Blood Marabou

Blood marabou is thin-stemmed, long-fibered turkey marabou (not to be confused with marabou shorts or "chickabou"). I personally pick through every inch of strung marabou I sell to ensure every feather you get is usable. I believe you will not find a better source of blood marabou than this site!

For examples of flies you can tie using blood marabou see Tying the Soft Hackle Streamer, Tying the Soft Hackle Sand Eel, and (webmaster Mike's favorite striper fly) Tying the BeastMaster General.

Bucktails, First Quality Streamer

These are top-quality bucktails--the same ones Jack used to tie BeastMaster Generals, Bucktail Beauties, and other of his patterns that rely on high-quality fibers. These tails have a high ratio of the long, crisp, finely-tipped fibers that make for the best streamer and dry fly wings. And almost every fiber is saturated in the stated color of the tail--no overabundance of natural brown hairs.

Coyote Tails, Jumbo

Beautiful, large American coyote tails about 18 inches long. The guard hairs vary in color from cream to tan to silver to black and make excellent tails and streamer wings. Try them in place of bucktail on Clousers, bonefish flies, and other patterns. The natural salt and pepper fibers are also well-suited to lobster, crab, and crayfish imitations. The scruffy gray underfur makes great dubbing for sub-surface flies.

Fox Tails, Premium American Red

Beautiful large American Red Fox tails. Each tail is sixteen to twenty inches long and includes the tip--enough tail to keep you tying for a long, long time! Tails have been professionally tanned and the bones removed.

Gartside's Chicken Rump Feathers

A mix of chicken rump feathers including Chickabou and Chicken Poop feathers in assorted colors and sizes. Chickabou are fluffy, marabou-like feathers from the belly and rear of a chicken. Extremely lifelike and buggy, use them for small streamers, as tails, wings, legs, chop into dubbing and wind them as collars—dozens of uses for the fuzzy fly fan.

Chicken Poop feathers (or CPF) come from just above the legs or near the anus of the chicken. These water-shedding feathers are relatively firm of stem and heavily barbuled. It's this concentration of barbules that traps air bubbles and allows the fly to float without dressing or--when pulled under--to gather about the barbules dozens of tiny air bubbles that mimic those of an emerging natural.

For examples of flies you can tie with Chicken Poop Feathers, read Tying the CPF No-Hackle Caddis Dry Fly/Emerger and see the CPF flies in Jack's Freshwater Flies Gallery.

Raccoon Tails, Premium

Raccoon was one of Jack's favorite tying materials and these are extra-large, premium tails, nicely barred, ten to fourteen inches long each. These undyed, natural tails have a nice mix of tan, golden, grey, brown, and black fibers. Tails have been professionally tanned and the bones removed.

Gartside patterns that feature raccoon include the Coondog, Coony Jack, and the Coony Cockroach.

Corsair Tubing

This is the REAL stuff. Strong, durable, and malleable, this easy-to-use polyester or polyester/mylar tubing is used to tie some of the most realistic and interesting flies you can imagine. Each pack contains four feet of material, not three, like some imitators.

For examples of flies you can tie with corsair, read Tying the Floating Minnow, Tying the Corsair Sand Eel, and Tying the Featherwing FishHead.

Flashabou

This is the original soft and swimming Flashabou that makes a sparkling addition to any salt or freshwater fly. Strong mylar fibers that have the flash of tinsel and the action of marabou. Excellent in all types of flies. Use it for tails, winging,side flash, wound bodies, ribbing, throats, and carapaces. And at a great price!

Gartside's Secret Stuff

You too can be a magician at the vise with Gartside's Secret Stuff (or "GSS" for short). Wow your friends! Catch more fish! Have more fun! Learn the arcane secrets of "The Great Gartside, the Fly-Tying Magician" and make them your own.

This ultra-fine 8 inch long hair-like material is incredible! It moves in the water like no other synthetic material I've ever used and has a translucent luster that outrivals nature's.

Use it alone or blended with natural materials to create the most effective baitfish imitations you've ever tied. Use it as a hair substitute for lively and realistic streamers and baitfish imitations. Use it instead of Flashabou to form highly visible parachute wings, spinner wings, tails, hackle and bodies on all sorts of flies.

And here's the best part (for fans of epoxy flies). With GSS you can form realistic epoxy-like heads or bodies without the muss or fuss or weight of epoxy. This is fun stuff! Magic stuff!

For examples of flies you can tie with GSS, read Tying the Secret Baby Baitfish, Tying the Blueback Herring, and Two Simple Secret Flies.

