Hello guys, had my first fish on a dry on sunday and I am now hooked! (Pun intended!)

However being new to fishing dries I realise I need some floatant. I see there are a few kinds, I have seen Gink, dry powder stuff and spray stuff in a can.

What are peoples experiences with floatants and can you recommend one?

Thanks

I have used Gink, Loon's Aquel and dilly wax. I am happy with any of these.

I too am fairly new to dry fly, starting last season (on stillwaters) totally unsuccessfully, and cracking it this season:

Last year I had trouble keeping my flies afloat. In frustration I think I went a bit overboard, perhaps: I treat all my dries with watershed on the vice; I then apply a little gink at the waterside; if it gets soaked, I squeeze out the water on my shirt or a paper napkin (modern fabrics aren't very absorbent), give it a shake in a Loon's powder, then maybe re-gink. I learned here that ginking a fly that is wet will make it sink.

That works for me, however, I suspect the most significant factor in keeping my flies up was changing from a level fluro leader to a tapered nylon leader with an added copolymer tippet.

Neil

Apart from this year adding the discipline of using Water Shed on the fly tying bench I have found Halstead and Hartley's Supafloat and Loon's Aquel to be very good to use at the waterside (on untreated flies). Once started with a "proofed" fly you do have more work to do as you fish on.

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..."

Spot on IMO also put a bit extra hackle in when tying the fly, certainly aids floatability.

I use Gink, or Loon or Orvis floatants - the effect is the same with any of them.