Tenkara TalkTenkara Talk
Tenkara Talk
a tenkara fly fishing blog
Search TenkaraTalk
  • Home
  • Tenkara Gear
    • Tenkara Rods
    • Tenkara Lines
    • Flies
    • Line Holders & Spools
    • Fly Boxes
    • Nets
    • Packs, Organization & Storage
    • Clothing & Accessories
    • Wading Gear
  • How-To & Resources
    • What is Tenkara?
    • Tenkara 101
    • Presentation Techniques
    • Streamcraft
    • Tenkara Videos
    • Fly Tying
    • Knots
    • DIY & Hacks
    • Warmwater Tenkara
    • Books & Media
  • News & Fun
    • Trip Reports
    • Interviews
    • Philosophy
    • Humor
    • Art
    • Tenkara News
    • Events
  • Tenkara Links
  • About Me
  • Contact
FacebookTwitterYouTubePinterestInstagram
  • Home
  • Tenkara Gear
    • Tenkara Rods
    • Tenkara Lines
    • Flies
    • Line Holders & Spools
    • Fly Boxes
    • Nets
    • Packs, Organization & Storage
    • Clothing & Accessories
    • Wading Gear
  • How-To & Resources
    • What is Tenkara?
    • Tenkara 101
    • Presentation Techniques
    • Streamcraft
    • Tenkara Videos
    • Fly Tying
    • Knots
    • DIY & Hacks
    • Warmwater Tenkara
    • Books & Media
  • News & Fun
    • Trip Reports
    • Interviews
    • Philosophy
    • Humor
    • Art
    • Tenkara News
    • Events
  • Tenkara Links
  • About Me
  • Contact

Tying with Zenmai

February 2, 201510 CommentsFly TyingBy Jason Klass

I first heard about zenmai a few years ago in a blog post from Tenkara USA. What is zenmai? It’s a fuzzy fiber that grows on sprouting fern plants in the spring and Japanese anglers use it as dubbing material. It might seem strange to use vegetation as a tying material, but it actually makes quite good dubbing.

One thing I really like about zenmai is the color. It’s a beautiful carmel/brown with some light and dark variegation mixed in. As I said in a previous post, there’s just something about the elegant aesthetic nuances of natural materials that can’t be matched by the modern dying process. It’s almost like dying a natural material strips it of its soul.

Since ferns are common pretty much everywhere, I’ve always vowed to forage for them here in Colorado and collect my own zenmai. But the timing never seemed to work out, so I gave up and ordered a package from a Japanese company called Tenkara Ya. As you can see, this material is very dense and you get a lot in a small bag (probably enough to tie a couple hundred flies).

Tying Tenkara flies with zenmai

Here are just a few sample flies I’ve tied but I plan to experiment a lot more…

Tenkara fly with zenmai body

Tenkara fly with zenmai body

Tenkara fly with zenmai body

3 Tips for Tying with Zenmai

Zenmai has a reputation for being somewhat difficult to work with, but it really isn’t if you follow these tips.

1. Fluff it up. Since it’s so dense, if you just pull a clump straight off and dub it, the body will come out lumpy and uneven. Instead, use a dubbing rake or comb to fluff up the fibers and thin them out first. In the photo below, the left side is the dubbing right out of the bag and on the right is what it looks like fluffed up. It’s best to try to keep the fibers in tact and not break them into little pieces so they wrap around the thread tighter.

Tying Tenkara flies with zenmai

2. Use dubbing wax. I almost never use dubbing wax on my flies, but it makes a big difference when working with zenmai. The fibers are courser than most of the furs we typically use for dubbing and don’t stick to the thread well. Dubbing wax will make it stick to the thread better and form a smoother body. I use Swax but pretty much any wax will do.

3. Use less than you think. A lot less. A little zenmai goes a long way. Use a very sparse amount otherwise you’ll end up with a body that’s thicker than you wanted. I was really surprised at how little I needed to make a relatively thick body. One of my early fly tying mentors once told me, “put as much dubbing on the thread as you think you need. Now, remove half.” And that’s probably a good rule of thumb for zenmai.

Why use Zenmai?

I can’t see any practical advantages to using zenmai other than I like the color and I think it’s fun to experiment with unusual tying materials. I think it would be fun to harvest your own too–giving a nice back story to the flies you tie with it. I don’t know the history of zenmai, but I imagine it’s got something to do with how most of the gear in tenkara originated; early tenkara anglers cut off from the outside world had to make do with what they had readily available and be resourceful. So if that fuzz on a fern works to tie a fly, why not use it? Not sure if that’s what really happened. But it’s a nice story.

If you’ve tied with zenmai, post some pics below…

tenkaratenkara fly tyingtying with zenmaizenmaizenmai tenkara
About the author

Jason Klass

Jason is an avid fly angler and backpacker. As a former fly fishing guide originally from Western New York, he moved to Colorado and became an early adopter of tenkara which perfectly suited the small, high altitude streams and lakes there. He has not fished a Western-style fly rod for trout since.

