Zenmai or Fiddlehead Fern

Zenmai or Fiddlehead Fern

by Terry Stoddard

I first read about using the cotton harvested off a young fiddlehead fern for dubbing on Yoshikazu Fujioka’s “Trouts and Seasons of the Mountain Village in Japan – My Best Streams” site. On his site Mr. Fujioka writes that the fern cotton is a traditional material for tenkara flies and that it has waterproof qualities. This was all it took for me to become interested in using it for my own flies.

Young fern shoots have a head that resembles the head of a violin, hence the name fiddlehead. Many different species of fern are covered in the cotton like fluff you are looking for when they are in the fiddlehead stage. These can be found throughout the U.S. and many other countries.

Harvesting is simple, you want to start looking in the spring, when all plants are starting to sprout new leaves. I found mine near streams and swamps, leading me to believe that they like a moist environment. Once you find some, simply peel the fluff off gently. Its easiest to remove just the loose stuff. It does not take much time to get a good supply, I spent about half an hour gathering enough to last me a year or two. After gathering, there is a drying time. Mine took about a month to turn into a light tan color with sort of an orange tint.

After drying, the fluff has a stiff, crumbly feel to it. To apply I first roll what I need to use between my thumb and index finger until it loosens up a little. After this, the cotton rolls onto your thread easily and stays there well. Wrap it around the hook shaft to form your body and your done. When on the hook the fluff has a fuzzy look to it that gives your fly a nice buggy appearance.

Fisherman who tie their own flies are always looking for new materials and techniques. The fiddlehead fern gives the angler an opportunity to experiment while paying tribute to Japanese tenkara fishers.

Tying the Takayama Sakasa Kebari

Tying the Takayama Sakasa Kebari

by Terry Stoddard

To start, tie on your thread at the eye and wrap it back about two thirds the way down the shank. Now bring the thread up to about the halfway point of the hook and start building a tapered head from there to the eye. You only want to build the head up about half as thick as you want it to be when finished.

About one third down the shank, tie in your hackle with the con-caved, dull side of the feather facing you. I used chicken to tie this fly, but I prefer partridge or India hen. I try to select hackle that is about two hook gaps wide, but I don’t get too picky with these flies.

Trim the feather stem and finish building up your tapered head from the hackle tie in point to the hook eye. Now wrap your thread back behind the hackle. With the con-caved side of the hackle facing the eye, wrap your hackle towards the bend until you get the desired thickness. Tie off and trim.

With your thumb and forefinger start stroking the hackle forward to the hook eye. It may take a few strokes, but eventually all the barbules will start to face forward. With your tying hand, hold the hackle down and start wrapping the thread around the base of the feather with the opposite hand to you get your desired angle. Now build up the rest of your body till it’s slightly thinner than the finished fly.

Tie in a single piece of peacock herl a bit behind the hackle. Wrap it forward and back till you get a nice collar. Now tie off and trim.

Finish building a nice tapered body with your thread until you get the shape your after. I leave a small gap in the thread at the very rear for the whip finish. During the whip finish I use enough turns to fill the gap.

Add a small drop of cement to the knot and you are done.

To tie a standard Sakasa Kebari, skip the peacock herl and build up the thread body.