Mike Schmidt of Angler’s Choice Flies designs some of the best streamers out there. If you’re looking for a new pattern to chase big browns, big bass, or pike, you better see what Angler’s Choice Flies has to offer. That isn’t to say that is the only thing he ties. Mike has a full arsenal of flies he ties and offers.
Below Mike demonstrates his EZ Marabou Veil technique. He explains, “I always aim for my flies to have inherent movement, so one of my favorite materials is marabou. Unfortunately marabou, while full of movement, tends to be brittle. Of course I can not do anything about the feather fibers. But I can eliminate the part that is most likely to get broken and cause the fly to unravel…the stem. When utilizing marabou for veiling I do not use the standard technique of palmering the feather, but rather a technique more similar to spinning deerhair.”
STEP 1: With a full marabou plume in hand, come down the center stem until the feather fibers are the length that is acceptable to you.
STEP 2: At that point clip out just the center stem, leaving the rest of the feather intact, and remove the tip of the feather.
STEP 3: Stroke the feather together as a flattened bunch and lay it down on the top of the hook shank. Slide your index finger down the far side of the hook shank to help spread the feather down the far side of the shank.
STEP 4: Loosely wrap your thread up over the top of the shank and then as you come around use the thread tension to ‘pull’ the feather the rest of the way around the shank and back up the near side. This is very similar to what happens when loosely spinning deer hair.
STEP 5: Give yourself some secure wraps behund the head to hold everything in place.
STEP 6: Using your scissors, trim out the fibers hanging out over the eye. The closer you can get behind the eye the cleaner the end result will be.
STEP 7: Finish off the thread head by wrapping down the exposed butt ends and whip finish.
