So I’ve been using black marabou for woolly buggers and a nice leech pattern I got turned onto here. As a result, I am looking at a small, though growing pile of ragged-shagged short little quills.
I know that quills are used for a lot of flies, but I don’t know if those from marabou are suitable for anything. I don’t like throwing things away, especially if they might be useful later. Should I be saving these?
Hi Jeff,
If the marabou on the quills is long enough to tie buggers of a size you want, then it can be used. I have used that stuff for marabou on ocassion, and it works fine.
Regards,
Gandolf
Chop it into small pieces and use it for dubbing with either a single thread or a dubbing loop. I normally just throw my “waste” marabou away but I’ve often thought it would make pretty good dubbing. 8T 
Spread it out on your desk in a nice even layer, wet your palm and press you hand down on it. Then go running to the nearest family member screaming “Mom was right!!!” :mrgreen:
lol!
Are the quills themselves worth saving, though, or just the fluff?
I think he’s asking about just the quills…read the post…to answer…I’m like you,hard to throw anything …it’s one of the few things I throw…
Hi Jeff,
If you use the marabou fluff on these feathers for tailing of things like woolly buggers, you will need to keep the fluff on the quills. To tie it on the hook, you will need to be able to clip off the marabou from the feather and keep the base of the barbs of fluff together.
If you cut off the fluff and put it in a container it wil be very difficult to tie it in later for tailing. Leaving it on the quill is the way to keep the barbs of fluff “organized”, if you will.
There are patterns that call for the loose fluff. One type uses it dubbed on the thread in the form of a dubbing loop. The dubbing loop of fluff is then dubbed on the fly body for a a rough appearing body that has a great deal of movement. However, you can trim off the fluff when you get to the point that you need it. There is no advantage for saving it loose.
The quills (the stripped stem of the feather) themselves are used in fly tying, for such things as dry fly bodies for flies such as the quill Gordon and blue dun. However, the quills used for that purpose are hackle stem quills and peacock stems from the flues of a peacock feather. The quills from a marabou feather are generally not suitable for that type of use. They are not strong enough, and they get too thick and stiff after only a short amount of length up the feather.
I should probably add though that, like you, when I first started out I didn’t want to throw away anything that might be useable. What you will find, if you save lots of potentially usable stuff, is you will end up with lots of stuff that, while it is usable sooner or later (but probably later), you will actually use very little of it. The junk eventually gets in the way, and you will probably end up pitching it sooner or later.
Regards,
Gandolf
Yeah, I keep all the material on the quill until I need it, but being left with a bunch of empty quills (sometimes with a tiny bit of ragged fluff on it) really made me wonder if they should go in the trash or a zip-lock baggie.
From what you’re saying, the marabou quills alone aren’t that useful, so once I’ve butchered the little suckers I should just say goodbye.