A Hot Spot for a Cold Winter's Day

Aki Hot Spot

It's been a while but I'm still here.  I have been meaning to write a post for quite some time but holidays, new job, you know.......life seems to have gotten in the way.  I'm still tying flies in my spare time, trying to pass the winter away. Tying flies is about all you can do when the temps are rarely getting out of the teens and things are frozen solid.  This winter has given me a little time to tie a few flies out of my comfort zone and do something I have always liked to do with flies....experiment.  The fly pictured above is just such an experiment.  I call it a "Aki Hot Spot."  It's short for Akiyamago Yamada Kebari Hot Spot, which is a type of tenkara dry fly.  This type of fly and it's simple construction is consistent with tenkara's philosophy of simplicity. It primarily consists of a dry fly hackle wrapped from the bend to the eye of the hook. Once the hackle is tied on, the back 1/2 to 2/3 of the fly gets a "hair cut" to form the body of the fly. For my Hot Spot I tied the fly using a size 12 black dry fly hackle on a size 12 #1280 Daiichi dry fly hook.  The tail consists of woodchuck guard hairs.  My favorite part, at least it will be for my eyes when it hits the stream, is the hot spot I added. The hot spot is a dry fly hackle which has been dyed chartreuse. The Aki Hot Spot is a simple fly to tie and I'm looking forward to casting it a few times when New York eventually thaws out.