If you are a dry fly enthusiast you know how challenging it can be to get your fly floating, or especially to keep floating.
We have your floatant solution!
If you missed part one of this series — Ben Kittrel’s rundown on floatants earlier this summer; you should give that a read too!
Here is what I do from start to finish:
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- Right out of the box your fly is dry but not yet treated to necessarily float super well. I occasionally use Fly-Agra but really prefer the far less smelly Shimazaki Dry Shake Liquid. It is by far the best liquid floatant you can apply to your flies.
- Once the fly has been on the water, or if you’ve caught a fish and the fly is “slimed” up and sinks faster than your bead head you need to squeeze the water and slime from the fly using an Amadou patch ($15.95). You can blow on the fly, false cast 26 times but nothing will get the fly dried out like the Amadou. Simply place the fly between the 2 pieces of leather like material that is actually made from a European mushroom and voila, it is dry enough to go to step three.
- We’ve been using Shimazaki Dry Shake Powder for years. We called it Trout Crack, Magic Dust, and the Dope. It is incredible. You can use it on your flies straight out of the box and eliminate step 1 but don’t do that. Trust me, the liquid is worth the extra investment for the initial processing.
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All you do after drying the fly back out is put it in the powder jar and gently close the lid, being careful not to snap it shut (which damages the tippet) and shake the fly up which gets all the left over moisture off the fly and retreats it to float better than ever.
There are a fair number of anglers who visit us who like to apply Powdered Floatant with an applicator brush. New for 2017 is a Dry Shake Brush Applicator ($14.95) for those who want pin point accuracy on where the powder is applied to the fly.
When I am dry fly fishing on the Metolius (my favorite thing to do!) I have a ritual of this process that totally works for me and I believe it will work great for you too. Give us a call if we can help you out.
—Jeff Perin and the staff of Fly Fisher’s Place
- Shop Phone: (541) 549-3474
I have been using Dry Shake and Frog’s Fanny alone for a long time. This year I plan to use a liquid pre-treatment. My question: most directions say to treat streamside or the night before. But can I just soak flies when I tie them and have the treatment last for weeks before first use?