Adirondack Inspiration



Ausable Sakasa Kebari

Well, the leaves are all just about off the trees and the fishing has not been as frequent (or productive) as I would like but there are other things to look forward in the near future.  For one, turkey day is right around the corner.  The other thing to look forward to is more time at the fly tying snack tray table.  Quite often I have ideas floating around in my head (easy for them to float in there with all the extra space) for new flies that I want to tie.  I even keep a little moleskin notebook to jot down sketches and notes when ideas come to me.  The idea for the fly above, which I call an Ausable Sakasa Kebari, came to me a couple of weeks ago when I was tying some Ausable Bombers (there is great info on them at http://www.smallstreamreflections.blogspot.com/).  The Ausable Bomber, as well as the Haystack, the Usual, and Ausable Wulff were all creations by the late Fran Betters.  All of Fran's patterns are made from simple materials that suggest many types of insects that trout feed on.  These patterns have proved very effective on waters around the world beyond the rivers of the Adirondacks in upstate New York where they were first developed.  I plan to spend more time in a future post talking about his flies, but I digress.  Since I like Fran's flies and Tenkara flies such as the sakasa kebari, I thought I would combine aspects of the two.  The result is the Ausable Sakasa Kebari.  I look forward to using it on my next trip to the Adirondacks but I will probably use it before that the next time I'm home looking for small stream brookies.  For those who may be interested in tying some the recipe is below.

Ausable Sakasa Kebari

Hook: Mustad C49S

Thread: Uni-thread 6/0 fire orange

Hackle: brown Hungarian partridge

Body: dubbed with Australian opossum dyed rusty orange

Tail: woodchuck guard hairs