Another newbie question - please feel to point me at a FAQ if there is one...

I tried fishing a small dry fly on a 6 lb leader. It seemed I had to dry the fly off after every cast (I used an amadou patch and some shake'n'float type crystals). I guess the leader was too heavy relative to the fly's ability to float.

Should I use bigger flies? Is there perhaps a rule of thumb for hook size vs leader strength?

It can be a right Ta ta. This might help you. Also there was a thread earlier about the best dry fly floatant(s). Were you treating the fly with a floatant prior to fishing with it? What floatant do you have?

richard

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Who resides on the right bank of the Derbyshire Wye and is lulled to sleep each night by the mutterings of a weir, dreaming that "When the rivers and their inhabitants come first, we ALL win..."

Was it a CDC (cul de canard) dry fly? If so, don't use floatant on it, the feathers have natural oils which keep them buoyant and if you put gink or anything similar on, you swamp them, as I learned to my cost.

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There's a fine line between fishing and just standing on the shore like an idiot.

It could also be the hook itself , ive seen some shop bought dries with hooks far to heavy for the dressing

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It could also be leader material. Flouro will pull flies under, co-polymer less so.

What size fly?

This pretty much covers it, although diameter vs breaking strain will vary with brand.

Leader.............................fly size....................lb test

0x...................................2, 1/0.....................15lb
1x...................................4,6,8......................13.5lb
2x...................................6,8,10....................11.5lb
3x..................................10,12,14..................8.5lb
4x..................................12,14,16..................6lb
5x..................................14,16,18..................4.75lb
6x...................................16,18,20,22.............3.5lb
7x..................................18,20,22,24..............2.5lb
8x..................................22,24,26,28..............1.75lb
.........

Small amounts of gink on normal dries or CDC Dries try Vienard CDC Oil ( Very Small Amounts)

Col

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"It is not easy to tell one how to cast. The art must be acquired by practice.

hello thats interesting i bought some last year from fast mail and done just that so thankyou for info, i shall have to remember even us oldys

Nothing to do with oil ... it is the structure of the cdc plume



The structure spreads the weight of the fly out over the surface film the distribution is sufficient to keep the fly afloat
The reason floatant links cdc is that it sticks true little barbules to the shaft and this reduces the surface area and thus the weight holding ability of the feather...
Glyn, I will be happy to have a look next time out paths cross ... 6 lb sounds a bit heavy to me.. also if you are fishing "that place" you will need to sink your tippet as it will cast a shadow... pm me you email west I will Ho over a venue specific set up in more detail

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Oh, OK, I read somewhere it was the oil, but your explanation seems to make plenty of sense. Either way, the end result is the same - gink a CDC, sink a CDC
Steve

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There's a fine line between fishing and just standing on the shore like an idiot.

On tippet size, I get more or less the same results as the above by remembering to divide the hook size (e.g. size 12) by three, and that gives the X size - so 3x diameter is appropriate for a size 12 hook.

I've certainly had fewer problems after switching to co-polymer. Bit of gink, and when it starts to sink, dry the fly off with the powder stuff and re-gink. I'm told ginking a wet fly doesn't work.

Having said all that, this is all second hand info gleaned from others on here. I've been spectacularly unsuccessful actually catching with the dry fly... so far.

Neil