Table Scrap Challenge

[Scudley Do Right]

I use the soft stuff leftover on the lower shaft from pheasant rump feathers to make micro leeches. Clamp a chip clip onto the fluff, trim off the shaft, transfer to a dubbing loop and wrap on for a messy, buggy leech. Maybe add whatever stray flash strand is stuck to my sweatshirt...
View attachment 62154
Also make even smaller ones using the aftershafts stuck directly into a loop, stem & all

I have used it to make tails for micro buggers in the past

 

[SKYKO]

 

[Scudley Do Right]

Bump
The tail, wing, dubbing brush and front shoulder were all in a pile of used crap on my desk.

 

[krusty]

I don't tie a huge number of patterns, and each tying session tends to focus on a single pattern.....starting out on larger hook sizes and then moving downward in hook size. I'm certain that most flyfishers are fully aware that many times a pattern that's not being particularly effective on a particular day may prove incredibly productive simply by fishing a different size (and/or a slight variant on the same pattern).

Consequently my scraps tend to get smaller and smaller, so I then start using a variety of hackle pliers to handle the increasingly smaller pieces of remnant material that my clumsy fat fingers can't deal with. For example, a 3/4" of scrap chenille easily handled in such a manner might well be sufficient to complete another fly body.

I also use multiple bobbins for 'bobbin suitable' materials because that significant reduces material waste because I can snip it off close to the fly.

Despite possessing a large inventory of tying materials I can't bring myself to wastefully sweep bits of it into the bench bin.

 

[Zak]

 

[Buzzy]

Somehow I missed this thread and it's fun. I put my tying stuff away after tying so I usually don't accumulate a lot of scraps but dug out this "fly tying station" and vise:


There was a Firehole 516 with a red tungsten bead glued onto the hook and some black marabou left over from an experimental capr fly, so here's my table scrap fly:


Butt ugly BML but.......... it'll probably catch a fish.

 

[Zak]

I enjoy making a custom dubbing blend for the fly I'm tying (using the finger mixing technique). I usually have some dubbing left over. I keep those pinches of mixed dubbing in a little plastic cup and often reach for that instead of my bags and skins.

 

[Tom Butler]

Most things I tie use the same ingredients so my table scraps just await being incorporated into the next tie. Works well because I often tie a few specifically for the next outing. Nice thing about these materials, use 'em right to the nub and they still catch fish. Save enough to buy a bead? Worth it, ha ha.
I don't like mixing dubbing so I just use hareline Hare's Ear. Works just as well as stuff I've blended off a mask.

 

[Tom Butler]

Last bits left on bench today tossed into a freestyle softhackle. Oh, sqish that barb!