Best floatant for yarn or polycord indicators?

[a23fish]

I put together some Dorsey's Yarn Indicators a couple days ago after watching a video, and tried them out yesterday. Worked like a charm at first, but tended to get wet & sink after a short time. A few false casts would dry them out so they would float like magic, but again they would succumb to sinking faster than I liked.

It seemed like once they got the least bit wet, they didn't want to stay on top. Perhaps I am expecting too much? Perhaps my line management technique isn't good enough to keep the fly line from getting ahead of the indicator and pulling them down, or the nymph is getting temporarily hung up on a rock, leaf, or twig and pulling the indicator under too. Or maybe they just get wet and simply won't float as well as when perfectly dry.

Regardless, I'm looking for others' experience on what floatant may be best for yarn or wool indicators. I'm going to put together some wool indicators too, just because. I haven't been too successful actually catching fish lately, but I have been getting in a lot more casting practice....

 

[Dave_W]

a23fish wrote:
I'm looking for others' experience on what floatant may be best for yarn or wool indicators. I'm going to put together some wool indicators too, just because. I haven't been too successful actually catching fish lately, but I have been getting in a lot more casting practice....

Catching trout in the fall can be difficult. Stocked trout are less numerous and often water conditions can be low, cold, and very clear (or high and muddy, such as lately).

Anyway, regarding floatant, I don't use yarn indicators so take this for what it's worth - I use a paste type dry fly floatant and suspect any type of this would work well for indicators (I use Orvis brand). For small, fine indicators, Frog's fanny or some sort of powder floatant might be better.

 

[Bamboozle]

I use yarn indicators all the time although I DON'T pre-make them, I just carry around 10" or less sections of treated yarn in florescent orange, florescent yellow and black, yes black. I use that yarn they sell for making egg flies because it comes in the bright colors I am after. The black is regular poly yarn I had lying around.

I attach a short section of yarn to my leader using a simple double loop method that for some reason I cannot find described anywhere on the Internet so MAYBE I invented it. ;-) The way I attach it does NOT kink your leader and the yarn is EASILY removed IF you do it my way…

…Maybe I need to make a video…?

Anyway...

When I prepare my yarn, I figure out the length that will fit inside the container I dispense it from and I cut off several lengths of that color. I put the yarn sections inside of some small container like a Solo cup or empty can and saturate it with Camp Dry or any similar INEXPENSIVE silicone waterproofing stuff. A durable water repellent (DWR) like Revivex would work too if you have it around for your waders.

After saturating the yarn sections, squeeze out the extra waterproofing and hang the sections of yarn somewhere to dry out completely, overnight or longer. When completely dry, I put a section in my dispensers (* more about that later) and put the extra treated pieces in Ziploc bags to replenish my dispensers when they are empty.

Nothing floats forever however, waterproofing in advance makes a BIG difference and I don't re-treat the yarn when I use it. When I am lazy, I have on occasion used silica gel fly drying crystals and an Amadou patch to dry out my yarn after it gets really soaked. If I replace it or swap colors, I'll often times save the old piece and reuse it again on another day.

* For years I have been carrying around a small 6 compartment Myran box filled with stuff like indicator yarn, strike putty, sink putty and Loon Payette Paste, a paste floatant that DOESN’T melt all over the place.

I scoop out the paste from the factory container with a finger or wide blade screwdriver into one compartment and put some of the putty into the others. For the yarn, I drill a small hole; maybe 3/16” into the center of the compartment on the bottom of the Myran box for the number of compartments I need for yarn.

Push a short length of yarn through the hole, cram the rest into the compartment, close the lid on the Myran box and in one clear 2-1/4" x 3-1/2" x 3/4" box you have everything...

...so no more digging around in your vest for little plastic containers.

Hope this helps!

 

[a23fish]

Bamboozle - Sounds like a cohesive system. I wish I'd thought of the Camp Dry or Revivex stuff earlier; I'm pretty sure I have at least one those laying around somewhere. I bought the High N Dry gel floatant last week and pretreated several of the yarn indicators I pre-tied. Tried it out today and it worked pretty well. The first one floated like magic for about three hours. Not bad. After that, a false cast or two would dry it out enough to easily float for several more drifts.

I missed four hook sets, but can't blame that on the indicator. It did its job.

 

[Bamboozle]

It all works, it's just the cost of the "water repellant" that varies.

When I first started using yarn I treated it with "Water Shed," which is designed to pre-treat flies. It worked great, but at $5.00 for a small bottle, I figured there was something out there that would work as just a good for a lot less $$$.

That's when I started using Camp Dry.

Good luck!

 

[tomgamber]

I use GINK. Not sure when i started using it but I tend to stick with something until it doesn't. Still works!