I Found the Entwives!

[Alcuin]

the phantom posted:

They did have use of the rope later on, actually almost immediately afterwards - they tied Gollum with it.

tp, you have also overlooked the obvious in Tolkien’s narrative problem documented by Christopher Tolkien in War of the Ring. The dangling rope was a means not only for Gollum to more easily follow them, but for him and any other pursuit – orcs or Nazgûl – to determine that the trail was hot.