Holographic Flashabou

Soft, teasing marabou action with holographic fibers that blend in or provide contrast to the the wing or other background materials, depending on light or perception angle. And at a price few if any can match. An ideal lifelike flash material for all salt and fresh water streamers.

Lateral Scale

Hedron Lateral Scale is a 1/16 inch wide, somewhat thicker "corrugated" mylar that's exceptionally strong. Ideal for adding flash or an unusual touch to large salt or fresh water streamers. I use it primarily as a "cinching" material for many of my Gurglers, to tighten or "cinch" down the shell to the body and also to protect the foam shell from toothy fish. Also used to form lifelike casings on shrimp bodies or flash thoraxes on nymphs. The creative tyer will find lots of uses for this material.

Small Worm and Eel Chenille

Approximately 1/8 inch in diameter, this fine suede chenille is ideal for tying small sand eels, small cinder worms, San Juan worms, Baby Buggers, and many other effective flies.

Sticky Back Foam

For gurglers, sliders, beetles, hoppers, all kinds of floating flies.

This high-buoyancy closed-cell foam has a sticky underside--just peel away the protective backing and press against another piece of foam (sticky or non-sticky) for instant adhesion. Press multiple sheets together to create foam as thick as you want. Press different colors together to achieve two-tone or even triple-tone effects. Create foam whose underside presents a dark silhouette (to fish) and whose topside presents a high-visibility surface (to fishermen). Lots of fun!

Each sheet 4.5 inches by 6 inches. 1/16 inch (2mm) thick.

For examples of flies you can tie with sticky-back foam, read Tying the Double Gurgler, Tying the Gurgler, and Tying the Gartside Bug.

Wiggle Worm Chenille

Wiggle Worm Chenille is a two-ply plush chenille, ideal for tying up fat and juicy worm patterns (Palolo Worms, Redfish Worms, etc.), Worm Gurglers and Sliders, and super-meaty wooly buggers. The Cinder Worm chenille is perfect for tying spawning cinder worm patterns and has many other uses as well.

See my article Tying the Wiggle Worm for step-by-step instructions on a fly you can tie using Wiggle Worm Chenille.

Fly Comb

When it came to tying tools, there were a select few that Jack swore by and was never without: his Materelli whip finisher, his dubbing needle mounted in an ancient elk horn handle, his Mini Hook, and a small comb of the type commonly used for eyebrows. It was a must, especially for his soft hackle and GSS flies. Of it Jack wrote:

"An eyebrow comb is one of the handiest tools a fly tyer can own. It is extremely useful for combing out unwanted material, raking bodies to increase bugginess, distributing material, and for all-around fly grooming."

Eyelash combs are available for five dollars or more at most drug and beauty supply shops. Or you can purchase them here for a whole lot less.

Fly Comb - Stainless Steel

For times when you need a stiffer comb, such as combing out underfur or deer hair heads. This comb is very well made and will last you a long, long time. A one inch long comb set at the end of a two and a half inch handle with 1/3 inch long stainless steel teeth.

Mini Hook Hackle Pliers

Best hackle pliers in the world! For sheer gripping power, working in small spaces, and durability, none compare to the Mini Hook. I've been using mine for almost fifteen years. Don't be fooled by cheap imitations that grip poorly and cut hackle stems with their sharp edges.

Crab and Dab Fur Hackle

Crab and Dab Fur, not really a "fur" but a very soft yarn made mostly of viscose and polyester which is woven into a string on one side only. Extremely easy to use, it's a perfect material for creating wide, flat-bodied flies such as crabs and baby flounder imitations. Form bodies by simply winding it along the hook shank until the desired fullness is attained. Mix colors to achieve the mottled coloring common in bait species. Try this stuff and you may never tie Merkin-style crabs again!

Each package contains twelve feet of material, enough to tie dozens of flies.

See my article Three Crabs and a Dab for step-by-step instructions on using Crab and Dab Fur to tie four simple and very effective patterns.

Fly Foam, Extra Thick

This is extra-thick closed cell foam. Use it for large (3/0 or bigger) gurglers and sliders, as interior floatation for Corsair flies, as strike indicators for nymph fishing, or as foam inserts for fly boxes. Lots of uses.

Marabou Quills

These marabou quills are the ones I pick out when culling my strung blood marabou for stems too thick to qualify as blood. So while they're not of blood stem thickness, these 4 to 4.5 inch long quills are high quality marabou nonetheless, suitable for tails, overwings, or any application that doesn't require wound marabou.

Sticky Back Foam

Discontinued colors