The Red Tag has been thoroughly adopted as a must have Tasmanian pattern. As a nondescript dry fly the Red Tag has no equal through the summer months when 'polaroiding' the clear lake flats. With an abundance of terrestrial beetles blown in from surrounding bushland, Tasmanian browns are opportunistic surface feeders and the Red Tag combines hackle, peacock herl and bright red tag to make an irresistible fly.

Material:

1.  Wind the thread from the 95% position in touching turns to the bend of the hook

2.  Tie in a tag of red wool that is about as long as the gape of the hook

3.  Tie in several strands of peacock herl. It is best to tie in an equal number of herl and to tie half in from the butt end after trimming of the white butt section and the other half by the tip/s. By doing this you avoid a situation, particularly with poorer quality herl, of the finished body showing nice wide flue (Flue = the small individual fibres on the Peacock herl or Ostrich herl) at one end of the body and poor thin flue at the other end of the body.

4.  Wind the herls around the silk to form a herl rope.  

5. Tie in 1 or 2 red cock hackles depending on their length and quality. The barbs on the hackle should be around 1¼ times the gape of the hook.

6.  Build up the head whip finish & varnish. Wind the hackle forward in touching turns but stopping short of the eye of the hook so as to leave room for the head. Tie the hackle off and trim the loose end.