PDA

View Full Version : Favorite Floatant?



Adam Grace
02-28-2005, 11:39 PM
Poll time :!:

What is your favorite type of floatant?

What make of floatant do you prefer to use?

I prefer gel, like Loon's Aquel. The type you squeeze out of a little plastic bottle.

My second choice would be a desicant.

Most of the time I use them one after another.

The desicant to dry, the gel to prolong the floatation.

Hairstacker
02-28-2005, 11:53 PM
For floatant I use the Gehrke's Gink gel that comes in the little plastic squeeze bottle. Readily available and seems to work ok. The only thing I don't like is that it runs like water when it's warm and doesn't run at all when it's cold.

I also carry a desicant to dry.

David Lee
03-01-2005, 12:15 AM
I use Dave's Bug Float for my hair bugs and "dry" lines ( I've yet to find a flyline that WILL float :evil: ) . David

Darian
03-01-2005, 12:45 AM
Hello everyone,.... I found I was unable to vote using the poll function as there wasn't a choice for cork, deer hair or closed cell foam :P :P :twisted: :roll:

darmocido
03-01-2005, 10:37 AM
I like to make my own floatant, Depending on the season , air temp.) I use different percentages of a lighter fuild and red mucilin mixture. With the cost of mucilin many guides are now switching to lanolin. The lighter fuild acts as the solvent and allows the solute, mucilin/lanolin, to dissolve easily. When you dip your fly into the miture, the entire fly is saturated with the mucilin, the lighter fuild evaporates quickly, and the fly floats very well under extreme conditions. The fly is not just coated on the outside with floatant! Madison River guides as well as others have been using this floatant mix for twenty years that I know of. In the summer I use a 65 to 35 mix lighter fuild to mucilin.

Rick J
03-01-2005, 01:12 PM
Depends on what I want to float - for most applications I prefer gel but for cdc emergers I use frogs fanny - a brush applied dessicant that I apply only to the cdc, letting the rest of the fly ride sub-surface

SteelieD
03-01-2005, 04:12 PM
My experience is limited, but the Loon Aquel has seemed to work alright for me. Hairstacker makes a good point though about it beeing pretty thick when it's cold and runny with heat.

Derek

MSP
03-01-2005, 06:43 PM
Fly floatant, what is that. You mean you can catch them on the surface? :lol: I use Dave's Bug Floatant also. I like the despenser on the chain. Just my "O" but I think they all work.

DonCooksey
03-01-2005, 08:51 PM
I have used Gink or similar gels for many years, but I echo the complaint about its fluidity in warm weather (I dumped almost a whole bottle on one fly once when I opened it on a hot day) and difficulty to squeeze out of the bottle at all when below 50 degrees or so. I had never used dry desiccant until last fall, when I bought some for CDC flies at Hot Creek Ranch. It was great for that purpose. It had nice dull blue color that trout seemed to like on my BWO CDC duns and emergers. :wink: