Good Quality Marabou

[alhuger]

 

 

All,

 

I've been palmering allot of marabou lately and am getting frustrated by the poor quality of many of the plumes I am getting. It's like a 5 - 1 mix of good to bad even with blood quills. Can anyone suggest a brand of marabou which has a good ratio of thin stemmed plumes?

 

 

al

[sirocco]

I've been really impressed with a package of Hook & Hackle marabou that I got just recently. That opinion is only based on one package though. Have you been using Hareline? I've noticed that ratio with their marabou.

[Guest RedWiggler]

It doesnt matter which brand we use there is always good and bad packs. I find that you just need to go into the store, pull the Marabuo out of the package and start fingering through it to see if its what you need.

[Flytyer]

The best quality in my experience has come from Wapsi/Hook & Hackle, Hareline hasn't been bad either. The stuff I have with the Hook & Hackle label is from Wapsi. Wapsi is know to add distributor names to the Wapsi label. Some craft fur has some similar characteristics to marabou and could be an option depending on the application needed. A product called bird fur could also be used in some cases.

[admin]

I use the superfly brand for all of my palmered marabou and I tie about 3000 alaskabou's and palmered marabou flies a year. I get tons of nice stems in the 1/2 oz package, I've bought the wapsi rebranded marabou before and was sadly disappointed, but at other times I have got some rally nice product. You won't get 100% in a package unless you go to a premium brand like the Hareline has, but you will only get 10-12 feathers in a package. Depending on how large of marabou you need, you may also want to look at the Spey marabou which is packaged more specifically for palmering. Perhaps not so much the brand, but take a look at the material before you buy it if you can.

[maxwell]

i really like the spey marabou for palmering! i usually upen up teh baggie n giv eit a quick look before i pick er up tho...... same with most fur n feathers.. funny how sometimes one of the bag on the rack will have a little better stuff than the rest....

[alhuger]

 

Thanks for the replies guys, I appreciate it.

[SilverDoctor]

i really like the spey marabou for palmering! i usually upen up teh baggie n giv eit a quick look before i pick er up tho...... same with most fur n feathers.. funny how sometimes one of the bag on the rack will have a little better stuff than the rest....

 

You said it. There have been times when I only find one bag out of 10 that I like. Mind you the other day I ran across Mallard wings that where suburb for wet fly wings and bought the entire stock of 5 bags.

[maxwell]

lmao bin there soo dude! when the gettins good get it all!

[alhuger]

All,

 

I've been palmering allot of marabou lately and am getting frustrated by the poor quality of many of the plumes I am getting. It's like a 5 - 1 mix of good to bad even with blood quills. Can anyone suggest a brand of marabou which has a good ratio of thin stemmed plumes?

 

 

al

 

 

So I picked up some Still Water Solutions marabou against my better judgment ( which is generally in short supply) and I was really impressed. I just finished tying up a bunch of royal blue and teal alaskabou flies with some DNA thrown in and it was great. The amount of usable plumage was much higher (as was the price) compared to some other products I have tried. I am only one bag in so I do not know if the quality will last, but here's to hoping... It's so much nicer to tie with good materials it really makes for a much nicer experience.

 

al

[rusty]

I was going to suggest Stillwater Solutions as well.

 

I tied a shatload of popsicles and the like for Alaska/BC last year and found that using a dubbing loop is the best way to go. Obviously, if you're tying 500 of them it may take a little longer, but the loop makes them less bulky and it's super quick if you have a Norvise.