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---