For years I have used Cortland Dab as my first choice in floatants. Then one summer while fishing with a friend and fellow guide in Colorado I was introduced to the Umpqua Shimazaki Shake. I loaded up on this stuff and my stockpile has lasted the past many years. The other day on the river the last of my Shim Shake got spilled by mistake and this has sent me back into the market for a replacement.

Certainly I can pose this question on the North Am site but I'm certain that I'll hear the commonly used products from my fellow fishers in the "colonies". But , I think that difference is good and seeking different ideas is how I learn and grow even after this many years.

So, what do you all prefer to keep your duns above water?

For me I still start with Cortland Dab as the "out of the box" treatment. Then once the fly has been soaked or slimed I use the Shim Shake to bring it back to life. This one/two punch works pretty good in the often turbulent water I fish.

All the Best-
Russell

When I've tied a batch of flies I treat them with watershed and allow them to dry for at least 24 hours.

Waterside, I use Dilly Wax and if / when the fly becomes 'slimed' I refresh it with Frog's Fanny.

This is the best combination of treatments I've found for 'conventional' dries.

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Thanks Lighthouse-

Overhere there are some that treat with an aerosol called Scotchguard. Which I think is a silicone based waterproofing product for boots etc. I have never tried this before but perhaps I should give it a go. I'll look up the products that spoke about, again thanks for your input.

Russell

Russell appears the product is still readily available here in the States: Okay, not the best - Umpqua Feather Merchants Shimazaki Dry Shake - Fly Fishing - review by mtnlioness from Colorado on 08/16/2011

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I've got an assortment of things I use, as it depends on what I am fishing. If something like a hopper on stillwater, I just use Gink, which you can apply just to the upper side of the fly, allowing the untreated lower parts to sink right in to the surface film. It's fine for most dries.

For resurrecting soggy CDC's, a good piece of amadou, followed by Frog's Fanny has been working well this year.

For dapping flies - big shaving brush type things with up to 4 big cock hackles - you really need them to be bone dry, so that they dance on their tip-toes across the water, and I've been giving them an initial dunk in the old hourglass mucilin liquid at the time of tying, then when fishing them I've been using a tub of what I think will equate to your Shimazaki Shake. I bought it back in the 1990s - in a green hard plastic tub - but all the writing has long since worn off.

It's running low though and I'd be keen to get another tub. I wish I could remember its real name - we always called it 'Shake and Vac' after the carpet cleaner I think the Frog's Fanny would be just as good, but it would need a big tub that you could dunk your dapping fly in - if you just use the wee bottle and titchy brush you would be there all day and have used half the bottle to treat one dapping fly .

Col

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Thanks for more great replies! Frog's Fanny is indeed a good product and I have used it by mixing it in a one to one ratio with an older bottle of Shim Shake. That way I get the benefit of the drying agent of the Shim and the floatant of the Frog's.

I have found that the original Shimazaki makes the fly noticeably lighter in color and I have heard the Dun color makes the fly a tad too dark. I found both products on sale so I'm going to mix them in equal parts to seek a happy medium. I also have a half bottle of Frog's to add to the mix and I'm eager to see how this "home brew" works.

I am defenately going to try the pretreat idea as that can only be a positive. As for some of the other products- I used Gink many years ago but in my region's hot summers (30C+) it became very liquid, which is why I settled on Dab. I wonder if the maker of Gink has altered the mix to aid it from thinning out at high temps.

Some years ago I purchased a CDC paste from the German company RST. This seemed to work well for CDC duns but for whatever reason I stopped using it, perhaps I simply lost the container.

Hi Russell,

I used fairly much the same dapping fly all week when we had a holiday on South Uist this year, and I must have had it in the dry shake dozens of times. I was noticing that as the week went on it was getting a distinct white bloom to it , and a slightly odd feel. The alternative, which is used by a lot of hard-core dappers is that every time the fly gets swamped by a wave, or taken down by a fish, they cut it off, stick it in their hat to dry thoroughly, and tie on a fresh one.

As for Gink - I know what you mean about it turning to liquid. However, we get maybe one day a year when that is a problem . A much more common problem is getting it to come out the bottle at all - we were fishing in temperatures of 7 or 8 degrees (quite often) in June and July this year .

There was a post in a related thread where a member said they got a pint of Frog's Fanny. I wish I could remember where the thread was so I could ask him where he got it.

Col

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Col-

What is your technique for dapping? It's not something often discussed in my area, are you using multiple flies or just one with a long rod and very little leader touching the water? In a way it sounds like the Japanese Tenkara. In honor of your reply I'll have a bit of Glenmorangie.

I break fly floatants down into 4 main categories.

1. Grease/silicone based gels like Aquel and Gink. These work by filling in the spaces beween the dubbing so that water cannot penetrate. Being greasy, they mildly repel water.

2. Hydrophobic powders - Frogs Fanny, Blue Ribbon Floatant. This is (microscopic amorphous crystals of silicon dioxide). Micro silica is hydrophilic so it is treated with siloxane or silicon oil to make it markedly hydrophobic. These treated powders will even float a beadhead fly because their chemical bonds actively repel water.

3. Silica gel which is a solid dessicant that absorbs water. It is commonly packed with electronic equipment to keep it dry.

4. Combination products of (2) and (3) - Top Ride, Shimazaki Dry Shake. The silica gel absorbs the water from the fly and the fumed silica provides water repellancy.

A cheap way to make your own Frog's Fanny, Top Ride, and Shimazaki Dry Shake is to buy the materials on your own. Silica gel is used to dry flowers and is cheap when bought in bulk. Hydrophobic fumed silica is also sold as archery or feather powder. It is used to keep arrow fletchings dry in rainy weather.

Mix up silica gel and hydrophobic micro silica for Top Ride or use just the micro silica for Frog's Fanny.

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Hi Russell/

Yep - long rod, single fly and nothing at all touching the water apart from the fly. I'm very much a part-timer at dapping and the best thing I can do is refer you to this article by Loch Lomond master of the dap, Angus MacRitchie...

Dapping on Loch Lomond

I've been practicing Angus's arc technique - a double movement of the fly - the downwind run and the upwind run. The downwind run is something that you cannot imitate with a fly line and a dry fly, as a normal dry can only be static or moving towards you, whereas the downwind run of the dap imitates a real insect being blown down the wind across the surface of the water, away from yourself. We've noticed this many times with a hatch of olives. The fish key on to the movement of the flies 'sailing' across the surface of the water, blown by the breeze. Your cast to them is ignored, because your fly is lying lifeless in the surface. Same thing happens with a dapped daddy versus a dry daddy. Interestingly, I have been finding that the fish doesn't tend to hit the fly on the downwind run, but hits it just after the turn and into the start of the upwind run.

As Angus mentions, it is essential to have the fly bone dry so that it trips across the water on its hackle points, like a dandelion seed. As soon as it gets a bit soggy, it starts to drag and it gets less interest from the fish - hence my interest in anything that helps to keep it up on its points.

It works very well for brown trout as well, and I had sport to a dapped mayfly pattern on Loch Craggie earlier this year. Here's a couple of photos...

Me into a fish on the 17 foot telescopic dapping rod...


As mentioned above - liquid Gink not a problem - it was late July and 11C

Loch Craggie brownie on a dapped mayfly pattern...

Cheers,

Col

By the way, Loch Craggie is just a few miles from where Glenmorangie is made!

---------- Post added at 11:29 PM ---------- Previous post was at 11:28 PM ----------

Thanks for that - very useful info

I think our "Shake and Vac" is very probably the one on the right in the green tub.

Col

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