{{start}}

Only some of the things that trout eat have tails and often the tail is very small.

Despite that many of the wet flies that we tie have a tail.

In most cases tails are tied into dry flies as an extension of the body and are generally incorporated in the fly design to give the fly some additional movement. If a tail is incorporated in a wet fly it is generally of much softer material than would have been used for a dry fly and for full tails as opposed to tags are generally equal between the length of the hook and these days up to 5 times the length of the hook shank.

If your fishing flies slow its probably worth avoiding making tails too long because sometimes the fish will hit the movement of the tail and miss the hook completely. This is often referred to as a "short take" or "taking short". In the last few years fishing flies like Woolly Buggers stripped fast or even what is known as roly polie has become very popular and a lot of the flies fish in that style are much longer.

The most common types of materials for wet fly tails include. marabou, synthetics, squirrel, possum and calf tail and of course hackle fibres.

The technique for tying in tails on wet flies for a right handed fly tier are set out below. If you are left handed please remember to switch the instructions around.

Good marabou tails are a real bonus to a wet fly because they have a lot of movement.

Process

A	Whilst marabou is relatively inexpensive and readily available not all that is sold for fly tying is well suited for tying marabou tails. Often the tips of the marabou feather has barbules that are thin and wispy and do not move in the water. What your looking for is marabou feathers that has barbules barbules that have flue all the way to the tip. These make much better tails than the thin and wispy type because they react to water movement much better.

B	Stroke the marabou back toward the but of the quill so that the tips of the barbules are aligned and cut out a manageable section of barbules. You may want to dampen the marabou to make it more manageable.Hold the marabou against the hook with your right hand to check the length. For a woolly bugger on a long shank hook target a tail between 1 to 2 times the length to the length of the hook but if the hook is a shorter style such as used in the Magoo then a tail 4 or 5 times the length of the hook is not uncommon..

C	Once you are satisfied with the position of the marabou without moving the marabou take hold of them firmly with the thumb and forefinger of your left hand against the top of the shank of the hook at the tie in position.

D	Without releasing your left hand grip on the marabou and the hook shank take the bobbin up with your right hand and use the fly tiers pinch to secure the marabou into position.

E	If the marabou tail is not heavy enough repeat step D until the tail has enough structure to work well. By working well I am referring to interacting with water movement to attract fish. If the tail is too light it will have movement but will be harder for fish to see. If the tail is too dense movement may be limited. Experience will help you make the correct judgment. This tail was tied with about 2cm of marabou from the bottom of the two feathers in step A above.

F	To complete the tail add a couple of fibres of crystal or pearl fibre to each side of the tail. To minimize wastage take a single length of flash material. Double it up and hold it against the tail with your right hank with the tips extending the same distance as the tail.

G	Once you are satisfied with the position of the flash material without moving the flash material  take hold of them firmly with the thumb and forefinger of your left hand against the top of the shank of the hook at the tie in position. Without releasing your left hand grip on the flash material and the hook shank take the bobbin up with your right hand and use the fly tiers pinch to secure the flash material into position. It is a simple matter to then fold the loop end of the flash material over the shank of the hook with the loop trailing down the opposite side of the tail. Take a couple of wraps of thread to secure the flash material into place.

H	Finally trim the end of the loop in the flash material off so that there are two fibres of flash material on each side of the fly.

{{end}}