I have been tying a lot of flies lately, trying to get boxes full. I was working on my Tenkara box and decided to try this pattern with more of a kebari twist to it. Low and behold, it is what this pattern needed to ride how I wanted.
The hackle lays forward a bit and comes in contact with the water like the insect's legs pushing through the film. The thorax is spun deer hair trimmed to an angle, short in the rear and long in the front. This helps to keep the hackle a forward. I used to just trim a small ball of hair behind the hackle. I also trimmed the bottom short and flat, somewhat even with the hook shank. With these adjustments the fly rides just the way I had envisioned this pattern when I started working on it. The rear of the fly body hangs lower, the thorax stays in the surface even if pushed under slightly it rides back up and the legs flow within and with the water surface (very lively when some movement is given to the water).
Going to put quite a few in different colors into the tenkara box starting with the ever popular orange, yellow and green. We'll see. I have a couple month's before trout season opens.
