Marabou Spey

After seeing some of these posted here , I thought I'd try a few out. I've never really got into tying spey before, having mostly concentrated on trout, bass and the other steelhead patterns. Can't believe I never really tried these, but that's what is so great about tying - you just never stop learning. So here is one of my tries at it. Please let me know your thoughts, ways to improve, what I did wrong, ect. I've been lookin around the 'net for different color combos and it seems there is alot of them out there. I've read here that orange doesn't work too well on the tribs so I'll try some others. My stash of marabou is just about shot so I'm off to the fly shop tomorrow to get some more. (HAHA once again - I'll go in there with the idea of spending $10 and end up with a $40 bill! and then have to sneak it in the house before the wife sees it.) Again let me know your thoughts on this one and perhaps some different methods and materials to use for this pattern. Really appreciate it.

It may be alittle bulky, it could just be the pic though I cant tell. Keep your patterns sparse. when they are all bulked up with too much material it will not move right in the water. When they are done sparse they just breathe better when in the water.  I know what you are saying about that orange. Orange sucks.
 

 
Honestly it really doesnt matter what colors you are using. When swinging flies movement is where it is at. Look at the pic of my fly in the water. See how it is swimming when sitting still. Thats breathing. If you can achieve that you will be doing just fine. I love seeing other peoples swinging flies, keep them coming.

ORIGINAL: steely34

Thanks swinger for the input. You know, I kind of thought it should have been tied more sparsely. Now for a few more questions - I would imagine that schlappin is the "hackle" of choice in addition to the marabou. Am I correct in this? Next - is it best to floss and tinsel the body first, then tie in the marabou over a short dubbed "thorax" instead of tying marabou over the entire body? Finally - what other materials do you use in tying these up. Sorry for all the questions.

 
Wierd.  Well I already answered your first question in the pm I sent you. I like to put a "body" on mine. I use something flashy, "ice dub, seal fur, braid, etc. It must contrast the marabou though.  I want them steelhead to see something else inside my fly and then disappear as it breathes. Just a little triggering effect IMO. Instead of using krystal flash I would suggest using flashabou. KF with its checkers gives the illusion of movement. The material itself doesnt move all that much. Where as the flashabou moves with the fly. I use KF in clousers, decievers, anything with bucktail. But when I use marabou, fox or whatever materials that breathes well ,I use flashabou when I want to add flash.

You know I was wondering the same thing. I tried both ways tonight. Wonder which way is better? Either way - I know what I'll be doin at the 'bench tomorrow after stoppin at the fly shop.

Thanks KJ - I had some blood quills but the ones I had did not have much of a "stem" to tie off so they could be wrapped. The other marabou I had that was strung had the quill. That's what I used to palmer. I was hoping someone may put up a tutorial on this. Post it on the new tutorial section if you would. Looking forward to it. Thanks alot.

This style fly is great tied as a tube.  I tie it on Frodin fits plastic tubing size small combined with xtra small.  Favorite tubing colors, fl red, fl yellow.
 
This brand tubing requires no junction tubing, the hook goes directly into the size small frodin tubing.  Plastic tubing is very bouyant and a tube fly tied on this material should be head weighted with a small cone or size medium bead chain eyes.  This negates the tubing bouyancy and balances the fly, slightly head down rather than hanging hook down.
 
Favorite flash material to mix in with the marabou is pearl fire fly brand flashabou, fine stranded wirh very good movement.  Couple good tube fly hooks- Daiichi 1650, TMC 105. Hook size 6 or 8.
 
Don't know if you are into tube flies at all, I like them because you can tie a big or long fly and use a small detachable hook. If the fly is rigged right, the fly will detach from the hook giving a fish very little leverage resulting in a higher landing percentage than you would get when using a conventional larger 4x or 6x long streamer style hook.

Steely, in your first one, how did you do your "shell back"? I tried one made of wood duck mallard and while it looks...okay...I wasn't really pleased with it.

ORIGINAL: Cold

 "shell back"

 
It is the wing.

You must find the sweet spot. It is pretty tough at first. Hell I struggle if I dont do them in awhile. The more you do the easier it becomes. Keep practicing, thats what I am doing. Here are some of mine.
 

 

 

 

Here's a few of mine from last season. 
 

 
This one's a little too bushy, lost it anyway in a fish.

 
Really like this one

 
Super sparse

 
They work.
 

I enjoy fishing the black and blue combo in the early morning, starting late fall into winter. I fish it for the first 2 hours or so of my day.  Once the water cools the fish really start liking that combo. Or maybe they will eat it all the time but thats the only time frame in which I fish it.
 

 

 

 
The bottom 2 photos  are the same fish. Check out the blue AJ I tied on. A friend of mine gave me some to play with. So thats fly I came up with. Ever since then I am a fan of black and blue.

Nice flies swinger! Black and Blue is a good color combo for me pretty much the whole season.

steely... taking that is a wet (been in water) fly?

do you really think swing the smaller head makes a difference to the fish?
as long as it catches fish is all that matters to me lol.
and old man once said pretty flys are meant to catch fishermen and ugly flys fish