Dry fly Floatant

I'm new to dry flies , I have tied thousands of wets nymphs, chronomids etc but not any drys. So now I have about 50 done so far. The only dry fly dressing I could find in this one horse town is a bottle of something called Gink from Wal Mart. Is this stuff any good? I am making up an order for H&H so if the gink isn't real good I can order something else.

Also Should I treat my drys with it now or onstream when I tie them on. I'm thinking that it may dry up or get more dusty if I put it on too soon.

Hey Gnu Bee,

Gink is pretty good stuff. I used it for a couple of years then switched to Mucellin (in the red tin). A little goes a long way. I use it to add floatation to flies and to make my furled leaders float.

There are some folks who say that if your using quality dry fly hackle, you don't need floatant. Well, I do use quality hackle and after two or three fish, I usually dy them off and add some Mucellin to the hackle and tails. Quicker than switching flies for me.

REE

I'm with Ron Eagle Elk; Been using Mucellin or Master Float for Yonks. As Ron says "a LITTLE goes a long way"

Gnu Bee Flyer:

I always treat my dry flies with floatant but ONLY a floatant that is liquid in its normal state. It's only my opinion but like cooking fat; if it's a solid, even though it will liquefy when you rub it in, when it hits the cold water it solidifies again. I find that paste floatants gunk up my flies and don't float as long as those treated with a liquid floatant.

Unfortunately my old favorite; Orvis Hy Float isn't around or the same product so I now use Liquid Mucilin.

BUT, you owe it to yourself to try Frog Fanny. It is a white powder that you brush on the fly streamside. The stuff is amazing and I haven't used liquid Mucilin since I started using Frog Fanny.

i use the frogs fanny also, great stuff

Gnu Be,

As an alternative option:

At your one horse town WalMart in the CAMPING section is a product called 'Silicone WaterGuard'. It's in an aerosol can.

Spray it into a small jar to concentrate it into a liquid.

Dip your dry flies in this and let them cure overnight on a paper towel.

This is a PERMANENT waterproofing treatment. It will keep the materials on your flies from EVER absorbing water.

That doesn't mean they can't 'sink'. Fish slime is the big enemy, it's what you'd call a 'super wetting agent' and will suck the fly right under the surface. After couple of fish, you need to 'clean' this off. Holding the fly underwater and swishing it vigorously will do this. A couple of backcasts to get the surface water off, and you are back in business.

I don't like the paste/thick liquid type 'on stream' floatants. They add weight, and that is an enemy to floatation, especially when you are counting on the surface tension/hackle interface to keep your fly up. By their very nature they NEVER dry, so that weight doesn't go away. They also tend to be 'sticky' and attract foreign matter.

Up to you, of course. Folks ahve been getting by with the old stuff for generations. If you don't want to get something that's doesn't say 'fly fishing' on it, you can buy a similar product that doesn't work as well from Orvis called 'Watershed'. Some other fly fishing supply manufacturers also make permanent waterproofing products.

Good Luck!

Buddy