Brace yourself, I come up with some wierd questions: CDC, cat litter.

J

joseywales

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Jun 19, 2012
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1 - CDC, can someone explain it? I understand that they are excellent floatation feathers from the oil glands of ducks and such. But can someone direct me to a photo? Or at least explain how I would know if a fly contained them? I ask because I see they are treated with different floatants during fishing and have many flies that I bought long ago and don't want to ruin them. Plus I just gots to know.

2 - Speaking of floatants and drying flies, I was reading where folks use desicant to dry a fly. I carry three treatments: Gink, Loon, and Orvis Flake N' Shake, which I believe is a desicant. I get that the Gink goes on pre-flight, Loon gets brushed on after some use to dry your fly, and desicant can also be used at that stage. I also understand that desicant can be revived in the oven, done it many times with packs used to keep ammo dry, etc. Then it occured to me, one of the best drying materials, similar to desicant if not the same, and cheap by the barrel, is cat litter.

I have used unscented cat litter as a balancer for my humidor for years. By adding various amounts of distilled water, I could control the humidity very well. For fly fishing, could you not just ground these crystals up, place them in a container and voila, you have Dry Fly? For less than $4 you could have damn near a life time's supply. I have a 7,000 gallon swimming pool that has been treated with nothing more than bleach, borax, and baking soda and I've never had an issue with the water, algae, etc. So I'm all about using the actual products and not fancy marketing. Thoughts?
 
For pics of CDC search google images. This should help visually. A lot of comparadun and emerger flies use CDC as the wing material. If you use floatant, use a powdered desiccant. Frog's fanny is cheap and a bottle lasts a loooooooong time. I used to crush up silica gel crystals, but FF seems to work better.

Cat litter? Creative, but you're right. Weird.
 
We're confusing some science here guys.

Silica powder can be hydrophyllic (attracts water), or hydrophobic (repels water).

Dessicants attract water (hydrophyllic).

Frog's Fanny is hydrophobic fumed silica (repels water).

To get the best performance from Frog's Fanny, you first have to remove as much water from the fly as possible. Shaking a fly in dessicant will remove a lot of the moisture, but you have to be careful to remove any residue from the fly before putting it back in the water. If you don't, the dessicant trapped in the fly will absorb water, making the fly sink quicker.

Another option to remove water from a fly is to use an absorbent cloth or material. A paper towel is cheap, and works great. Amadou (actually part of a mushroom) is an expensive option that doesn't work any better than a paper towel. Just pinch your fly in the absorbent material a few times, and you're good.

After the water is removed from a fly, you can then use the brush in the bottle of Frog's Fanny to work the powder into the fly materials.

All that said, there's another option - Tiemco Dry Magic. It's a gel, but is OK to use on cdc. It dries quickly when rubbed on a fly, and lasts longer than powders. When a fly gets wet/slimed, just rinse it off in the water, dry by pinching in your absorbent material of choice, and reapply the Dry Magic.

Or - just tie on a new fly. ;-)
 
Makes sense of course.

I use a Sham-Wow (swiped from the MRs), to dry flies before treating them.

I've seen you recommend Tiemco Dry Magic before, so I might grab that next time I'm in a shop.
 
I've never even thought about trying kitty litter.

I have a lifetime supply of desicant that I've saved from parts packaging at work. Have got both types - the silica crystals, and the little round balls. Been using them for years, and it works just as well as any of the stuff found in fly shops IMO.
All for free
 
Frankly, I believe the oil effect is overblown. Yes, it's true on ducks. But ducks keep adding oil to them from their glands. On a fly, that oil wears out quickly. Heck, after cleaning and dyeing and all that, it's probably gone by the time you buy it. You can keep restoring the CDC oil like a duck does and it does help it float a lot. But most of us don't and still find the feathers useful, perhaps MORE useful, because the niche they fill in fly tying isn't on cork like floatability, it's on the ability to sink just a little and ride IN the surface film.

