I’ve been out of dry fly action for years. So I’m wondering if there has been any new, fabulous changes in fly floatant, as I start re-equipping my gear. What is working for you all.?
Floatant
- Thread starter Wetswinger
- Start date
downriver79
Steelhead
Good ol Gink. Frog's fanny when it's too cold to squeeze any Gink out.
Banned user
Steelhead
I also use gink on the rare occasions I fish a dry. I have also got a patch of amadou on my lanyard that dries flies out pretty quickly, with no chemical action.
Loon Aquel.
SF
SF
Best floatant I've ever used (because it works, is easy to apply, and it's so dang cheap): Rain-X spray. It's silicone-based, like Loon Aquel, so less toxic than some others, but far easier to apply and won't leave you covered in shit and doesn't gum up fine fibers like CDC and dubbing. It seems to last a LOT longer, is a hell of a lot cheaper than Loon, gink, etc., and you can use it for other things.
To apply, maybe once or twice a season, I just open up my dry fly boxes, spritz them a few times and leave them to dry for a bit.
EDIT: Forgot an apostrophe, or, as Evan calls it, "God's Comma".
To apply, maybe once or twice a season, I just open up my dry fly boxes, spritz them a few times and leave them to dry for a bit.
EDIT: Forgot an apostrophe, or, as Evan calls it, "God's Comma".
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I have been using Fly-Rite Dilly Wax (made in the UK) when I tie on a dry fly for a very long time. I was getting it from Doug Swisher until he retired. Swisher claimed it was the best he had tried. More recently I have bought it from an eBay seller making it kind of hard to get.
Dilly Wax works almost as well as the DIY Bergman's Forumla; a paraffin dissolved in naptha-white gas mixture I was using previously. That stuff makes a fly float like a cork for a very long time over repeated casts and eats. But I couldn't find containers for field use or home storage that would prevent the naptha from evaporating and it was annoying to have to keep refilling the containers.
I would put the fly into the bottle close the lid and shake. Remove the fly and it was plastered with excess wax. I would slip the hook of the fly through an elastic hair band or rubber band girth hitched to my pack or vest, pull on the tippet to stretch the rubber band taut. Then I would give the rubber band a couple of "flicks". It instantly removed all the excess wax and completely dried the fly; with no "oil slick" on the water after treatment. I would only have to use it 2-3 times over several hours of fishing if I wasn't changing flies. @J Watrous too clumpy for CDC though.
Oh, and not recommended use if you like smoking a cigar while you treat your fly.
Dilly Wax works almost as well as the DIY Bergman's Forumla; a paraffin dissolved in naptha-white gas mixture I was using previously. That stuff makes a fly float like a cork for a very long time over repeated casts and eats. But I couldn't find containers for field use or home storage that would prevent the naptha from evaporating and it was annoying to have to keep refilling the containers.
I would put the fly into the bottle close the lid and shake. Remove the fly and it was plastered with excess wax. I would slip the hook of the fly through an elastic hair band or rubber band girth hitched to my pack or vest, pull on the tippet to stretch the rubber band taut. Then I would give the rubber band a couple of "flicks". It instantly removed all the excess wax and completely dried the fly; with no "oil slick" on the water after treatment. I would only have to use it 2-3 times over several hours of fishing if I wasn't changing flies. @J Watrous too clumpy for CDC though.
Oh, and not recommended use if you like smoking a cigar while you treat your fly.
Rain-X spray... back in the day Tom and Ray aka "Click and Clack, the Tappet Brothers" on "Car Talk" strongly recommended against using it on car windows. but using as fly floatant...
Gink and Frog's Fanny for me. I bought some Loon Lochsa 'CDC safe' alternative to Gink which seems to work about as well, but I like and trust Gink.
One thing I noticed with the Frog's Fanny is it makes a slick of powder on still water. It's not pleasing aesthetically but I'm not sure if it does any harm.
One thing I noticed with the Frog's Fanny is it makes a slick of powder on still water. It's not pleasing aesthetically but I'm not sure if it does any harm.
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Old406Kid
Legend
An extensive review...but might be more than you might want to know.
"The clear winner of the test was Umpqua Shimazake taking first place in every single test. Frogs Fanny came in second place overall."An extensive review...but might be more than you might want to know.
Not a floatant but helpful.....when I'm dry fly fishing (seldom, unfortunately) I pin one of those tiny microfiber pads that come with all new glasses and sunglasses to my vest. They seem to absorb moisture immediately by just gently squeezing the fly with the pad. For some reason I have been saving those things for years and must have about 20 by now. At last I have a use for them.
In a similar vein, linen or terry cloth dishtowels have always been used in the kitchen until just recently. Then with many being ready for garage duty I ordered a package of 10 microfiber dishtowels to replace the old veterans. Voila! The future is here! Just point the towel at water and it seems to suck it up instantly. They not only absorb water more quickly but dry faster as well, a small but welcome improvement to daily life.
In a similar vein, linen or terry cloth dishtowels have always been used in the kitchen until just recently. Then with many being ready for garage duty I ordered a package of 10 microfiber dishtowels to replace the old veterans. Voila! The future is here! Just point the towel at water and it seems to suck it up instantly. They not only absorb water more quickly but dry faster as well, a small but welcome improvement to daily life.
downriver79
Steelhead
All the floatants mentioned in prior posts are probably as good as any one, but I read somewhere, can't remember where, that an angler was using a Bounty paper towel to dry his fly. It had to be a "Bounty" paper towel and the results were apparently very good. I haven't tried it yet but as much as I like fishing dries I'm gonna give a try next time out. Unfortunately that may be awhile yet as still recovering from a fractured femur.
Wishing you a speedy and complete recovery!
Old406Kid
Legend
So...Bounty, the quicker floater upper.
A small piece of shammy works great for dabbing 'em dry as well.
^+10!
Much thanks, I hope to back on the water by May.
Oh man, this brings me back- that's the formula my dad used. We had these cool little hourglass shaped bottles with a doughnut shaped cork in the neck and the lower section of the bottle filled with the paraffin mix. Pop a soggy, slimy fly in, shake, remove and false cast off the excess; it worked like a charm. Nothing else gets fish slime off a dry fly as quickly and effectively. I wonder what ever happened to those bottles?