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I think that the Zulu tied with a black hackled body and a red tag has origins that go back to circa 1600 England. Not only a great dry fly but also a fantastic top dropper fly for loch style fly fishing. The original features a wool tail and probably a wool body with both the body hackle and front hackle being cock. I have changed the materials to include a couple of my fly tying favourites namely marabou for the tail, peacock herl for the body and a crow breast feather up front. If you swap the front feather to a blue feather such as swamp hen or a smallish peacock breast feather you have the also popular blue Zulu.

Materials

Process

A	Wind the thread in touching turns to the bend of the hook. Understanding hooks Tie in an tag tail  about as long as the bite of the hook. Tag tails Tie in the ribbing material at the bend of the hook.

B	Tie in a couple of stands of peacock herl along the top of the hook shank. Form the peacock herl and the thread into a herl rope. Roping peacock herl

C	Wind the herl rope forward to the 95% position forming a plumpish body. Tie a hackle in the middle of the gap between the body and the eye of the hook. The ideal hackle should be good quality dry hackle and should  have barbules equal in length to the gape of the hook. Dry fly hackles

D	Wind the hackle back along the hook making 4 or 5 segments. Hold the hackle firmly in place with one hand and pick the ribbing material up with the other.

E	Wind the ribbing material firmly forward so that it locks the hackle in place and forming between 4 or 5 segments along the body. Body segments on flies Take an extra wrap of the ribbing material behind the eye of the hook and worry off the excess Tie a soft hackle in by the tip. Wet fly hackles

F	Cut away the hackle tip. Take two full turns of the hackle.

G	Stroke the hackle barbules back and lock them in position with a few wraps of thread. Build up a neat head of thread. Neat heads on flies Whip finish and varnish the head of the fly.

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