Treating Dry Flies To Help Them Float

10 April 2015 | Andy

Watching a dry fly float down a river or on a stillwater and being taken down by Dry flies can be highly buoyant in the case of foam based dry flies or elk hair caddis where the elk hair is hollow and keeps the fly floating, however it is normal to keep dry flies floating longer by using floatants like Gink or for CDC based fly patterns with CDC Oil. Gink is a petroleum based product, simply put a drop into your hand and it warms up and becomes more liquid from the warmth of your hand, use your finger tips to work into into the hackles and body of the fly as required.

Once you have used a fly for a while or it has had caught a number of fish then the fly may get 'dirty' and start sinking. Once that happens wash the fly in the river or lake to clean all trout debris from the fly then use a dessicant like Semperfli Desert Dust to dry the fly and refresh it so that it floats naturally again. To Use Desert Dust simply drop your fly into the bottle and use the brush in the lid of the bottle to push the dessicant into all the fly. A Dessicant is designed with chemicals to soak up water and in the case of Semperfli Desert Dust it has chemicals that will help enhance the UV properties of the fly giving it that little edge!

Floatants & Oils For Dry Flies


Gink Floatant for Traditional Flies	CDC Oil for Floating CDC based Flies	Semperfli Desert Dust Dessicant to Dry Out Wet Flies

There are many different floatants and oils on the market for fly fishing, check our specialist floatant department here

Treating CDC Flies For Fly Fishing

CDC flies simply get 'blocked' if you use Gink and will sink, not the effect we are after. If you examine cdc feathers under a microscope you will see that the fly is made up of micro barbs, virtually invisible to the human eye. However these micro barbules trap air which gives the fly its buoyancy naturally. If we want to enhance this we can do like the duck, origins of the cdc feathers and enhance the feathers with cdc oil. In the case of a duck it preens itself with its beak squeezing oil from its glands. As fly fishermen we can make this slightly easier, we squeeze cdc oil from a bottle!

Once the cdc feather becomes waterlogged or the cdc feather gets gunked from trout slime then wash the fly in the water to clean it an apply Semperfli Desicant and the fly will be ready to float naturally again.