"Tags" for different weight flies?

[chris williams]

I put a dot of appropriate Koki pen colour on top of the finished thread head
and use a lighter colour system if it's black or dark thread. I usually only use three codes. When I get the fly out I weight it in my hand by throwing it up and down and if all feels OK I put it on the leader and see how if performs wet in the shallows before fishing with it. Just a few thoughts from my side

[MyWorld]

Hmmmm, split shots..... now there is something worth looking into!

Might make for the least confusion.

[chris williams]

Paint them fluo orange and add a hook to them for ultra-fast egg pattern...

[GGY]

Hi guys

I have read in a couple of books where guys tie in a tag to indentify different weight flies. Some use differnent colour threads, others use nail varnice, etc.

I keep it simple - flies are either unweighted by design (eg softhackles), non-beaded (standard nymphs - a couple of turns of lead in the thorax), or have either a brass bead (light weight) or tungsten bead (heavy weight).

That said, I normally fish tungsten and would rather go to a size SMALLER tungsten than the same size fly with a brass bead (I fish tungstens down to #20). The smaller (but denser) tungsten gets down better than the bigger, less dense (but possibly the same weight brass fly) - getting to depth sooner is almost always better.

This also keeps fly boxes & fly selections simple.

[KevinE]

I'm similar to Gary. Except all my beads are tungsten. For fishing shallowish water I use nymphs with no beads (just some lead wraps). If I need to go deeper I use nymphs with a tungsten bead. Deeper still and I use a bigger fly with a bigger bead, often with a smaller unweighted nymph trailing. Deeper still and I use 2 big tungsten nymphs.

[KevinE]

Paint them fluo orange and add a hook to them for ultra-fast egg pattern...

You're onto it Chris, fluro-orange beads work very well at times:

[GGY]

I'm similar to Gary. Except all my beads are tungsten. For fishing shallowish water I use nymphs with no beads (just some lead wraps). If I need to go deeper I use nymphs with a tungsten bead. Deeper still and I use a bigger fly with a bigger bead, often with a smaller unweighted nymph trailing. Deeper still and I use 2 big tungsten nymphs.

To clarify:

I actually use very little brass - generally only when I want a bit more flash/action/colour (i use gold, black nickel & copper beads), but without any real weight.