Sinking gels

[1hook]

I was wondering if the sinking gels you can get actually work to sink flies. As a fly tier I don't really like weighting my flies at the bench. I normally just use split shots on my leader or a beadhead type nymph, I just picked up xinc which promises to get my flies down to the bottom without the use of lead.

What are your experiences with these type of products?

[Silver Creek]

These are surfactants that break the surface tension so the fly and leaders don't float. They don't make the fly sink any faster. A higher specific gravity is needed to increase sink rate.

[vicrider]

I don't know that I'd want to order anything from a place that advertised that Xinc could make the fly sink like it's lead. Our resident chemist explained it right that all these products do (and I use them) is make the surface film easier to penetrate. When you squirt Dawn in greasy pan you're running hot water in and see that slick shoot out from where you shoot the Dawn you're seeing what is basically a water lubricant. We'd add a shot or two of Dawn to a cement truck to make it easier to work with as long as inspectors weren't doing slump or strength tests on that load.

I have a cyber friend who sells both floatant and sinkant (?) and when people were asking about how good his product was I wrote that the first time I used them I accidentally tipped the Sink bottle and my boat was going down rapidly. Scrambling I dumped his Floatant on the spill just in time to bring the boat back to level before it swamped. Now that's good stuff.

[Silver Creek]

If you have any antifreeze in the garage, you have a chemical (ethylene glycol) that you can use as a surfactant. Whenever I suggest that it can be used as a "sinkant" to break surface tension, someone always reminds me that it is toxic. It is but in the amount used to get a fly to sink is negligible. Propylene glycol that is marketed by Kodak as Photo-Flo is also a surfactant that prevents water spots during film development.

[1hook]

All very interesting thanks for the replies

[Old #art]

I have never bought anything to make a nymph sink. All I do is spit on it and work it into the fly and it sinks like a rock.

George