Tag

"The Tag"

Intro: The loose ends tied on the underside of a hook for the first part of any fly should be trimmed just short of the wing and head space. A common mistake is not to leave enough room for the wing and head, you should consider this space immediately on starting a fly. You can practice by visualizing an imaginary space of at least double the size of a finished fly head then leave this space free from materials. If you use these, and the other visual measurements mentioned in this tutorial, everytime you tie a fly your fly tying will become more consistent.
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	Click for full size	Diagram 1 In our first two lessons we looked at starting a fly and finishing a fly this lesson looks at Tags. Catch in your thread at the eye end of the hook and wind along to the bend. This forms a bed for all your other materials and prevents them from slipping. Catch in a piece of Oval Silver Tinsel under the hook and wind the thread up to the mark (A) which is directly above the point of the barb. Wind the thread back to (B) in line with the hook point. Wind on your tinsel in close touching turns and stop at (B) tying the loose end under the hook as before. Tying loose ends on the underside of the hook keeps the body even and helps stop loose ends being visible on the finished fly. The distance between (A) and (B) is a standard size for a tag. Be sure to trim the ends short of the head of the fly. This area needs to be kept as free as possible from unnecessary materials leaving you room to tie in the wing and hackle etc.
	Diagram 2 When a tag of two parts is required usually the first part is tinsel and the second part floss. This is shown on diagram 2 with the points of measurement being slightly different. The tinsel measurement (A) to (B) is the length of the barb which works out about three turns of tinsel. The floss section taken from (B) to (C) is the length of the actual hook point. Note that the combined tag length is exactly the same as diagram 1. Catch in the materials underneath the hook and trim of at the same length keeping the body shape even. If the body is uneven it is very difficult to get the body materials or the thread to lie properly especially flat tinsel or lurex bodies. When winding thread onto the hook to catch in materials, take a minamilist approach and do not wind on more turns than you need as this creates an uneven fly.	Click for full size

Step by step photographic lessons of Salmon Flies are in my eBook

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