Fly Tying Materials - ?
 

Fellas,
I am curious to what fly tying materials you have discovered as non-intended fly material...?

Here are some of mine:

• Subway bags for wing material - cut a strip and stretch it out slowly to get the correct shape.
• Dryer Lint - Black pug fur added (washed and blended with some other materials.
• Broomstick plastic - black makes great legs.
• Plastic packing beads in the glow in the dark indicators at Walmart make great salmon eggs. Color them with permanent marker and add a little cotton.

These are a few "non-intended fly materials" that I use, although I don't think that I can claim that I discovered them.

• Foam ear plugs for a popper body.
• Used leather golf gloves for leeches, stonefly bodies, wingcases, etc.
• False eyelashes for dry fly tails.
• Medical rubber gloves for "latex" strips.
• Peacock herl from a feather store that supplies feathers for dance costumes.
• Bungie cord core rubber for legs on bass bugs.
• Tea bags for dry fly winging material.

Another that we use all the time, but you could probably get more of and more variety is marabou at craft stores like hobby lobby. They have marabou on tons of their craft stuff and in a lot of different colors. Its probably not worth buying the craft though over a package of marabou, but its just something I have seen for fly tying while with my parents at the store.

Unintended Materials
 

Thin strips from a potato chip bag--very flashy on the inside--are a good emergency substitute for commercial flash materials. Ladyfish in the Gulf were all over them.