Fessiewig: no floatant dry flies

[PW]

Fessiewig,

I know you don't like to use floatant on your dries. What materials and patterns are you experimenting with these days to keep them from sinking?

PW-

[fessiewig]

It's not that I don't use floatants on drys, but we'll get to that later.

The secret to a good floating dry flies is in the materials. First off the tail should be stiff. It needs to hold up the back end of the fly which has most of the hook under it. The best place to get stiff tailing material is from a genetic rooster neck. If you hold the neck out in front of you, look on either outside edge of the cape and you'll find, what I call, spay hackles. There is probably a proper name for these hackles, but I don't know it. Anyway, you'll find these hackles have nice long and stiff hackle barbules. Next is the body. Get a good quality DRY FLY DUBBING material and when you dub it onto your thread make sure it's tight. Next will be the wings. Hackle tips are best if you can work with them. If you can't try teal or mallard brest feathers, upright and divided. Even better would be wood duck upright and divided. Now the hackle. Use the best quality rooster hackle you can afford. Don't go cheap here. Make sure you tie the hackle in tip first and never wind into the web. Actually you should only need 4 turns at the most of a good quality hackle. Build your fly this way and you shouldn't need a lot of floatant.

I try to stay away from floatants that leave a slick on the water. You've seen it, I'm sure. That blue, green and red ring that comes off the fly when it hits the water. I've found Frogs Fanny works well for my drys if you massage it into the fly.

Hope that helps. :wink:

[PW]

I agree! the fish can see the oil slick and probably can smell it too. Fess, I was just curious if you were experimenting with any unusual materials such as foam. I've been testing sheet foam cut thin and wrapped up the hook shank to build up the body. I use bristles from a synthetic paint brush for the tails (very stiff) and plain old rooster hackle. So far they float like a cork in a glass filled with water. I'd like to develop some flies that I can fish all day without having to use a drop of floatant.

[Larvanator]

Just use a nymph and don't worry if it sinks.

[fessiewig]

Ther you go PW. I think Larvanator has taken care of that issue.

[mer]

gee, you've basically described the Classic Catskill style fly there fessiewig :)

Didn't Fly Tyer recently say the "Catskill style flies are obsolete?"

[fessiewig]

Every style has it's place. Give me a Catskill tie for water that is broken any day! Actually, there are several style drys I use, but I still love the Catskill style. Besides, they look beautiful.

[troutscout]

OK teachers...I'm pleading ignorance. What makes something a catskill fly? :? I've seen these style mentioned before but I'm not sure what it is.

[mer]

Start here:

http://www.flyfishingnetwork.com/CatskillFlyGuild/welcome.html

In a nutshell, it's a style of tying dry flies that more or less started with Theodore Gordon, in the Catskill region of NY. A Quill Gordon, Hendrickson, Cahill, Red Quill are some of the patterns in this style. A well done one is a beauty to see. Some of the tyers in the Catskill School: Walt, Winnie, Mary Dette, Harry and Elsie Darbee, Roy Steenrod, Rube Cross, Dave Brandt.

[BugChucka]

I created or more accurately modified an existing style of fly for my needs which is very buoyant. It's made to mimic a lime sally or caddis on top. The body is lime translucent dubbing. The wing is white CDC with white elk hair on top of it. Grizzly hackle is wrapped around a white CDC parachute post. The fly works very well and is used alone and also as an indicator fly while using a dropper setup. The CDC is very buoyant, the elk hair, and of course the parachute and cdc post.

[fessiewig]

Do you have a picture you can post?

[troutscout]

Thanks for the website Mer. I read their description which was very helpful. Unfortunately their pattern index was down but I'm sure I can discover many examples from their.

I've never fished the Catskills but I'd imagine the flies would work on some of our more turbulent waters nicely.

[mer]

Here's some pics for you then:

http://www.danica.com/flytier/wwdette/wwdette.htm
http://www.danica.com/flytier/dbrandt/dbrandt.htm
http://www.danica.com/flytier/apodell/apodell.htm

[fessiewig]

We can't post these as our own, there site clearly forbids that. I've been fooling around with my digital camera trying to get consistently good photos and feel I'm almost there.

[mer]

We can't post these as our own, there site clearly forbids that. I've been fooling around with my digital camera trying to get consistently good photos and feel I'm almost there.

Did I miss something? Is this referring to the links I posted above? There shouldn't be any issue with linking, and there is no claim about ownership of the photos in my post.

:?:

[fessiewig]

I'm sorry! I thought you were talking about picking off photo's and using them to illustrate the patterns on the Tying page. Of course we can link to that page, it's a fantastic site for fly tying, I use it often. I believe we're creating a "Links" page and that site will be one we'll recommend.

[mer]

:D
Ok, guess we both need another cup of coffee.

I agree Hans' website is a great reference and a "Links" page here is also good.