Hi Mark: I suspect that the strung marabou that you refer to is also known as blood marabou.It is in fact a form of pinfeather and indeed has very different properties from other marabou feathers. It was this type of marabou I referred to earlier. When clipped short at the hook bend there is sufficient stem in the clump to keep it from stringing.
In general I prefer fishing marabou either as jigs or flies in deeper slack water for coho. Current wisdom on northern steelhead is that the marabou should not be clipped but should resemble a pink worm and that a collar of black shlappen tied wolly worm fashion creates the fly called steelhead nightmare which is very effective.
coot