Traditionally, Tenkara Flies have not been tied with Foam. But foam has many qualities that can make for exceptionally fish catching flies, not the least of which is that it is soft and feels Alive in the fish’s mouth, and is hard for the fish to reject because it tends to catch on the fish’s teeth, so please take a look at the following youtube video on the ways foam can be tied and fished.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VtXeLjg6i8Q
For some reason I do not understand, the above link did not get us where we needed to go. The link below will get us there…Karl
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VtXeLjg6i8Q
I mostly fish warmwater with my tenkara gear and love little foam bugs for it. Here’s a few I tied up this past weekend!
Mike, those are very nicely tied flies! They look to be highly effective patterns for warm water fishing as well. If some of the more adventuresome among us would try them on trout, I believe they will catch trout as well…Karl
Thanks Karl, much appreciated!
I’ve had good luck with them so far, I’d be interested to hear how they did for trout too!
Mike, I tie a very similar pattern for high country hoppers. I use 1/8” black foam parachute post for the eyes, FL-Orange Glo-Brite Floss as a tag, black wool for the body, 2 mm cream colored foam for the shell-back over the body and the head, with dark Coastal Deer Hair for the wing, on TMC #12, 5212, 1X Fine hooks.
High country hoppers are smaller than the low land hoppers, float low in the water, and have Orange on their hind legs from the knee down. My hopper pattern has no legs, and also can fish for Caddisflies and stone flies as well. The first time I tried it on a lake, I caught 9 brook trout in as many casts. I also had a fish on on the 10th cast, but it got off. It is equally effective for stream fishing as well as lake fishing. I have not tried it with Flash Materials as you are doing but I do fish some other patterns that use flash materials and they also produce well at times, on both running and Stillwaters…Karl.
