The fly box · No. 13 of 36
Red Tag
Nothing exactly; a fancy fly, possibly taken for a small beetle.
- Kind
- Dry
- Hook sizes
- 14–18
- Season
- Summer, autumn, winter
- For
- Grayling and trout
- At the vice
- An easy tie
The dressing
| Hook | Standard dry fly, barbless or barb flattened, sizes 14–18; a heavier wet-fly hook for the sunk version |
|---|---|
| Thread | Black or brown, 8/0 (70 denier) |
| Tail | A short tag of bright red wool |
| Body | Bronze peacock herl, two or three strands, fairly plump |
| Rib | None; fine gold wire may be added for strength |
| Hackle | Natural red (red-brown) cock for the dry; soft hen of the same colour for the wet |
| Wing | None |
Tying it
- Run the thread to the bend and tie in a length of red wool on top of the shank.
- Trim the wool to a stub no longer than the hook gape.
- Tie in two or three peacock herls by their tips and twist them around the thread.
- Wind the herl rope forward to form a plump body, stopping short of the eye.
- Tie in the hackle and wind three or four turns.
- Whip finish and varnish the head.
Fishing it
From September through the frosts, fish it dry over rising grayling on steady glides, using 6X (0.13 mm) and a soft lift when the fly goes. If nothing shows, tie on the hen-hackled wet and let it swing gently across the tail of a pool, or fish it upstream as you would a spider. Grayling often rise from deep water and miss; rest the fish a minute and cast again. Trout on small streams accept it as a beetle.
Where it comes from
The Red Tag is usually traced to Worcestershire in the middle of the nineteenth century, where it was first known as the Worcester Gem, and it later became a favourite on the Yorkshire grayling rivers. Three materials make it: a stub of red wool, a peacock herl body and a red-brown hackle. Grayling have a weakness for a touch of red.