I don’t have too much experience with Ice dub, but just bought some in preparation for some steelhead flies. I’ve been thinking while working with this incredible stuff that it could really add some life to dry flies that incorporate dubbing or replace other dry-fly body materials. I’m not sure how well this stuff floats though or how much water it retains. Anyone out there have any experience or currently use ice dub on dries? I’m sure it will float with enough floatant but I hate reapplying floatant after everyfish, you know. What do you guys think?
Wild One:
I use Ice Dub on a LOT of stuff from Elk Wing Caddis to beetles to ants and even on Tricos as a thorax. I honestly can’t say if it is a great floater, but I don’t really notice much difference in float time between my regular dries and the Ice Dub versions.
While a foam beetle or foam extended body dun may not be a great test case because of the buoyancy of the foam; all of my foam flies with Ice Dub incorporated seem to float forever. The Elk Wing Caddis also seem to be just fine with Ice Dub.
Your mileage may vary but I love the stuff!
BTW - I use either Frog Fanny or Liquid Mucilin on my dries when I need it and never found the need for anything else when using Ice Dub.
It wont be great.Its not fine and it might even suck.
Ive never used it with dries, However I use it on nymphs to make them sink because it absorbs water. They make sparkley dubbing made for dry flies. I would use that instead!
do you actually do testing?? :?
Found a tyer who ties great looking flies and says he uses ice dubbing on his dries. After poking around this site I saw some really nice ties. In his description of the renegade he says he uses ice dubbing for humpies, stimulators and of course a number of sub-surface flies. Humpies and Stimi’s are naturally good floaters with the deer or elk hair, but the renegade can be prone to sink with poor quality hackle. He mentions that it can sink, but the fly looks better than a regualr Renegade IMO.
[quote=“Normand”]
do you actually do testing?? :?[/quote]
I was saying it might even suck.
I use the UV Black for ants. I tie them a a parachute pattern so they float in the film anyway. Haven’t had any problems. I’ve used the peacock for some beetles with a 2 mm black foam shell over it and they don’t float worth a darn, but I don’t think the dubbings the issue.
I like it on some nymph patterns and some steelhead flies I tie.
I like the way it looks and will keep experimenting with it. It’s not that expensive so I recommend giving it a try. You’ll find something to use it on, eventually.
Alra:
It’s must be your foam or hook. I’ve been tying beetles with foam & Ice Dub for years now and they float great all day with NO floatant! I use either craft foam from JoAnn or Foil Foam from Bill Skilton. I only tie beetles in size 16 and use a Daiichi 1180 hook.
One thing I have discovered about foam; not Ice Dub is that you need the right size piece for the hook you choose. Sometimes there isn’t enough foam and resultant buoyancy to overcome the weight of the hook. As a result I tie a pretty robust beetle and stick with a small hook but I also put a LOT of Ice Dub on it as well.
i use it on some of my dry patterns and have not noticed any thing different.
Bam’
I’m using dry fly hooks so I don’t think they are the problem. I’m using 2mm foam and I’ve been trimming it to be about a hook gap wide. I tend to think I’m stretching the foam too much as I pull it up to secure it for the head and compressing it too much to get much floatation out of it. Thanks for the observations and recommendations. I found some 3mm foam yesterday at Hobby Lobby that I’m going to try. Beetles are just too good a fly not to have this time of year!
hmmm got me to thinking…maybe I will try some for the heck of it on some stimulators and EHC. I love ice dub on my buggers so maybe trying it on something else might be good 
Chris…chill out dude. That’s all I can say. Don’t take everything so personal. No offense or anything.
nen-bran
Im not mad at all.
I was just picking on him for saying that because he picked on me before saying I was a negative poster.
I edited it that post in this thread.
And the smiley with the “p.o’ed” look actually says confused when you move over it. I used it because I was confused not mad.