I like experimenting with different flies when I’m out fishing. I am definitely not a “one fly” practitioner. In fact, I have a tradition of removing a fly if it is catching what I deem as “too many” fish, and replacing it with a different fly. It’s not that I don’t want to catch fish, but it’s that I like finding other flies that work well too.
While I usually use #10 jun-style kebari (they look like traditional soft hackle wet flies), I will also use futsu-style kebari and the occasional sakasa kebari (I don’t fish sakasa’s as much as I did when I first started tenkara). But a couple of years ago I got intrigued by a sloppily tied wet fly out of North Carolina, the Gnarly Fly.
A creation of Jason Sparks, the Gnarly Fly came into existence after he was reading about a particular kebari from Japan. In Jason’s own words, he states, “Often, I have attributed it’s creation and inspiration to the Shotaro kebari. You know the one that looks haphazard and like a half squished bug? That is what I kept envisioning in my head when I started working on this pattern. As it is with most things we see in life, they are rarely virgin creations and are usually adaptations of something already existing. The other parts of this would need to go credited to Chris Stewart of Tenkara Bum for his fly known as the “Killer Kebari” and the genesis of that fly to both Frank Sawyer’s “Killer Bug” and the Tenkara Guides (Rob, John and ERiK) own modernized “Utah Killer Bug”. See how it doesn’t seem to be so much of an original light bulb for me when I can trace those tracks back to clearly. I guess it may just as well be a lazy tier’s version of “all-of-the-above”. I guess I have developed my own variant in the blend of these flies.”
He also states, “In many things I do, I strive for efficiency of motion, reduction of materials, re-use where applicable and simplicity in design.“
When I first tried the Gnarly Fly, I immediately started catching fish. The trout of my regional streams seem to love the fly. While Jason prefers #12 and #14 hooks, I generally tie my version on #10 hooks. Despite the larger size, I don’t seem to have a problem catching fish.
I tied the fly in traditional insect colors of gray, brown, and black and they all did equally well on brown, cutthroat and rainbow trout. I even started tying them in dark maroon and still the trout seemed to throw themselves at the fly. I was amazed. Despite the fly breaking all the rules of fly tying – materials, proportion, neatness, imitation – the Gnarly Fly appears to be a fish magnet! It uses the cheapest materials, tied with no traditional proportions, in the sloppiest manner, and in total disregard to imitation of any particular insect or food source. In fact, the only acceptable fly characteristic that it has is that it’s “buggy”. The Gnarly Fly is a unicorn, an enigma.
So I started tying Gnarly Flies in earnest. As previously stated, I usually tie them on #10 hooks, but I have started tying them on #6 or #8 hooks as well. I particularly like tying these larger versions with Jamieson’s Shetland Spindrift 423 Burnt Ochre wool yarn. I call this fly the Gnarly Hopper and often tie it with an opaque gold glass craft bead. It works well as a subsurface drowned grasshopper later in the season. I tie both wingless and winged versions. The fish don’t seem to have a preference.
For most of my Gnarly Flies, I like using Firehole Sticks 317 hooks, but for the Gnarly Hopper, I prefer Moonlit TOGATTA ML601 Premium Barbless hooks. The ML601 hooks would also work well for the small sizes.
Unlike Jason’s original tying description, I feel compelled (because I have that tier’s disease) to add some proportion and uniformity to my version of the Gnarly Fly. I don’t think it makes it any less efficient of a tie, but I like the look of it better. I doubt fish care, but I do!
In my version, I wrap the yarn so that it goes to whole length of the hook shank from the beginning of the bend to the near the eye, and I make the head smaller, more proportional. I also wrap a dubbing thorax between the leg hackle, instead of just thread as used in the original pattern. I think it adds proportion and balance to the fly. Again, I doubt the fish care.
Here is a video of how I tie my version of the Gnarly Fly:
I really like the Gnarly Fly. Like I said, I’m not a “one fly” guy, but if I ever decided to be, I just might choose the Gnarly Fly to be my one fly during warm weather months. It’s sloppy and irreverent, but it catches trout like crazy. What an amazing tie; the marvelous mischievous Gnarly Fly!
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The gnarly fly is also an effective fly for warm water species in the Texas Hill Country. In addition, it’s a good good confidence builder if you enjoy tying flies but suffer from essential hand tremors, as I do. You finish a gnarly fly, hold it in your hand, and it looks like it wants to fly away!
What a truly banger fly! No attempt to be anything but buggy. I also loved your idea of using the tiny bit of dubbing on the final whip finish.