CDC feathers have a unique barb structure. This barb structure traps air. They have the unique quality of being soft feathers that "flow" well, like Marabou, but still float.

http://blog.theessentialfly.com/flyfishing/so-why-is-cdc-special-for-fly-tying-and-fishing-flies/

The real magic for fishermen is how they float. Look at a standard dry fly, and you have stiff hackle. This hackle creates surface tension on the water, keeping them ON TOP of the water.

Because CDC is soft, it has no such surface tension, so it starts to sink. However, because it traps air, it doesn't sink far. It stays IN the film. Thus making it ideal for emerger patterns and imitating any bugs that are in the surface film rather than riding on top of it, which is pretty common in nature.

Because the flotation method is different, gel and liquid floatants like gink don't work on CDC, in fact they make it sink by preventing it from trapping air. CDC requires a fair bit of work from the fisherman to keep it reasonably dry and working as it's supposed to. But if you're trying to fish in the surface film, it's worth it. I'm normally a gink man and I just hate working with floatants like Frogs Fanny (the cap comes off and I get that dang powder everywhere). But I have to admit Frogs Fanny does a very good job on CDC and because of that I always have some on hand.
 
As far as cat litter. Personally, I don't think floatant is a meaningfully large expense in fly fishing. More of a hassle. You gotta carry it, it sometimes leaks, you run out at inopportune times, etc.

And my first thought is that kitty litter is even more of a hassle.

As for whether it'll work, I dunno. Try it and see, and then report back. I always support people trying off the cuff things like that. There are plenty who use home concocted floatants like paraffin wax mixed with gasoline, kerosene, lighter fluid, etc. Stinks like hell, and it'd certainly make me think twice before lighting a cigar. So no thanks for me, but I think it's cool that people do it!
 
Heritage-Angler wrote:


Or - just tie on a new fly. ;-)

If ya wanna do it the easy way...
:pint:
 
pcray1231 wrote:
............ There are plenty who use home concocted floatants like paraffin wax mixed with gasoline, kerosene, lighter fluid, etc. Stinks like hell, and it'd certainly make me think twice before lighting a cigar. So no thanks for me, but I think it's cool that people do it!

Light a cigar and you have a fire fly! Plenty of water around to put it out I guess....

Yeah, it's not so much about the cost of a floatant, etc. mostly curious to see if it works. I just might have to try it out.
 
if you want floatant at a good price, buy a quart of hydrophobic fumed silca online for under $10. Lasts you forever and is the same as frogs fanny, which is $5 per bottle.
 
I tried the Loon powder stuff this year and hated it. Seems like no matter what it got everywhere in my vest/pack, and subsequently makes your hands feel like reptile skin.

Then tried the dry magic gel and it is much better to work with on CDC.
 
I have the same problem with Frogs Fanny. Without fail, that cap unscrews somehow and everything in my pack gets coated with that white crap. It's good stuff and it works. Just wish we could figure out a better packaging.
 
For that reason, I have a small pocket in front on my vest where a bottle of FF stays upright with no room to move. Spares (because I use a lot) are kept in an inside pocket in a ziploc bag in case the cap come open. Great stuff but like someone said, makes things feel all weird if it spills.
 
Aside from CDC, Frogs Fanny finds some use for me in the winter.

For all dries except CDC, I like the pastes like Gink better and that's what I carry. However, in the winter, the stuff freezes up and I can't get it out of the bottle. You open it up and try to scrape some out with forceps, but it's a hassle. So I often just carry Frogs Fanny from about November through March.
 
The whole idea of using CDC is that it is supposed to float without treatment, but alas some guys don't have enough of a pattern with them to let the CDCs dry. They never float the same after being treated.
 
Not all kat litter is silica gel type, Most is some variety of bentonite which is a fine clay used absorb moisture and cause clumping.
 
caveman wrote:
Not all kat litter is silica gel type, Most is some variety of bentonite which is a fine clay used absorb moisture and cause clumping.


Correct. I'll have to check the name of mine, but it's an amorphous silica gel crystal.
 
Joseywales........i use oil dri (same thing) not to mention silicon gel and those bead thangs. 2 inches of it in a one pound coffee can will get your deer hair poppers through a day and i use it for CDC too.
 
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