Calf tail can be bulky and has a tendancy to slip around on the hook shank. For smaller flies I have better luck substituting 'calf body hair' - it's a little easier to work with.
Some tips for working with calf tail or other solid (not hollow) hairs...
1. Make sure you have a good thread foundation at the tie in point. A good smooth layer of tightly wound thread gives the hairs something to bite into. It's almost impossible to build a good wing shape over a smooth shank or a bumpy underbody.
2. Use small bunches of hair. The thread can't compress a big bundle enough too lock in the slippery calf hair in place. Tie in several small bunches, one on top of the other if you need bulk.
3. Taper cut the butt ends then wind the thread tightly down the slope of the taper. The taper reduces bulk and gives the thread a chance to bind in each of the hair fibers.
As other have suggested the 'trude' version is a down wing. The royal coachman is also very effective as parachute wing or tied in the traditional manner as a upright hair wing.
I fish all three versions with success. The parachute style and the upright divided wing style all start in a similar manner as the trude wing. So Charlie's tutorial is a good starting point.
For the parachute or upright version you start by tying in a bundle of hair just like a trude, but have the bundle flipped around 180 degrees. (butts point towards the hook bend and the tips toward the hook eye.) This will place the thick butt end where you can easily hide it beneath the body of the fly. For the parachute style you can pull the tip of the wing bundle into the upright position and lock in in place by adding some wraps just in front the wing. For the divided upright style, seperate the wing post into two upright wings with some figure 8 wraps.
I like to tie a collar style hackle by tying in the stem first, then wrapping to the tip. This method will take advantage of the natural direction of the hackle fibers and result in smoother distrubution of fibers. Some times it makes sense to start a hackle by the tip end, but you will need to preen the fibers so they point down toward the stem (butt end) before wrapping. Otherwise the angle of the fibers will cause some of them to be trapped by sucessive wraps they will stick out all over the place. Make sure you provide a good smooth thread base before wrapping the hackle. Hackle wrapped over a bumpy foundation will also stick out all over the place.
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