Red Tag
by Luca Montanari Materials list:
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| Very few dry flies for fishing grayling are so widespread in the world as the Red Tag. What makes this artificial successful is not the imitative qualities of the materials used for building it; but correctly matched together they trigger the predatory instincts of the fish.
The advent of cul-de-canard into the fly tying field has meant a radical transformation of specific artificials for grayling, and has diminished the notoriety of the Red Tag. It must underlined, however, that a keen fish accustomed to flies made with the “magical feather” can be an easy victim of this extraordinary fly. In agreement with this fact, the “ancient” Reg Tag should always be present in our box, ready to be used when “modern” artificials seem ineffective. |
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| THE DRESSING | |
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Step 1:
The Red Tag can be tied in very short time and without any particular effort. Anyone, therefore, also people with modest experience in vice work, can realise excellent patterns of this artificial. I start the building process by inserting the hook into the vice jaw and binding the black thread onto the shank, which I use for fixing a small tuft of red floss in proximity of the bend |
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Step 2: Next, I tie in, on the fixing point of the tail, the extremity of a piece of small flat gold tinsel. I wrap the tinsel around a short section of the hook shank in order to create a small tag. |
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Step 3:
In front of the tag, I secure the tips of three peacock tail herls. Using the hackle pliers, I seize the peacock tail herls by their base and then I turn them around the two rear thirds of the hook shank to create the Red Tag body. |
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Step 4: In front of the body, I tie in two natural red hackles, the fibres of which must be nearly as long as the hook shank. |
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Step 5:
With the hackle pliers, I wrap the hackles around the front third of the hook shank, one after the other, and I form the fluffy collar of the fly. |
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Step 6: I realise the fly head with a few turns of the black thread and then I finish it with a whip-finish. |
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Step 7:
With a coat of clear varnish over the head, I prevent the thread of untying itself. This also increases the resistance of the fly. |
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Step 8: I complete the Red Tag with a neat cut along the tail, in order to reduce the floss length to two or three millimetres. |
(The Red Tag is one of the 88 flies described in the Luca’s book entitled “Flies – Mosche da pesca”. To get more information about it click on http://www.edolimpia.it/lev_1/libri/catalogo/5050202.htm or send an e-mail to libri@edolimpia.it ).
Although it’s written in Italian, it should be interesting to many fly tiers due to the many excellent photographs.
Luca Montanari