Hybrid Kebari Experiments

Article by Jay Guarneri

In How to Fool Fish With Simple Flies, Paul Gaskell and John Pearson tell us that all the flies in our box should be designed with a specific purpose in mind, and that there will likely be tradeoffs between these purposes. In tenkara, one of those classic tradeoffs is the mobility of soft hackled jun and sakasa kebari vs. the anchoring ability of stiff hackled futsu (ondori jun) kebari. Kenbane feathers from cock pheasant wings are said to have the best of both worlds, but are hard to obtain in quantity and are pretty fussy to tie with.

As I sat down at my vise this fall and winter, I began to wonder if there are some other ways to have your cake and eat it too regarding movement vs. anchoring. After some thought and experimentation, the following options fell from my vise, all using materials that are pretty easy to obtain.

---

Stiff hackle overwound with long, soft hackle

This one takes some inspiration from the Adams dry fly, where grizzly and brown hackles are wound together. In this case, I used a grizzly rooster hackle and a brown speckled (sometimes called “wild type) hen saddle feather. The hen fibers should be about a hook shank in length, and the rooster sized slightly smaller than for a dry fly. To keep the dressing light, I stripped the fibers from the hen feather on the hook side before wrapping. I really like the way this looks with the longer hen hackles sticking out from the forest of rooster hackles. They will almost certainly provide some nice movement when pulsted. I tied the feather in the rearwards jun orientation, but a sakasa style could also be used. A zenmai body and peacock thorax complete the picture.

---

Stiff hackle overwound with short soft hackle

Similar to the previous fly, this one takes inspiration from the Adams. In fact, I tied this one with leftovers from tying some Adams. The soft hackle is short grizzly genetic hen neck left over from tying in wings, wound together with brown rooster hackle. Both hackles are slightly smaller than what you would select for a dry fly. The body is woodchuck underfur, left over from harvesting tailing material. While the soft hackles are much shorter, I expect they will still impart some subtle motion when drifted or pulsed. It also blends together with the brown hackle to give that “Adams” effect.

---

Stiff hackle in front of palmered soft hackle

In further variation on the two previous flies, I palmered a barred dun genetic hen neck over an Australian possum body, then wound a stiff futsu hackle in front. This is similar to some of the Irish lough style wet flies, but with a soft hackle for the body and the hackles considerably downsized relative to the hook size. Size for both is slightly smaller than for a dry fly, preferably with the hen slightly smaller still. Again, the genetic hen should provide some subtle movements.

---

Stiff hackle with wrapped CDC Body

This one takes inspiration from the CDC and Elk caddis fly, and the CDC body is wrapped in the same way. The difference is instead of a hair wing, a rooster hackle )slightly smaller than for a dry fly) is wound in the front. CDC provides a lot of motion in the water, even when just drifted in calm pools. I think this would be superb in anchored presentations, or when dead drifting in swift water. It might be too much motion when pulsed, but I’ll try it anyway and let the fish decide. In the picture, the dun CDC is CDC Super Select grade, and the black is ungraded CDC. I like the way the black turned out better, but you decide what works for you. Because of the floating ability of CDC, this fly could also be fished dry quite easily. I also think this fly would fish well in a beadhead version.

---

Does it even matter?

Now, all of this is clearly a thought experiment at this point. I’m not entirely convinced that the difference will matter to the fish. I’m pretty sure my angling skills are the bigger limiting factor, if I’m being perfectly honest. However, I’m eager to give these a try on the water in the coming fishing season. I encourage all of you to try these out, and share any further innovations you come up with along these lines.

---

Jay Guarneri has been fishing tenkara for 10 years since getting his first rod in Kansas and enjoys tying about as much as fishing. He is the owner of Jay’s Kebari Shop on Etsy.

Do you have a story to tell? A photo to share? A fly recipe that’s too good to keep secret? If you would like to contribute content to Tenkara Angler, click HERE for more details.

When you buy something using the retail links within our articles or Gear Shop, we may earn a small commission at no extra cost to you. Tenkara Angler does not accept money for editorial gear reviews. Read more about our policy.