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Having the dry flies to float high and emergers to float and stay that
way is always difficult. A number of products are on the market, they
have to be applied with the fingers (floatant) or spray on the fly .
In our search for efficient and reasonably
priced products for flyfishing, we found this hydrophobic powder.
(A similar product does exist "Frog's Fanny" sold in
the USA)
How does it work?
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| The
fly, a black caddis, body, thorax and wing: black CDC |
The
powder is applied with a small brush. on the body, thorax and wing.
Then, between your fingers, pinch the wing and body. The
pressure will push the powder inside the feathers. |
Shake
the fly to remove any excess powder, but the pinching has forced
inside the powder particles and they are trapped between the barbules and cling to the feather. |
They are these powder particles which trapped
within the feather will make the fly float.
In contact with the water, each small hydrophobic particle (
hydrophobic: which repels water) will put an air bubble around it, so
creating many , many bubbles which make the fly float.
The same with an hackled fly: |
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| The
fly an Hawthorne, peacock herl body and black hackle |
The
fly well covered with powder.
Then, between your fingers, pinch the wing, hackle and body. The
pressure will push the powder inside the feathers. |
After
pinching and shaking, most of the powder is gone, but enough is trapped on the body
and hackle |
| Hackles
fibers are smoother than CDC, they still keep enough powder to
keep the fly afloat, but for fast water or waves on stillwater, you
can increase the amount by putting some Mucilin (or other floatant)
on the hackle, more powder will stick to the grease and increase the
floating effect. Again, with pressure between your fingers, force the
powder inside. |
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The caddis powdered, seen
from the top and from beneath |
The
hawthorne seen from the top and from beneath |
A
powdered bivisible seen from the top and from beneath |
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These 3 floating flies
were put in an aquarium and they were still floating more than 3
days later.
More powdered flies |
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An emerger shuttlecock
tied with CDC oiler puff, wing and thorax powdered, seen from
the top and from beneath. You can see the shiny air bubbles which make
it float, and still floating 3 days later!
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A
goldbead Hare's ear nymph, only the thorax is powdered. This
powder traps air bubbles making them look like the real thing. |
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You
can get this new product at the
Pechetruite Shop in the feathers page.
To have minimum shipping cost , we ship the powder in a minigrip
plastic bag.
To use it: put some of the powder in a small plastic can with a
snap-on lid
like a small film container or a small bottle. Get a watercolor brush
(scholastic grade) to apply the powder to the fly.
In the bag, you have enough powder
to keep hundreds if not thousand of flies afloat
And while fishing, before applying the floating powder, dry your fly
thoroughly with Dry Fly
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