Dry Flies

by Lance Egan • February 24, 2012 • 2 comments

As spring approaches, Trout anglers look forward to the hatches to come and the dry fly opportunities of warmer weather.  Keeping your dry fly floating well so it can be easily seen by both you and the Trout improves success.

The most common products for dries include paste style floatants such as Gink, Loon Aquel, Scientific Anglers Floatant, Dave’s Bug Float, Tiemco Magic Gel, Pure Float, Cortland Dab, Mucilin, etc…  Common powder/desiccant products include Shimazaki Dry Shake, Loon Top Ride, Frogs Fanny etc…

Paste floatants are great when a dry fly is fresh out of the box, but once the fly becomes waterlogged or covered in fish slime (good problem) adding more paste doesn’t help much.  At that point it is best to have a powder style floatant.  Both Dry Shake and Top Ride have powder floatant as well as dessicant to dry the fly.  Frogs Fanny is powder only, but also works well.  Frogs Fanny sports a brush applicator (attached to the lid) vs. Shimazaki Dry Shake and Loon Top Ride both have flip top lids that you gently close over your tippet (fly attached) and shake the product to absorb water and add powder floatant.

Adding some type of floatant will keep your offering floating much longer than fishing without product.  I like to use both paste and powder products to maximize flotation.  Use paste when the fly is fresh out of the fly box and powder/desiccant once the fly is waterlogged.  Carrying and utilizing both types of floatants will increase your dry time.

Also of note, dries and emergers tied with CDC don’t take most paste floatants well and in most cases paste floatants actually take away floatation.  I know of two paste products (please share others in the comments below) that work well on CDC, my favorite being Tiemco Magic Gel, the other is Hends CDC Oil.  Powder products such as Frogs Fanny, Top Ride or Dry Shake all work well on CDC.

Check out these links for several of the floatant brands mentioned above:

http://umpqua.com/c-87-floatants.aspx

http://www.cabelas.com/catalog/browse/fishing-fly-fishing-fly-fishing-accessories-floatants-weights/_/N-1100460/Ns-CATEGORY_SEQ_103960980?WTz_l=SBC%3B+LNcat103960980%3Bcat104339880

http://www.performanceflies.com/ProductDetails.asp?ProductCode=HP-CDC-OIL

Keep it dry and drifting naturally…

In Blogs, Rockies
  • CharlieC

    Nice review of the goods, mate. How do you feel about the color that the shimazaki or other powder leaves the fly after it's wet and then shaken in the bottle? I know the Shimazaki comes in a dark color too, but the white stuff leaves a fly with something to be desired. Sometimes I feel an alternative to dry shake is to squeeze with an absorbent cloth, then reapply the paste floatants. I hope to have a chunk of Amadou some day, as I hear Lefty Kreh speaks of it's absorbtive powers.
    Also, Montana Fly Company is putting out pure CDC oil buyt I haven't seen it in many shops. That stuff is really good for cdc flies as well.

  • hunter

    Dry Magic is great wet floatant for both conventional and CDC dries

    Hunter Hoffler