this in a way where the point is oriented more toward the eye of the hook has helped in a few of those situations.
Another way you can bend the hook point is to the side, offsetting it from the shank of the hook. I have experimented with this a bit more than the other ways, and the time I find it most useful is in downstream presentations. I find that the offset gives me a better chance of setting the hook, especially in situations where you may be upstream from where the fly is drifting or lifting, and where getting a good hook set is difficult.
I’ve also heard of other anglers bending the hook point out a little bit when fishing dry flies. I think the idea is that it makes it a little easier for the hook point to enter the fish's mouth, but I have not experimented with this myself. With knowledge gained from a previous experiment where I compared two hooks and how many fish I was able to land on each hook, I would imagine that if it’s easier to hook the fish by bending the hook point out, it would also be easier to lose the fish. I hope to explore this idea a little more in the future, but if you’re interested in reading about the experiment I did, you can find the link here…
The modifications mentioned offer a way to capitalize on the appearance and function of the fly you have on at the time. Of course, you want to start off by changing the presentation before messing with the fly, but use information gathered from how fish interact with the fly, or the environment you’re fishing in, to make more permanent modifications to the fly or hook. With that said, there are times where the fish just aren’t having it, and their picky attitudes drive them to reject the pattern you’re throwing at them all together, and this may call for a different pattern. If that’s the case, change the pattern and start from zero, using the information already gathered to influence how you will change the approach with the new fly.