Another recent which mentioned fly floatants gave me the idea for this post. I am interested to hear what you prefer to use for fly floatants?
Do you pre-treat flies, or use on stream Silicone gels, or both? What about Incandescent granules? Do you prefer not to treat your dry flies at all?
What about using one type for flies with particular materials (eg CDC) compared to flies that don’t contain those materials?
I am not sure if the product names are the same there as they are here in South Africa so please forgive me if these product names are not familiar to you (I am sure they are though): I like to combine a pre-treatment like Loon Hydrostop with a Incandescant granules like Loon Topride. For flies using CDC feathers I do not pre-treat, but just use the Topride, because I have heard that CDC and Silicone floatants don’t work well together.
I used to swear by Liquid Mucillin or other liquid floatants on a DRY, (non- soaked) fly but once I discovered Frog Fanny I haven’t used much else for everything.
I dry my soaked flies with silica gel crystals, then treat with Frog Fanny. I don’t do the per-treat thing as I find it takes too long and the benefits are negligible for the time invested.
I never liked paste floatants since they melt when you apply them with your 98.6 degree fingers but in my 60 degree trout streams they re-congeal to a thick paste.
I like the loon stuff, forget the names, the shake n bake and the endura (??).
Whatever happened to the mucilin that used 20 years ago? WOrked, and lasted a life time. I guess manufacturers dont like stuff that last forever. ANyone remember what I am talking about? Came in a round green cylinder, was oily. Dont see anyone selling it
I spray my dry flies with “Scotchguard”, it seems to keep them going for quite awhile. And, per a guide in Montana, I bought Albolene hand cleanser to dress during fishing. It turns watery when rubbed between your fingertips and soaks into flies quite well.
MW
With CDC you have to use a product like Frog’s Fanny. That is a given. You can get the samething in an Archery Shop for way less than half the price. It is used for keeping feathers dry.
Albolene- You bet, been using it for years. You get 19 bottles the size of the Gink bottle from one jar and it is the same thing. Gink just adds some Bee’s wax and a small ammount of paraffin. A jar costs about 7 or 8 bucks and will last you for some years. To get it out of the jar and into the smaller bottle just heat it with a hair dryer and pour it in. I get extra bottles from the drug store and always have one or two extra in my kit bag in my truck.
Another product I always have on my vest is Amadou. It is used to take the water and slim off of and out of flies and works better than anything else I have used in over 40 years of guiding. It use to be hard to get but you can find it now. Been around for a lot of years. Not cheap but will last and is a great product. Works very well with CDC flies to.
I never pre treat my flies with anything. To much a pain in the butt. If you do this make sure you do it outside as the Scotchguard Stink’s to high heaven. To tell the truth I don’t like the smell on my flies. I feel it being in my vest may make my nymph’s and other flies smell to. Just me. Ron
Also, be careful with too heavy an application of Scotch guard on any dyed material… I’ve got some flies that have had the color run because I applied it to liberally.
Speaking of liberal…
I too have used the Albolene for years and since it melts decided to pretreat by dipping some flies…talk about a gunky mess…had to heat them and absorb the stuff off…
You can liquefy and dilute the Albolene with lighter fluid or similar solvent…it works well to dip a fly when you’re sort of starting over after desliming …the solvent evaporates and the fly is recoated…learned from a guide…
And we don’t have to get into a discussion about the hazards of the solvents…no argument from me…
Well, I do not find any reason to use floatant on any of my dry flies.
I personally feel if you are using “good dry fly quality Hackle” you do not need floatant. If your material starts to soak up a bit of water, just false cast a couple times and presto you are back in business.
What hackle do I use? Ya got to be kidding. It is raised right here on this ranch, Conranch Hackle.
Denny
Denny while I might agree with you on the hackle I can not agree with you on the body materials. Some will soak up water like a sponge if not treated. So I use floatant more for the body than the hackle… Ron
Bergmans formula. Shaved parafin wax disolved in white gas ( naptha). If it gels you need more gas. Just dip the fly in , shake off the gas and when the fly hits the water the parafin sets up. Cleans the fish slime off too. BUT you need to be a little careful if you smoke a pipe
AgMD
If I remember right the original recipe made up a quart of juice. I never thought I would need a quart , so I just start w/ some white gas ( Coleman fuel) in a jelly jar and add some paraffin. Shake it up and let it dissolve overnight. If it doesn’t all dissolve I add more gas. If it jells in cold weather , I add more gas. I don’t think the exact proportions are important as long as you have enough wax and not so much that it jells.
At one time the recipe used carbon tetrachloride, which we now know does bad things to the body and so is virtually unavailable.
The advantage of this juice is that it penetrates any parts of the fly which will absorb liquid and then the gas quickly evaporates leaving behind the wax which is IN the fly, not on the fly.
AgMD
I’m with ZeissMan,
I use a small bottle of Gehrke’s Gink liquid. It hangs from my lanyard permanently. I also have a small container of Gehrke’s Gink in a paste. Both work well, and the I bought the paste in 1974. Yeah, 1974. It’s 32 years old and still works just fine. Linemender turned me on to liquid Musclin and I like it too. Al Campbell used to use Rain-X and said it worked well for him.
God Bless,
“Frog’s Fanny” dry fly floatant. It comes with an applicator brush attached to the inside of the lid. Works so well it will form an air bubble on a nymph to fish up a little in the water column.
Tried liquid silicon floatant but it kept untieing my flies at the eye if I carelessly got some on the knot! Ron G.
