How To Tie Tape Wing Sedges

A good few years ago I saw a guy tying up a wing on a sedge made from scotch tape and was quite impressed with its shape, durability and that you could colour it in to suit any sedge and get the markings exactly as the natural one. Up on till then I was using different materials to make my sedge wing with some form of glue to try and create the shape of the wing I was looking for. 
Finding these wings was a revelation for me, I could cut the shape of my wings to suit exactly what was on the water and match the colour also and I could do all this on the river bank. I also find that these sedge's float exceptional well due to the air pocket that is trapped between the wing, under-wing and body.
To begin you need the following materials;  a spool of scotch tape this can be found in most hardware's  some Jan Siman Oliver Edwards caddis legs, CDC, and some permanent markers. 

To begin start of on the hook as normal and tie in the end of caddis legs brush and wind back up the hook brushing back the fibers when you get to the eye of the hook. I used Olive twist tying thread for this fly and a Hends 404 size 10 hook.

Pick the colour of the CDC and tie in two or three feathers flat on top of the body. This will help support the wing and create that air pocket under the wing to help it float in any water.

Then take you tape and on the sticky side place some CDC fibers till it is no longer sticky. This creates almost like veins on the wings once you fold it over as you can see from the picture on the right. Fold the section of tape in half and measure the length of the wing you desire to match the size of the natural fly and cut to the shape of a sedge wing. This also can be adjusted on the river bank and cut it to the length to match the natural fly.


Open out the folded wing and place on top of the CDC that you tied in.
Once the wing is secure you can add a hackle or a pair of horns to finish off the fly.

Once the build of the fly is complete then all you have to do is colour in the tape wing to match the natural fly on the water or leave natural in some cases like if you are tying moths with white caddis legs under the wing. 

The best thing I find about these wings is they don't break up to easy and don't cost to much. You can colour them in and cut them to get the exact shape and tone to match the naturals on the river or lake.

I hope you enjoy tying with these wings and have some good success on the flies next season. If you would like to follow this blog and see what I am doing next you can sign in your details to the right. Thank you for reading the post and if you have any question just pop them into the comment box and ill do my best to answer them for you, thanks again.