To Make A Floatant For Fishing Flies

[gmann0161]

How would you melt beeswax using a medium which would evaporate after depositing a fine layer of wax on the fly.

[dustypuss]

Maby hot water.

[sandyRoe]

Isn't it the line that provides buoyancy?

[dustypuss]

Found this on the web HTH

http://www.flyforums.co.uk/tackle-talk/17749-homemade-liquid-fly-floatant-2.html

[Clanad]

Actually (at least here in the U.S.) the ability to have the fly float has more to do with technique and fly construction than any dessicant. (We tie our own)

First, there are two basic types of fishing flies. The "Dry fly" and the "Wet" fly... As inferred, the dry fly is meant to float on top of the stream... the fly is made with considerably more hackle...the furry or hairy "fluff" right at the front of the fly. This, as opposed to much less hackle for the wet fly.

The hackle alone traps air bubbles and causes the fly to float. Additionally, "false casting" dries the fly between presentations. This is the technique where the fisherman repeatedly lofts the fly forward and aft without letting it land in the water. This adds as much to floatability as anything.

Wet flies (uggh!) are allowed to sink and attract fish under the surface of the water. Wet fly fisherman ar looked down upon by their dry fly brothers... (may as well use a worm!).

Here, in the western U.S., the fish of choice is the Golden Trout or Rainbow Trout, although I would add the German Brown. These are all fished with the dry fly. The high water is receding and I'm looking forward to the Upper Platte River in my home State of Wyoming for some of the finest dry fly fishing in the world!

Best of luck!

[chakka35]

How dare you, Clanad! Typical of a wet-fly man who might as well be a maggot dangler in that all he does is land the fly on the water and wait for a fish to take it as a static gift. Huh!

The wet fly has to be manoeuvred under water and made to 'swim' convincingly enough to fool a trout into thinking it is a small fish or nymph or something. Real skill involved. Hard work too, while the dry-fly man is sitting with his back against a tree with his hat over his eyes.

Still, you can't blame some people for going for the easy life. Tight lines.

[Clanad]

You miss the point chakka... as I said, may as well use a worm if all you're doing is baiting for fish. Why go to the trouble of sinking a nymph if you can't see it can't see a "rise".

Sitting with one's back against a tree after throwing in a fly that sinks out of sight would make one ... well.. a wet fly fisherman... no?

[chakka35]

Certainly not, Clanad. You have to work your line inch by inch to make the fly 'swim' as I said. Then at the end of that cast you cast again. It's hard work. The sitting with your back against a tree was a joke, of course, a dig at maggot danglers (called coarse fishermen, and I can see why) who really do throw in their worm or whatever and then wait for a bite. And they need a float to tell them what's happening. Dear, dear.

The good-natured snobbishness shown by dry-fly men is very prevalent in this country as well. Approach a Hampshire chalk stream and talk of wet flies and you'd be banned from all the pubs. All good fun.

[Clanad]

Enjoyed the exchange chakka! Cheers!

(Try a freshly tied tan, size 14 elk hair caddis at the end of a 6 foot long, 3 pound test leader tied with a neat Palomar knot all presented by an 80 year old 9 foot split bamboo rod using Cortland's double tapered, leaded, fly line... as I said, on the Upper North Platte River 10 miles west of Saratoga, (altitude 7,212 feet ASL) Wyoming on a late July afternoon with the riffles gently tugging the line and a 4 pound Rainbow trout rises... rolls over and heads for the undercut river bank with your fly deeply imbedded in his cheek... well, you'll never go back to splashing around in the shallows again!)

[chakka35]

Oh Clanad, don't do that to me; you had me drooling. The trout I have fished for in Scotland are brown trout with pink flesh due to the peaty water.

Ah! Happy hours! But we'd better call it a day, having hijacked this thread quite shamelessly.

[Clanad]

Thanks, chakka! Enjoyed the exchange. Our rainbow's tend toward the pink flesh, but it must be the ancent salmon DNA since we have no peat anywhere.

Sincere apologies, gmann061, and thank you for tolerating the good natured exchange between obviously dedicated fly fishermen (well, at least one real fly fisherman!) Just remember... use lotsa hackle to make 'em float... and several drying false casts... Best of luck!