Dry Fly Floatant

RCFetter

RCFetter

Well-known member
Joined
Mar 11, 2008
Messages
2,080
Location
Montgomery County
I've only tried Mucillin and don't like it b/c it melts too easily, leaks out of the container and messes up my tackle box and waist pack.

I searched and the most recent thread on the subject was posted in May of 2013:

Best stuff floatant out there.

Here's a summary of the brands mentioned in the thread:

Umpqua Tiemco Dry Magic - $13.95
Flyagra - $6.95
Frogs Fanny Fly Treatment - $7.95
Jack’s Fly Stuff (Sold by Sandfly)

I like the idea of a spray-on but was wondering if anyone has additional thoughts / suggestions.
 
Frogs fanny changed my life...especially with CDC. I havent tried flyagr, umpqua stuff, or sandflys stuff, but i do know frogs fanny is a must for me.
 
I've tried them all including the ones listed. Last year I tried CDC Oil by Anglers Image and I will never look back.
 
I use Green Mucilin. Always have and probably always will. It is the sodium bicarbonate of fly fishing gear; its potential range of utility is only constrained by the boundaries of our imaginations. It floats a fly as well as I need and it buoys up the drooping tip sections of the cheap lines I usually trout fish with. It is also a quick/spur of the moment lubricant for a lot of the gear that is involved with the sport. For all I know, in a pinch, it may also be a substitute for mineral oil during those "special times" when peristalsis seems to fail us... I haven't tried this and neither should you. But it wouldn't surprise me if it turned out to be true.

So, I like Green Mucilin. I also carry a swatch (maybe 5" X 5") of fake chamois from the auto dep't at Wal-Mart. A lifetime supply of this stuff is under $15. One quick squeeze of a drowned dry fly and a couple of false casts and you're usually back in business.

Finally, when I have a fly that needs a Frog's Fanny-style treatment, I brush it with the arrow fletch drying powder I store in my old Frog's Fanny bottle. Same stuff, just a little more coarse than Frog's Fanny. An amount equiv. to about 4 bottles of Frog's Fanny can usually be bought at any decent archery shop for 10 bucks or less. Just don't inhale while you are transferring it from one container to another. Silicosis.

That's all I know (or want to know..) about floatant...
 
Frog's Fanny is my go to. You buy 1 bottle and if you look eBay you will find a guy selling quart containers for around $20. You can refill that bottle hundreds of times for about $20!
 
honestly I really like a paste...not a soft paste...I'd have to unpack to get the name again. For dries and leaders.

I did get some frogs fanny for last fall, don't have enough experience with it, not sure I care for a solid white fly, it does work though. It doesn't really revive cdc as well as I had hoped.

For a nz indicator, gink is hard to beat!
 
I like Loon Aqel. It is stable and does not melt in hot weather or leave oil slicks on the water. I treat the fly right before fishing. Once the fly is wet and needs dried I like Loon Easy Dry or Frog's Fanny. Heritage Angler got me to try Frog's Fanny at one of our Fish and Chips events and I must say it is REALLY good stuff.
 
Goggle fumed silica. It is the same as frog fanny and you can get a lifetime supply for what you pay for the name brand stuff.

For a paste I like Dilly Wax.
 
Where can you buy fumed silica locally?
 
WildTigerTrout wrote:
I like Loon Aqel. It is stable and does not melt in hot weather or leave oil slicks on the water.

+1
 
I'm gonna look in to that Foxgap, I go through a few containers of frogs fanny each year. Only problem I've had when using it was that when its a full bottle , it tends to spill out during the first few flies.
 
For cdc, I love Loon Loscha. I haven't bothered with frogs fanny since I've tried it.
 
AFB2989 wrote:
I'm gonna look in to that Foxgap, I go through a few containers of frogs fanny each year. Only problem I've had when using it was that when its a full bottle , it tends to spill out during the first few flies.

That's the beauty of refills. I only refill mine about 3/4 each time to avoid exactly what you point out.
 
Here's my MO:

At the tying desk: Watershed. Great product, it's kinda like putting Rain-X on your flies (maybe exactly like, and try rain-x too!). After you tie a fly, you put a drop on, then let it dry before use. Since I buy a fair number of my dry flies, I periodically treat my whole box (usually a wintertime thing). Generally I've found it doesn't really float stuff high like the others here. Testing at home shows that it keeps flies floating on still water an amazing amount of time, but in real life situations with current, they still go under nearly as quickly. And unlike some floatants, they don't pop back up, I suppose because it doesn't trap any air.

What it does do is make it much easier to dry out. Even just blowing on it makes a fly almost good as new. False casting to dry the fly becomes much more effective. The soaking a fly gets after catching a fish goes away in an instant. Basically, a full waterlogging becomes easily fixable. Great for pre-treating brookie flies, dry dropper "indicators", and really any dry fly.

On stream: Gink. Works great for me on hackled flies, not so great for spinners, and terrible for CDC. It also has some temperature issues, too thick when cold and too thin when warm. I use it mostly when running dry dropper rigs, as it seems to really hold up some weight, even in heaviesh currents.

Alternate: Frog's Fanny. Any dessicant would work, I'd think. I'm not a fan of the packaging as it always breaks open in my bag and makes a mess! But on caddis trips (where I more commonly use CDC), I'll take it along. It's also useful for recovering thoroughly waterlogged flies.
 
pcray1231 wrote:

Alternate: Frog's Fanny. Any dessicant would work, I'd think. I'm not a fan of the packaging as it always breaks open in my bag and makes a mess! But on caddis trips (where I more commonly use CDC), I'll take it along.

Pat, had the same issue. Now I keep my working bottle in my front vest pocket where it remains upright and my spare in a ziploc bag in the inside pocket. You only have to clean that crap up once and you learn!
 
Oh a little tip which I got from DD, if you buy the refill, go out to your local pharmacy and buy one of those rubber ear wax bulbs. Makes it easy and quite a bit less messy to refill your bottle. Just be careful and squeeze gently or you'll find yourself in a cloud!
 
outsider wrote:
Where can you buy fumed silica locally?

http://www.ebay.com/itm/like/221710458322?lpid=82&chn=ps

I found this on ebay.

Bill
 
This is the good stuff....

http://www.epoxyproducts.com/f_mixin.html
 
I usually buy the desiccant with the beads and when its gone buy a bottle of Frogs Fanny and pour it into the bead bottle. Then use it like the beaded desiccant.

Open hinged bottle lid, insert fly, close lid shake, open lid and remove fly. Close lid...real simple just remember that last step. :-D
 
Back
Top