CDC vs Polypropelene...which is more buoyant ?

[Brit in a Bothy]

Hi,

A newbee (to fly tying) question....Which material is more buoyant...CDC feathers or polyprop fibres ?

I want to tie some shuttlecocks - and some of my 'shop bought' shuttlecocks, in the past, have sunk !!!!

After playing with some very fine polyprop yarn and finding it very easy to work with I wondered if I could substitute it for CDC feathers?

Would appreciate some advice on the subject.

Nigel

[Mrtrout]

Nigel, I and Phil, flyfishwithme, use the hanks of Puglisi yarn from Phil Holding, spiderplus.
I find it virtually unsinkable, and easy to tie.
It goes a long way and comes in loads of colours, highly reccomend it.
S.

[tk8456]

Controversial

I dont see why not mate, plus CDC relies on oil that gets lost after a few takes.
At least polyprop will ALWAYS be less dense than water so it should always float.

In shuttlecocks you maybe ok yeah but CDC does have a lovely movement to it on other flies. Polyprop will be a little stiffer

Please let me know how you get on as I love shuttlecocks when fish are rising

[Scratch]

Originally Posted by tk8456

CDC relies on oil

Wrong. It floats because of its unique air trapping structure.

[tk8456]

Originally Posted by Scratch

Wrong. It floats because of its unique air trapping structure.

Why does it mess up after time then? I had heard its cos its structure yes but oil does something to them.
Whatever the reason for CDC floating, it doesn't do it forever

PS: Are my buzzers done please

[spidersplus]

As Scratch states, CDC feathers float due to the structure of the barbs that trap tiny air bubbles.

(There was a myth flying around when CDC first became popular in the UK that if you cut the ends off the feathers, the oil would leak out!)

Flies tied with CDC will mess up after catching a fish or two as the feathers get coated with fish slime - wash the fly in the river/lake and leave it to dry in the air and it will trap air bubbles again.

The Trigger Point International fibres as mentioned by mrtrout float mainly for a different reason - they are pre-treated with Watershed.

Brit, you hit the nail on the head re shuttlecock patterns with your phrase - "shop bought".

Many factory tied shuttlecocks either do not include enough plumes or they use sub standard feathers lacking in the barbules that trap air.

Try tying your own using good quality feathers - and don't skimp on the quantity. Remember - DON'T gink the CDC or you will immediately render them worse than useless.

TPI fibres are excellent for wing posts in parachute patterns - you could certainly tie shuttlecock patterns with the fibres but my first choice would always be CDC.

OK - I am biased but for CDC, take a look here:

http://www.flytyingboutique.com/stor...136&category=6

For TPI Fibres, take a look here:

http://www.flytyingboutique.com/stor...=69&category=5

And for the best "single colour" polyprop yarn, here:

http://www.flytyingboutique.com/stor...=71&category=5

Kind regards

[Brit in a Bothy]

Hi Guys,

I really appreciate all of your input. I am not sure that anyone has actually managed to answer my question yet - but one thing is emerging....CDC gets slimed up after catching / needs to be really good quality feathers / needs drying / can't use 'gink' or similar on it, etc, etc.

As a novice fly tyer that begs the question...why go through all that hassle if there is a syntheric material that is as or more buoyant and doesn't require 'babying' ?????

Nigel

[spidersplus]

Nigel,

The synthetics are good ... but do not work in the same way as CDC does.

In my view, the volume of air bubbles that CDC traps outway the floatability of the same amount of poly yarn - so you would need to tie in a larger amount of yarn to gain the same bouyancy compared to CDC.

Bite the bullet and buy some GOOD cdc - and if you tie them in with the tips facing the hook bend, dub over the butts with some spikey dubbing then fold the tips back over the eye and tie down in the neck of the hook (right behind the eye), you gain a lot more bouyancy.

Kind regards

[jdl]

Originally Posted by Brit in Bahrain

As a novice fly tyer that begs the question...why go through all that hassle if there is a syntheric material that is as or more buoyant and doesn't require 'babying' ?????

For shuttlecocks and flies such as F-flies, CDC works so much better than artificial alternatives that it's worth the hassle. It is difficult to take more than one fish on a CDC fly and unless you're careful, the fly can get waterlogged even before it's had a fish anywhere near it. The trade off is that CDC has magical fish-attracting properties. My guess as to why is that it looks much more like a natural wing to the fish than any of the alternatives.

jdl