Kimono Silk - Not Just For Rod Wraps!

Using Kimono Silk For Fly Tying - Adrian Southall

About a year ago, I noticed Fortitude Rod Co stocks high-quality Japanese kimono silk threads. It got me thinking that they might be ideal for a new batch of spiders and wets I’d planned to tie.

Spider patterns are essentially silk with a small amount of feather, so the kimono threads immediately seemed suited to classics like the Partridge & Orange or the Snipe & Purple. Wet flies are a little more involved, but I still rely on silk for the abdomen, and the Kimono range includes several colours I now use regularly – Golden Pavilion, Prickly Pear, Rising Sun, Pagoda, and Wasabi among them.

When my order arrived, I compared the colours directly to the Pearsall’s Gossamer palette, and they matched up well. On the vise, the Kimono silk handled cleanly, laid smoothly on the hook, and had better tensile strength than I expected.

The first patterns I tied with it fished well throughout the season, and Kimono-silk spiders now have a permanent place in my box.

From a practical standpoint, Pearsall’s Gossamer is around £6 for a small spool and is often hard to find. Kimono silk from Fortitude comes in at £5.95 per reel, but with three to four times the material, making it good value.

Overall, kimono silk is a solid alternative for spiders and wets and works well for plenty of other patterns too. I’ve used it on small salmon flies, and even on dries and emergers for ribbing or simple trigger points or flash.

It’s become a new, reliable and versatile go-to material on my tying desk.

To see the range of Kimono silk click HERE