I was able to fix this issue by adding this to the functions.php file
function wpa69774_limit_tags( $query ) {
if ( $query->is_tag() && $query->is_main_query() ) {
$query->set( 'posts_per_page', -1 );
}
}
add_action( 'pre_get_posts', 'wpa69774_limit_tags' );
after finally stumbling upon this question: Can’t Get ‘tag’ Page To Display only Tagged Posts