How to make your own floatant?

[SKershaw]

I made a small post in the "What do you make" thread about making your own floatant. I thought this would be a better way of getting some input about making your own floatant.

Please post your Homemade recipes for floatant.

Fortunately I am a student pharmacist and am able to compound concoctions. List them out! I will make a few different recipes and do a highly scientific study comparing and contrasting various formulas, of course copious amounts of fishing is required!

Thanks in advance friends!

[J Castwell]

Carcinogenic, explosive, flammable. The three best qualities of most old floatants. Oh yes, they left a pretty ring on the water, made it easier to find your fly. Oh too, they worked.

[Joe Valencic]

I just rub the fly with my greasy fingers after eating dried salami from the pouch in my vest. Good old animal fat, and it don't wash off with water! Burp...

Joe

[flybinder]

I, believe, it was Robert Traver, in one of his books, that cracked me up describing how; "The accidental embers, falling from his fishing pipe, ignited and subsequently, "Caused my favorite vest to explode into a ball of flame, when falling into my open necked bottle of dry fly prep,in the upper pocket of my vest!"
"Melted down, paraffin, mixed with kerosene and any type alcohol", was quite popular; "In the day"!

[Sagittarius62]

In his book, Fly Fishing and Fly Tying Pattern Guide, Fran Betters favors a mixture of unleaded gas and dissolved paraffin wax. Kaboom!

[Deezel]

Not exactly, 'Home-Made', but buy some Abolene and repackage a quantity of it into a small squeeze bottle or tiny container. If you didn't know, it is a cosmetic cleanser and found in drug stores or departments.

Deezel

[drolfson]

Use your vast Chemistry knowledge to ferret out two or three hydrophobic compounds that can be disolved in something like alcohol and start mixing them. Just make sure that at least one does not sublimate at your standard fishing temperatures.

How are the feathers from that quail?

[SKershaw]

That was my first thought! Mineral Oil is very hydrophobic and is viscous at most, if not all, of the fishing conditions that I frequent. My only concern was the innevitable ring of hydrocarbon that would diffuse into our water systems. Although the concentrations are minimal, I thought someone may have a better formula.

Another thought, though I don't know how to go about it, was to make a micellular type formula that "encases" the fly . Many of our homes have these micellular detergents... the problem, the water gets sudsy.

I want something that doesn't inhibit the look of presentation (mine is already poor, don't want to make it worse) yet does the job of keeping in high and dry!

The mix of parafin and mineral oil is by far the most common... I don't smoke or play with fire so the flammable, volatile formulation may be the best bet

The quail... it was a mess! I don't think I did it right... The feathers had to be discarded!

Please keep the ideas coming!!!

[Bob Widmaier]

For pretreatment of dry flies, RainX. Keeps them high and dry.

For on the stream, Vaseline. Use it sparingly.

Dr Bob

[drolfson]

For pretreatment of dry flies, RainX. Keeps them high and dry.


Dr Bob

What he said there! I have a small (babyfood) jar on the desk that I throw the dries into as I tie them. Then I treat sparingly with my dry treatment on stream. (When I remmeber to use the RainX that is! )