marabou - my biggest 'bug-a-bou.'

[fredaevans]

Sorry for the bad pun. Feathers I can handle, but how to properly tie/attach Marabou feathers; the things still has me scratching my head. Couldn't come up with much using the search feature.

Can some direct me to a 'photo how to' somewhere on the Board?

Many thanks in advance.
Fred

[cabezon]

Hi Fred,

How to deal with marabou depends what you want to do with the marabou. It is worth spending a bit of time rearranging/prettifying a marabou feather before you use it; get the fibers in the appropriate side of the stem, orient them perpendicular to the stem as necessary, etc. If you are putting a tail on a wooly bugger, you want to snip off enough fibers to yield a bushy tail, adjust them to the right length on the hook, and then tie them down. I'm cheap, so I'll often try to get three tails from a single marabou feather: two cut from the sides and one from the tip (actually, the best fibers anyway). It often helps when handling marabou to moisten the fibers a bit to keep them more manageable. While most folks like the effect that somewhat uneven marabou fibers offers, you can always trim them up by pinching/pulling on the tips with your fingers.

If you want to palmer a marabou feather or put on a collar, I typically treat it like a regular hackle feather; at a spot about a half inch from the tip (any place where the stem has some strength/thickness), expose the stem of the marabou feather and tie it down. Snip off the tip and then wind the rest as needed. Again, wetting the feather down a bit helps keep things under control.

While there a lots of great tying sites on the web, one of my favorite sources for tying techniques is The Fly Tier's Benchside Reference by Ted Leeson and Jim Schiollmeyer from Frank Amato Publications. While not cheapb($100 new), it has a wealth of detail, including pictures, on various options for creating bodies, wings, tails, etc.

Steve

[Les Johnson]

Tie the plume in tip first for a better flow when the fly is wet. The tip first technique finishes with the longest plumes on top. This is also standard when palmering marabou. Didn't we recently cover this same topic at length?
Good tying,
Les Johnson

[fredaevans]

Steve, Roger on your selection of THE book .... it's actually about 2' to the right of my elbow as I type here.:thumb:

If you're going to 'palmer' a body should the "inward" curve of the feather be facing the bend of the hook? Sorry, rather 'Dah Fred' questions, but proper use of these things has left me ??? since day one of being introduced to the bench.:hmmm:

[cabezon]

Hi Fred,

By its very nature, a marabou feather does not have much stiffness; that's one of its virtues after all, the capacity to "flow". If you tie the feather such that the inward curve is toward the bend, then the feather will tend to collapse when stripped and not rebound as much on the pause. If you tie it such that the curve in the feather is toward the eye, there is a bit of stiffness available to cause the fly to puff up on the pause. This attribute is enhanced in tying a fly like a reverse marabou spider in which the feather tips are forced out over the eye. This produces a fly that is sleek on the strip, but pulses back out to create a larger profile on the pause.

Steve

[sixfinger]

Another little tip when palmering marabou. First when selecting marabou at the shop look feel the marabou quils, you dont want any toothpick like ones. the thinner and more flexible the better for palmering. For wooly buggers it doesnt matter.

After tying in the plume tip first open your sissors all the way and run the serrated or sharp edge allong the top side of the plume so the barbs run the opposite direction. Then keep gathering and pulling back as you wind it around. When you're done run your bodkin through it. If it doesnt snag, you've done it right. Sorry no pics hope I was clear enough.

[Anyfish]

Another option is to stop in to your local fly shop and ask. When I was first trying to tie with marabou, I could never get it to come out like I wanted. After asking my local shop how, it made more sense. Just one idea.

Chris