t.z. | Friday, 6 November 2015
Friday again — fly tying time. I hope you have had a chance to look at the previous instalments of the SFTS (Sexyloops Fly Tying School). The SFTS is a modular concept. I will go through techniques, rather than patterns. I use fly pattern to show the use of the various techniques, but please feel free to try them with other materials, colours and sizes.
Todays fly is the Red Tag. Maybe one of the most effective dry flies around. I know many who fish it for trout and grayling.
So let´s recap what we have done so far:
In part 2 we talked about THREAD. How to attach it to the hook and how to finish the fly with a whip finish knot. What happens when it breaks and so on. Check it out if you haven´t done that already. http://www.sexyloops.com/index.php/ps/sexyloops-fly-tying-school-part-2-thread
Than we right away hopped in to cold water tying a tiny little dry fly - the black gnat. A killer pattern by the way. This fly features a technique I use very often - twisting brittle stuff around the thread to reinforce the construction. Part 3 - http://www.sexyloops.com/index.php/ps/sexyloops-fly-tying-school-part-3-your-first-fly
In part 4 that „twisting-brittle-around-sturdy“ technique is used again to tie the famous Pheasant Tail Nymph in it´s original way Two new modules were added as well. The TAIL, and the WING CASE module, if you so will. Part 4 - http://www.sexyloops.com/index.php/ps/sexyloops-fly-tying-school-part-4-ptn
So in part 5 - we put the „TBAS“ technique into use again. The Red Tag is consisting of three parts. Tail, body and hackle. The tail is made from red wool, the body consists of peacock herl and the hackle is done with a cock feather. Pretty straight forward. If you have mastered the Black Gnat, the Red Tag will be piece of cake. It is a „separated“ Gnat if you so will.
Attached a set of images I took quite a while ago - as you can tell by the rusty vice. No worries, I got a new one ;-)

hook in vice

red wool for tag / tail

cover the wool

peacock herl

twist herl and thread

and wind this onto the hook

and secure

tie in hackle feather

tie down the stem ..

bend the stem backwards and ....

with thread ... this secures the hackle very well

so well that you can simply "rip" of the stem remains

wind feather and thread around each other

and wind this onto the hook

separate feather and thread

whip finish

done - the Red Tag

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