Flyguy66, I don't really have a dog in this hunt as I don't have any Tenkara gear and I have no emotional involvement in this thread. I have watched my soft hackles in very clear water, as I try to do with all my sub-surface flies. When fishing a traditional soft hackle back upstream, they do tend to lose most hackle movement due to the hackle appearing to be more or less plastered to the body. As I understand thnigs, they weren't really meant to be fished that way but rather fished downstream. I'll let one of our more experienced and more expert anglers comment as to that point. I have not had much luck fishing soft hackles against the current. I have had much greater luck fishing upstream with a soft hackle-style fly tied with one or two wraps of dry fly hackle. Those hackles seem to be stiff enough to stand up to the currents where I have fished and move enough water to attract a few fish. Like I said, I don't have time to add Tenkara fishing to what I do because I get out seldom enough as it is.
Regards,
Ed
Edit: I realized that the way that I posted this reads the exact opposite of my intent. I should have said that retrieving soft hackles upstream seemed to kill all of the movement. I feel that soft hackles should be cast upstream and fished on a drag-free dead drift. My apologies for any confusion.
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