Limited Edition Kebari from Tenkara USA and Friends

A few months back I was approached by Tenkara USA to see if I’d like to do a kebari design collaboration with them for their online store. They were reaching out to a few people in the tenkara community, including Jason Klass (Tenkara Talk) on this project, expanding upon a previous release by TJ Ferreira. As a result, I’m excited to report that today they will be offering three new kebari patterns, two from Jason & one from me, for a limited time in their store.

Buy the Hot Spot Futsu, Red Ichiban, & Japanese Lantern kebari at Tenkara USA!

Enter The Hot Spot Futsū Kebari

The Hot Spot Futsū Kebari pattern I designed for Tenkara USA combines three of my favorite colors and materials – a brownish, “buggy” yarn body to emulate a meaty insect, a red, hot spot attractor head, and a few twists of highly visible, stiff white hackle around the middle. If this is your first time fishing a futsū, the white hackle will make the fly easier for you to see as you manipulate and/or drift it through the water.

All Sakasa, Where’s The Futsū?

While I don’t consider myself a one-fly tenkara angler, I tend to only fish a handful of confidence flies. My fly box consists of beadhead sakasa kebari, unweighted futsū kebari, and more “western-style” nymphs, such as a Walt’s Worm. In talking to the folks at Tenkara USA about the project, they were already offering an orange colored kebari… and weren’t interested in beadheads (sorry Road Kone). I also noticed all the flies in their shop were reverse hackled sakasa kebari. So, recommending they add a futsū style kebari to their fly assortment was a no brainer!

In my opinion, while the sakasa kebari may be the fly silhouette that comes to mind when one thinks about tenkara, the futsū kebari may be the most versatile.

Futsū kebari are stiff-hackled wet flies that are intended to be fished and manipulated toward the top of the water column. The stiff hackle provides extra rigidity and resistance, allowing the futsū to anchor in place far more easily than a sakasa soft hackle, but can still be sunk and fished down to the middle water column with the aid of currents. Adding to the fun, a futsū kebari has the ability to move water around should you choose to twitch it against or across the current. This will create a commotion that actively feeding fish find hard to resist. Finally, with the use of a bit of floatant, a thread-bodied futsū kebari can also be fished on the surface just like your favorite dry flies. The futsū kebari is three different flies in one!

Jason’s Patterns

While I yammered on about my fly pattern, don’t sleep on both of Jason’s! He’s been tying his Ichiban & Japanese Lantern kebari for quite some time and they have a rabid following with tenkara anglers. If you’re not familiar, the Ichiban Kebari is a Takayama-style fly that combines several time-proven design elements into a highly effective and versatile attractor pattern, while the Japanese Lantern Kebari is a generic attractor that just works everywhere, but is best fished in the upper water column: either on or just below the surface, or in shallower runs and riffles.

How To Get Yours

If you’re interested in picking up a pack of Hot Spot Futsū Kebari (and Jason’s Red Ichiban or Japanese Lantern kebari) act fast. Tenkara USA only produced a limited number and I have a feeling they won’t last very long. Jason’s patterns are always very popular, and I’d certainly love to have you join #teamfutsu!

Note: I didn’t personally tie the flies offered in the Tenkara USA online store, I only provided the design direction. But I do tie and fish this proven pattern regularly and love it (see pic below)… I think you will too!

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