I am always looking for new and creative ways to photograph both flowers and flies/kebari. I spent a mellow Sunday afternoon with a new bouquet of flowers, some random flies and a macro lens. I keep a small fish bowl on my tying desk where I toss the one off and experimental patterns that don’t have a home in any of the boxes yet. Every so often I’ll dump it out and see if anything looks promising. That’s the issue with being a passionate and experimental fly tyer. I tie way more flies than I need or could ever use but I enjoy it so much that it has really become sort of hobby unto itself. A non tying friend doesn’t seem to mind as he frequently gets fistfuls of these “extras”. Thanks for looking.
My Tenkara 
Those are some really great looking kebari! Awesome pictures too, as always. I don’t see myself buying a Tenkara rod anytime soon but I can definitely see myself tying and fishing some flies that (hopefully) look like yours. Do these “extras” have names? Could you add the names, or perhaps what they are based on, as captions to the media images?
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Thanks Darrell! They dont really have specific names and most kebari are named after their hackle type/style. The main types being stiff hackle, swept back like a traditional American soft hackle or the forward facing style hackle commonly associated with tenkara. They are also mainly suggestive and less impressionistic. Generally very simple ties as well with often just thread and hackle. Wool yarns are quite popular as well and I use them a lot. I do take some inspiration of standard flies as can be seen with the kebari photo that incorporates the peacock and red thread of a royal coachman. Mostly I am just trying to create a “buggy” look. In the future I will add more info to the captions and at some point i’ll do a write on the patterns that have found a permanent place in my box.
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Sounds great. The only kebari pattern I am familiar is one called “Takayama Sakasa” which has, of course, a reverse style hackle. You are quite right about how simple some of them are. I’ll be interested in seeing your captions going forward. Also, I definitely saw the “royal coachman” look in your post.
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Your kebari is a good example of how the Japanese name these. Takayama is the region of Japan where the kebari originated, Sakasa is the word used to describe a reverse style hackle. All reverse style kebari are sakasa kebari. I personally enjoy tying them but don’t fish with them often. I will use them if I plan on imparting action or pulsing the fly. I am more likely to start off with a soft hackle hares ear if I am going to fish wet flies in a traditional tenkara fashion. My other go to is wet fly with peacock herl body, stiff brown hackle and a small orange tag for a tail.
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