Dennis Vander Houwen's "Matchstick Sakasa Kebari"

This last month in messing around at my fly bench I came up with what I think is a pretty good looking fly. I love this fly design enough to adopt it as my new "one fly"  or "go to fly" for the next few years to come. The design is appealing to me and in the few times I have fished it, it seems to be appealing to the fish as well.

I am excited by the design for some esthetic reasons too. It just looks a little like an antique fly design. It is humble and yet practical with its splash of red thorax to catch the eye of the discerning trout.

For a long time now I have experimented with using sharpie markers to dye thread while tying flies, resulting in a unique design. The fly I cam e up with was, named by Amanda Hoffner as "Matchstick Sakasa Kebari". Its desing resembles a matchstick with a red head and the hackles resembling sparks.

MATERIALS
Size 12 straight shank hook.
Cotton sewing thread in tan, beige or my original choice of gold.
Medium stiff grizzly hackle or mix it up with what you have on hand.
Red Sharpie marker


To tie the fly, follow these steps:

1. With hook in the vise, build up a thread head just behind the hook eye and trim the tag end.
2. Wrap the thread down the hook shank towards the bend, then return towards the head, stopping at the fly's head.
3. Tie in the tip of a soft hackle hen feather, cupping its bend it towards the front of the fly in sakasa fashion. 4-5 wraps is enough. Lock it in with thread wraps.
4. Brush the hackle forward more and secure it with additional thread wraps. Trim any stray feathers and trim off the remaining tag end of the hackle feather.
5. Using the red sharpie marker, dye the next 6" of thread with the marker until it is colored completely red.
6. Wrap this section of red thread onto the base of the hackle, creating a small red thorax behind the feathers until the red thread runs out and the gold thread resumes.
7. Continue wrapping tightly with the gold thread, moving towards the bend, then return wrapping the thread back towards the front of the fly up to the red thorax. Finish with a whip finish, cut the thread, and slightly push back the hackle around the eye of the hook.
   
   For added clarity, see the video below.

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I will be offering these flies soon on my etsy store.