Chris Stewart wrote:
The Akiyamago kebari uses dry fly hackle but is generally fished wet. With no floatant and no false casting, it will float for the first drift or two, but will then fish just a few inches under the surface. The stiff hackle helps resist the pull of the line, helping to keep the line off the water's surface. With a short line and a high rod tip, you can keep it at the surface, and if fished downstream you can skate it on the surface. Without floatant, though, you can fish it on the surface one cast and sink it in a plunge pool the next. It is a very versatile fly.
Early on, nearly all the tenkara flies that anyone in the US knew about were the sakasa style (hackle slanting forward). Many Japanese tenkara flies have upright dry fly hackle but we here are only recently giving them the attention they deserve.
Thank You Sir for the tips on different ways to present an Akiyamago fly! I had sprayed it with silicone boot waterproofing and was presenting it as a dry fly; the Coastal Cutties were eating it up.