Vanish recently emailed me this question,
“Do you tie anything using the other half of the buck tail (since I just use the tips for the clousers)? Especially on the small 1.5 - 2 inch clousers I wind up with a lot of the hair left over.”
The condensed version of my answer for buck tail was, “I use the outer edge as far down to the butt as I can. Even hair that flares can be used to tie Clousers by using thread wrapping techniques that minimize the flaring.
Depending on the color, I use some center hair for winging, clousers, and some of the softer butt section (flaring hair) can be used to spin bass bugs. Other creative uses might include nymph/mayfly tails, wing cases, caddis wings, hopper bodies, madam X style flies, and I’m sure there are other uses. However, with all the buck tails I go through that still leaves a lot of unused material which I try to give it away or trade, but the reality is I end up tossing a lot of it.”
Questions like this are common, especially with beginning tiers. They lay out good money for materials and then when the contents of the waste sack is greater than the pile of flies on the tying table, they can’t help but wonder if some of that waste couldn’t be put to good use. The answer is yes/no/maybe, it all depends on what you tie, plan on tying, and how willing you are to "mess” (deal) with the dregs you create while tying.
First and foremost the best thing you can do is to make sure you minimize waste from the start. For example, I’ve known tiers to cut off a piece of wire to rib their fly. I spool all my wires, then load them onto a bobbin, just like a spool of thread. In that fashion, I rarely have any bits and pieces of wire to toss. I do the same with flosses, small yarns, etc.
Here are a few cases where “waste” can be turned into fly patterns, but the questions are: “Do you fish such patterns?” and “Is it worth your time to mess around with the waste?” I know in my case the answer to both questions is often no, but there are a few waste items I do save and use.
Rabbit strip (zonker) patterns often have leftover bits and pieces of rabbit fur. I clip off the fur and save it for dubbing. The same can be done with any fur strip, such as squirrel. A favorite pattern of mine is the foxee Clouser, which I tie in a variety of colors and sizes. In tying it, I remove part of the underfur, most of which I retain for dubbing. Speaking of underfur, if you have a cat or dog that gets a regular brushing you have a source of dubbing that need not end up in the trash.
While we’re on the subject of dubbing, yarn can be cut up into one inch or less pieces and run through a blender producing another source of dubbing. By blending these yarns and fur scraps I meet most of my dubbing needs without hitting the fly shop.
Marabou scraps from woolly buggers can often be retained and turned into a form of dubbing. Don’t overlook the “marabou” from the base of feathers and the down-like feathers from capes and saddles. Dubbed marabou makes for a rather buggy looking body and is especially nice in damsel nymphs. Speaking of feathers, the base sections from a wrapped feather can be the source of material for tails and wing cases.
Guard hairs pulled from fur before turning it into dubbing can be used as mayfly tails. As can the leftovers from hair tails. It’s just a matter of dealing with the stuff. Something I rarely am willing to do.
The remnants from quills/feathers, such as pheasant tails, can be soaked, split, and wrapped to produce quill bodies or ribbing material. Again a lot of work, but the material can be put to use rather than being tossed.
These are just a few “waste” materials that can be given a second life. For me, I mostly retain the dubbing materials and toss the rest. I am curious though, what tying waste do you retain and for what purpose?