Source for marabou, especially that bleed less color

[BAB 0]

Hi, my first post here. A renewed interest in fly tying (I started when a teen in the 1950's....still use a Thompson A vice, with inserts for midges) led me to marabou streamers. Great feathers, marabou, except for their tendency to bleed one color into another. Especially red into white, but other colors as well like green and black.

 

So my first question is: are there sources of marabou that have less of this tendency to bleed?

 

Second question is similar: are there reliable sources of marabou that have the long feathers needed for streamers? I'm not certain if those would be blood marabou or plume marabou, and help with those terms would also be appreciated. I tie more streamers than woolly buggers, and have noticed that some feathers in the packages I've bought at LL Beans (I live in Maine) have almost no rachis (stem) and I can feel OK with tying in the whole feather. With other feathers from the same bag I use just the longer barbs.

 

I have had some success in reducing the amount of bleeding by soaking the marabou in water, changing the water three or four times until it begins to clear, then adding a glug of white vinegar to the last rinse. Acetic acid is reported as being a fixative for dye on feathers. Whether that works in this case or not is moot. Black, yellow, and barred green/black bleed much less after rinsing, but red still pinks up any white feathers. OK I guess because I can use red non-soluble markers to add red here and there.

 

Any suggestions appreciated, and thanks in advance,

BAB

[flytire 0]

i use the following marabou from the caddis fly shop without the bleeding problem

 

http://www.caddisflyshop.com/marabou-spey-blood-quills.html

 

or

 

http://www.caddisflyshop.com/marabou-blood-quills.html

 

 

i'm sure there are other brands out there that dont bleed too much. keep looking

[deaddrifter 0]

I've found that Nature's Spirit produces a pretty high quality marabou. They have both the strung marabou and longer plume quills with the heavier stem. With regards to streamer patterns, I've found the strung marabou with the smaller stems work better when you're tying really big flies. I do like the look of stripping material off the plume when I'm tying smaller streamer patterns and found them to be pretty versatile.

 

I've also tried the washing method and it does certainly help but for the effort I'd rather spend the extra dollar or two for the better stuff.

[whatfly 0]

Google "Jay Fair Marabou". Probably the best stuff on the market right now, but fairly pricey, if you are looking for plumes. I tend to just use the generic Wapsi/Hareline product more often than not, which does bleed a bit as you have observed. For marabou bloods, I've never found one vendor to be superior to another, so it is a bit of a gamble whenever you need those. I tend to not mix light and dark colors which avoids most problems. If even setting the dye with vinegar is not helping, you might want to consider using a different material if you must run the risk. There are a ton of hairs (fox, rabbit, llama, sheep, etc.) or synthetics one could use in lieu of marabou if all your needed was a red highlight, for example.

[Capt Bob LeMay 0]

Red or black.... will always be a problem. I love the red/white color combination (everything in the salt will eat it...) but as noted the red will bleed into the white.... An alternative is to use a bright pink, or fl. pink instead of red(which is much, much less likely to bleed at all...).

 

For streamers what you're looking for is called blood quill (and it will usually be listed as 3" or 4" and strung - sold by the 1/4 or 1/2 oz - or all the up to bundles by the pound, which is the way I buy mine). The good news for all of us is that folks like eating turkey so we'll never have a shortage of maribou for tying.... My current favorite maribou source is Wapsi since they always provide good quality and the same colors time after time (years ago I'd have said Hobbes Feather Co. in Idaho but they're long out of business...).

 

Lucky for me when I'm tying with black feathers (saddles, neck, or maribou) I'm rarely ever using any light colors as well so all the bleeding ends up on my hands. I'm not tying commercially any more but back when I was it was common to have fingers heavily coated with black dye when I was working a run in that color. A quick scrub in hot water and I was clean again at the end of hours spent at the bench...