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Landon P

Tippet pulling drys down

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I'm asking for a friend he is having problems with his tippet pulling his dries down. He thought he had bought sinking tippet but that raises my question. Is there sinking and floating tippet? He said it would sink a stimulator and foam flys. He said he is not using floatant. Any help would be great!

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If he's not using floatant it's going to happen no matter what tippet be uses. Even then the current will eventually pull your tippet under and pull the fly with it. In fast, complex currents even foam flies don't stay up for long. In faster water I'm happy if I get a few seconds of float, and in calmer flows 15 seconds can be pretty long. 

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6 hours ago, Landon P said:

I'm asking for a friend he is having problems with his tippet pulling his dries down. He thought he had bought sinking tippet but that raises my question. Is there sinking and floating tippet? He said it would sink a stimulator and foam flys. He said he is not using floatant. Any help would be great!

There are no "sinking" tippets. Even fluorocarbon which is heavier that water will float on the surface tension of water.

Secondly, if his "tippet" is sinking a floam fly, then his "tippet" is probably not a normal tippet or the fly is being dragged under the water by the water currents ( the fly is not drag free - this is explained later).

He needs to try an experiment using a glass of water.

Put the foam fly on the water. I bet it floats.

Next put a 1" piece of the tippet on the water and see if it floats. I bet it floats.

Next show him the video below.

 

If there is "drag" which is when the slack in the leader is pulled tight, then the water pressure can "drag" the fly under and drown it. Once the fly is wet, then the wet fly can no longer float on the surface tension because the water in and on the fly does not allow surface tension to work.

He needs to dry the fly and use a floatant with actually a chemical or material the repels water. And he needs to learn how cast so that there is enough slack tippet so the fly can float freely rather than being dragged by the currents that will eventually drown the fly,

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I believe he needs to buy some floatant.  But in addition to using floatant on the fly, he may also want to put floatant on the last couple feet of tippet to within 3 or 4 inches of the fly.  The floatant will help keep the tippet from sinking (just as it does for the fly) and pulling the fly under.  I believe I saw this suggestion in a Gary Borger video many, many years ago so I'm not sure it was in his video.  In any case, I think it would be worth trying.

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Landon, my first thought when I read your post was to make sure he doesn't have a sinking line on there, or maybe his floating line has been compromised. 

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When I am dry fly fishing on calm waters to PhD trout, I usually "degrease" my leader with mud or a concoction I make from scratch.  It takes the shine off the leader and makes it sink below the meniscus.  Only the fly is left floating yet the leader doesn't drag my fly down unless I pull or mend to aggressively.  The leader doesn't "flash" on the surface and there's less of a chance I spook the fish.  This doesn't work very well for fast moving water though. 

I would think a silicone-based floatant should keep the leader on the surface but sometimes this isn't a good tactic. 

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