Palmering Marabou

[WylieSchroederHaggerty]

Is anyone familiar with the technique for palmering marabou that Jack Gartside describes in the book "Scratching the Surface"? on page 17 and 18 Jack describes a technique that is new to me for palering marabou.

"On Tying the Marabou

When I say to tie in the marabou stem by its butt, I am not referring to the "True" butts as they are found on the whole feather butt rather to the feather after it has been stripped down from the lower--and thicker--part of the stem (roughly half way down the stem, at the point where the stem tapers drastically from thick to thin). Cut away this thicker portion and then tie the remainder of the feather stem in by what is now effectively its butt. Do not tie the feather in by its tip as this will result in an untappered wing or collar that is much more prone to "fouling". " Jack Gartside

Other benefits to this technique that I have found in my limited experimentation is that I can easily palmer the marabou feathers that I would normally avoid palmering or use for bugger tails. I can tie in the marabou once finished palering with a neater base since the thickest part of the marabou stem is being palmered over. I have less marabou stems breaking or slipping at the tying point.

Hope some others benefit from this techique that was new to me.

[B.Ingersoll]

hey wylie,

jack gartside was interesting, innovate sort of cat. i loved his rubber ducky kick boat

what i believe he is referring too in that quote is simply removing the fluff plume of the lower marabou stem by stripping it off, then cutting the stem, tie in at the cut stem tag with marabou concave to rear, fold and wrap. this from his famed soft hackle minnow........or at least it's the same from his soft hackle minnow.

you want clean tipped marabou.

his thought is the taper of the profile to enhance the baitfish profile taper. in reality striped marabou has little taper and most i know whom tie marabou spider's / soft hackle minnows do the same but, tie in by the tips.

interesting, as i remember the steelhead & salmon marabou spiders (also refereed to as Popsicle)became nationally popular in the mid to late 90's especially in the P.N.W. region of USA/Canada. they are or can be a bit more bulky than jack's soft hackle streamer. the spiders / Popsicle / also called marabou speys . Some took or were credited with these patterns. i may be wrong but, from my view jack's soft hackle streamer was the first of this type "publicly" and i was kind of disappointed that as the spiders/popsicles grew in popularity that never once did i see jack gartside credit

one season maybe a dozen years ago i used jacks soft hackle streamers ties sparce like jack does, per spec other than wrapped by tips on the small steelhead tribs down my way here with REALLY good success fished on a mono leader with a couple small shot through the buckets. i believe they were tied on sz. 6 or 4's standard bronze, down eye, wet hook. great , wiggle'y , minnow pattern in water...........cool guy too.

maybe some others will chime in to help and comment on this interesting history. just my .2 cents per memory and experience tying them.

here is the one i used but, with black thread head to look like an eye of an emerald shiner and with a little silver k flash with the peral flash a bou which when combined makes a emerald / blue tint in the water

www.jackgartside.com/step_sh_streamer.htm