Like this article? You might also like these ...
Vicuna Alpaca Dubbing
Vicuña Dubbing
September 4, 2020
Surviving COVID Through FLy Tying
COVID Tenkara Fly Tying
July 5, 2020
Sources for Tenkara Fly Tying Materials
October 25, 2019
Tenkara Flies by Jason Sparks
Jason Sparks on Tenkara Fly Tying
September 4, 2019
Reusing Fly Tying Hooks
Resurrecting Flies
July 1, 2019
Shetland Spindrift Yarn Tenkara Flies
Simple Yarn Tenkara Flies
April 6, 2019
10 Comments
  1. February 2, 2015 at 3:05 pm
    zoan

    Early to mid may is fern time in central Wisconsin, if your lucky you can also find moral mushrooms. When I pick “fiddleheads” they have a white fiber covering them, is this what they make that dubbing with?
    Fiddleheads, moral mushrooms and fresh caught brooktrout make a wonderful streamside lunch.

  2. February 2, 2015 at 3:37 pm
    Jason Klass

    Hey Zoan,

    About the “white fiber”, I believe the color changes depending on the timing. I’ve never tried Fiddleheads but they look delicious.

  3. February 2, 2015 at 10:59 pm
    Lynn David

    Indiana has at least 8 genera of ferns and I’ve found at least 4 of them in my woods at my farmhouse. Those that thrive the best are mostly on the north facing slopes of the hollows. But I have never seen the fuzz on young shoots in any color but white – maybe an off-white. Maybe it changes color after you pick it off the shoots? You could always buy the Japanese fern and plant it to get the color you want, it is readily available. Though I wonder if a nutrient in the soil might be what changes the color? I also wonder if the Japanese fern has a more robust zenmai than any American fern.

    Let’s see…. $7/5 grams is about $600/lb (figuring a bit off for waste). That’s about the price of so-so ginseng root. But getting a pound of the stuff would probably take a week and by then the ferns would be shed of it and it might be rotting. Might have to check it out this spring.

  4. February 3, 2015 at 2:01 am
    Jason Klass

    Lynn, I think this is the species from Japan that seems to have the caramel color fuzz: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Osmunda_japonica

    But it seems like other species in the U.S. have that color too: http://www.wildernesscollege.com/fiddlehead-ferns.html

    Really don’t know what I’m talking about here so it would be great if someone with botanical knowledge could weigh in. Not sure if the color is dependent on the species or the time of harvest.

  5. February 3, 2015 at 6:15 am
    Lynn David

    Yeah, I’ve got those genera of ferns. I’ve just never seen anything but white zenmai on the sprouts. That is why I was wondering if it is a nutrient that might be missing. My soils are loessal which means they are basically quartz silt and ground-up, wind-blown limestone from the glacial valley train to my west and are thus rather basic (non-acidic) soils. Could be missing something with that, I was thinking probably iron which would tend to a more acidic soil. I’ve had to dump pounds of chelated iron around some evergreens to get them to grow.

  6. February 3, 2015 at 11:26 am
    Eric

    Jason Good evening,
    Yes, the Zemmai is really great as materials, it makes some months I also used successfully and raised on fish must say what name ever seen such a material
    My editing and fact on Hooks Eyellees 7.5 zemmai the body and chest Peacock herls the hackle and a hen feather pardo

  7. February 3, 2015 at 12:25 pm
    Jason Klass

    Eric, that is a beautiful fly!

  8. February 3, 2015 at 12:55 pm
    Eric

    Thank you Jason

  9. February 9, 2015 at 6:43 am
    David

    Yuu’s Kenbane Zenmaidou Tying Movie

    http://petauro.hatenablog.com/entry/2014/11/05/185114 .

    D

  10. February 9, 2015 at 9:50 pm
    David

    http://www.hi-ho.ne.jp/amago/b-streams/flytying/zenmai.html .

Leave Comment

Cancel reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

You may use these HTML tags and attributes: <a href="" title=""> <abbr title=""> <acronym title=""> <b> <blockquote cite=""> <cite> <code> <del datetime=""> <em> <i> <q cite=""> <s> <strike> <strong>

clear formSubmit

About Me

Jason Klass is a former fly fishing guide & casting instructor based in Colorado. He was an early adopter of tenkara in the West and has been fishing the method for a variety of species since 2009. Read more >>

TenkaraTalk Sponsors
Tenkara USA   Dragontail Tenkara     TAO Tenkara   Tenkara Tanuki Tenkara Fisher
Search by Category
Send Jason an Email
Search TenkaraTalk
Tenkara Talk Archives
Tenkara + Backpacking!
Is there any other sport that goes better with tenkara than hiking and backpacking? Be sure to also check out my ultralight and DIY backpacking gear blog.

Tenkara and Backpacking
Latest Posts
  • Tenkara Book
    Tenkara Today Book Review
    November 7, 2020
  • Tenkara Tanuki Retractor
    Tenkara Tanuki Retractor
    October 28, 2020
  • Hoo Rag
    The Hoo Rag
    September 23, 2020
© 2019 | TenkaraTalk by Jason Klass | All rights reserved