Not too long ago I received a comment regarding the success that a fellow tenkara fisherman was having with some of my kebari patterns. I was tickled pink to hear that not only were these flies working for me, but also worked for someone else! After reading his comment I invited him to do a guest post here on Teton Tenkara. He so kindly obliged and sent me his narrative with pictures. Here it is -- from Justin Stevens, Star Valley, WY:
I love waiting for my children to get off the school bus and asking
them "Do you want to go fishing?" 90 percent of the time its a
unanimous "yeah!" So we grab some snacks and our tenkara rod and head
out to our local streams. Armed with a grey kebari for sunny days and
the Redtail kebari for cloudy days, we have a quality adventure every
time. Tenkara fishing is very exiting for us especially when we catch
fish. I started fishing with Tenkara USA's grey Amano fly, however the
fish ignored half the time. Using Tom's fly, with the Haretron body and the
copper wire, made the difference in success. One day there was an old
timer already fishing with a spin rod and a jig (normally a deadly
combo), we showed up and fishing upstream from the reservoir in the
small stream section we caught six fish in a half an hour. The guy was
so impressed he had to examine our rod and our fly and congratulated us
on our success. I could only smile with pride knowing it was Tom's recipe
for the Grey kabari and the Utah Killer Bug that made that day.
The next day on my own I went to a different stream, It
was cold and snowing intermittently. The creek was only 15 feet wide, and
on an outside bend under some willows I noticed a pool the size of a
bath tub. After taking 15 minutes walking slowly toward the hole I cast
the Redtail kebari right in the center of the hole. Twitching the fly
causing it to dance the hackle I got a soft hit. I immediately set the
hook but I was too late, HaHaHa. I tried again and got another hit this
time I gently lifted the rod's tip and the fish dove down, but much to
its chagrin it was hooked! It took and eternity to bring in close enough
to net, but when I netted it it didn't fit in the net; it was hanging
out of both sides! So, I dropped my rod using my other hand to grab it. I
was amazed; it was huge! I have marks on my net handle for measuring
length and after comparing the fish to the ruler it was 22 inches. I was
so impressed with the massively large fish in such a small hole. I was
pumped! I continued fishing the same hole and pulled out another 3 fish,
all of them on a size 12 Redtail kebari. Tom, thanks for your fly review.
I use the Grey kebari, Redtail kebari and the Killer Bug exclusively
now and have not been skunked yet.
Justin Stevens
Star Valley, WY
I thought that was pretty neat. He sure has some beautiful fish in Star Valley. I need to get over there and fish some waters with Justin! As far as the flies, I too have found these flies to be very productive for my waters.
Has anyone else had success with these patterns? They are very simple to tie, robust, and most importantly, catch fish!!
If any of you have stories with these flies, let me know and I'll post them as well! Thanks Justin!
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