Floatant Questions

[dlshunter]

How long does floatant take to dry?
Should it be apply to all dry flies prior to leaving for your flyfishing trip?

How often do you need to re-apply?

[Betty Hiner]

Nobody answered this yet?

Flies can be dunked in hydrostop as soon as you've tied them. They'll be good and dry before you go fishing. Frog fanny and bug float are usually applied just before you heave the flies into the water.

Usually you need to reapply the bug float or frog fanny after the flies are retrieved from a fishes mouth, or when you see the fly is no longer floating. Clean them off, dry them off, and re-apply the floatant. It's recommended you NOT use any other floatants on flies with CDC in them (I know ... controversy). For CDC flies use CDC oil SPARINGLY!

[Big Bad Wulff]

I use the drying "crystals". Works better than the liquid stuff......for me.

[sagefisher]

dishunter,

When I first started tying flies I used to soak the flies in a liquid, I believe it was a Herters product, something like silicone. But, now I do not. I take the untreated flies to the river and use what dressing I feel is best for the situation.

My main floatant is the Loon Aquel. I also will use Gink dry fly dressing. All depends upon which one I take with me. I use those on all of my dry flies that are size 16 and larger.

On my smaller dries, I use a silica powder, either Loon Top Ride or Frogs Fanny. The Loon product is designed so you place the fly inside the container and shake it and the Frogs Fanny comes with an applicator brush that you use to really stuff the silica down into the hackle. I use these products on the small flies because they keep the fly afloat by causing air bubbles within the hackle. I found that the gels tended to allow the small flies to sink, just because of the weight of the gel, in my opinion anyway.

Either way, you will be applying a lot of floatant during the day. Either the fly gets totally water logged or as Gnu Bee pointed out, when you have caught a fish, the fluids from the fish will sink a fly.

So, get a bottle of gel and a bottle of silica powder and go forth and fish.

Larry ---sagefisher---

[bugman]

i allways apply floatant to my flies right after i tie them... i let them dry fer 24hrs before using them.... i tie lots of flies so i dont have to wory about waiting for the batch i just tied to get dry before i can go fishin... i really like the (water shed) floatant best... it is a permanant FLY floatant... capitalizes fly because its just for flies... put this stuff on a silk fly line, ya gona ruin it...

[Uncle Barry]

Good afternoon.
A suggestion

Soak your dry flies in 3M Scotch Guard and then nothing else is required for a year or two....If you still have those flies.

Don't just spray them, give them a good soaking and leave to dry and desmell for about a week.

Kind regards,
UB

[jjtroutbum]

Gink's user here.

[J Castwell]

I use the silicone liquid in the 'pinch-neck' bottle. Seems to clean 'gunk' from the fly and float it.

[Ray]

I use gink, on stream, as needed.

[Ron Eagle Elk]

I use Watershed if I remember it. On stream I use Mucellin in the Red Container. Flies float like little corks with the Mucellin. You can also use it to grease leaders and silk fly lines.