Dry Fly Fishing - Fly Floatants

March 25th, 2008 Buster

Dry fly fishing can be one of the most exciting types of fishing for a fly fisher. The reason for that is that 90% of the action, when a trout takes a fly, happens under the surface of the water. When I am fishing, I am usually fishing a tandem fly rig of a nymph and dropper under a strike indicator. Every now and then, a trout will hit the indictor thinking it is a bug. That is when I wish was fishing a beetle or grasshopper pattern on top and using that fly as an indicator. There is a method of fishing out there created by John Barr, known as “Hopper-Copper-Dropper” fishing, but I will save that for another post. Back to the excitement of dry fly fishing.

As mentioned earlier, the excitement of this type fishing is that the fly is on the surface of the water and you can see when a fish takes the fly, so there is no need to “fish the swing” or the use of strike indictors and split shot. However, there are some inherent issues with dry fly fishing. Mainly, the fly needs to stay dry. A wet dry fly does not float or sit on the surface film of the water. To keep your dry fly riding high during a day of fishing, there are some products a fly fisher can use to keep fishing all day long.

I tie all of my own flies. After I tie some Elk Hair Caddis, Parachute Adams, or any other dry fly patterns, I always use a waterproofing pretreatment. Personally, I use a pretreatment of Watershed. Watershed is a liquid that comes in a squeeze bottle. After tying a dry fly, I simply add a drop or two, depending on the size of the fly, to fly. The pretreatment cures in 24 hours and is suppose to waterproof the materials that make up a dry fly: dubbing, hackle, or hair. If you don’t tie your own flies, it is a good idea to pretreat the flies yourself a few days before a fishing trip. There are other types of pretreatments out there, I just happen to use this one.

While on stream, there are numerous gels and powders a fly fisher can use to keep the fly riding high. There are several silicone based gels a fly fisher can add to hackles or hair wings. When the gel is added to the “wings” of fly, the gel adds further waterproofing, but can wear off during the day, so multiple applications will be added during the day. When using these products, it is important to apply the gel only to the wings. To use these gels, simply put a drop of the gel on your index finger and rub it around with between you finger and thumb, this will warm up the gel and allow the fisher to apply an even coat on the fly. Make sure not to add to much gel, because you can “gum up” the fly and affects its floatation. As for gel products, I have used or have friends that have used Poo Goo, Tiemco Dry Magic, and Gink; there other gels by Orvis and Loon are available too.

If you aren’t into using the silicone gels, there are desicent powders that will dry a fly too. Again, there are several powders out there by Orvis, Loon, and Tiemco. I personally like to use Shimazaki Dry Shake. To use this product, a fly fisher simply removes the pop top, puts the fly into the plastic container, puts the top back on (but not tightly), and shakes the plastic container. When the fly is removed from the container, there will be a light coating of the powder, but a fisher can blow it off or just false cast a few times to remove the powder. Something to remember here is that when you close the top on the container with the fly in it, is to not damage the leader; to prevent this, simply notch in a small “V” in the side of the container. When the top is closed, make sure the leader is in the “V” and you will not damage the leader. This can be done to any container with dry fly powders.

In the future look forward to a home test of several dry fly floatant gels and powders. This posting was suppose to cover other aspects of dry fly fishing in mountain streams, such as casting, fly rod choices (length and weight), types of water, and techniques, but it would end up being a short book. So look forward to more postings regarding mountain stream fly fishing.

Entry Filed under: Buster the Fly Fishing Guru, Fly Fishing, Gear, General