Jump to content
Fly Tying
Dart

Dryflies: How long should they float?

Recommended Posts

What floats your fly? Surface tension on the water. We use materials to take advantage of this tension to keep our flies afloat. Once a fly breaks through the surface tension it will soak up water and begin to sink regardless of what material you use. Yes some material has air cells that will keep the fly in the surface but not on the surface. You look at a natural adult aquatic insect, they do not break the surface they ride on the surface tension not in the surface. Almost all flies ride in the surface and thus really do not look at all like naturals to the fish. There are triggers to the fish that get them to bite your fly, it is not really a matter of how high or long your fly floats. Good dry fly patterns take advantage of the triggers not how the natural floats on the surface. Some of the triggers are color, size, profile etc.. A wulff catches fish but looks nothing like an insect nor will it ever sit on the water like an insect.

 

Now, I believe there are ways to help your fly stay on the waters surface but it is contrary to some of the standard patterns. The basic theory is that you do not want to "puncture" the surface tension at all. This means keep your flies simple, light in weight, and allow your hackle to bend on the surface, not protrude through it. Here are some of the ideas that I believe can help. First, the lightest strongest hook is a must. Use a thin synthetic thread that will not absorb water. A long split tail helps. Does the fish mind if the tail is longer than the natural? I highly doubt it, but a long split tail will spread the load of the hook bend as stated earlier. The tailing needs to be stiff but not so stiff that it won't bend and flex on the water's surface and of a non absorbent material. A thin body of synthetic material that will not absorb any water. This is not to help it float but so it sheds water during false casting and will not weigh the fly down. If there is a wing it should be upright and very sparse. Your trying to emulate the profile of a wing not make an exact duplicate. Very sparse material will still give that impression, shed water better and cast better. Synthetics are again a help here. Now for the hackle. I don't like to use dry fly hackle in my dry fly patterns. Years ago dry fly hackle worked fine. Today, it is too dense and too stiff. It is sold on looks not on function and is ridiculously expensive. Your hackle should be, like the tail, just little stiff but flexible to have good spring to it. What your after is a hackle that lays with flex on the waters surface but does not penetrate the surface tension. Today's genetic dry hackle is too stiff and when cast onto the water penetrates the water like a bunch of tiny spears. This is why parachute patterns have become so popular. The hackle does not penetrate the surface tension, the body does however and will quickly drag the fly under. Parachute patterns are not dry fly patterns to me. They are great emergent patterns. The bulk of genetic dry hackle keeps your fly floating in the water's surface for what seems forever but not on the surface like an insect. Too much hackle and then you get away from the profile of the insect and possibly begin to loose that trigger. I have found that genetic hen necks work very well. They have just the right amount of stiffness and flexibility. If you take the time to tie a nice sparse, light fly you need very little hackle to keep it floating. I tie the hackle in sparse and catskill style. Cover about the front 1/3 to 1/2 of the hook with hackle. I measure my hackle length about 1 size larger than the standard size for the fly I am tying. Before the fly hits the water I separate the hackle fibers apart on the bottom of the fly making a wide v-shape. The gentle softness of the hen hackle allows you to do this. This allows the hackle fibers along the bottom of the fly to flex on the water's surface and gives the fly a little spring to it. Again, spreading the load out. I guess about the first 1/4 to 1/3 of the hackle from the tip will ride on the surface and not penetrate the surface. Many people trim their hackle to achieve this. I believe this is the worst thing you can do becuse you are only opening a sealed fiber and allowing water to soak up through the hackle. Trimming is fine for emergent patterns but I'm talking about a pattern we want to float on the surface. The biggest obstacle is the hook point which protrudes from the fly and can easily penetrate the waters surface. This needs to be either kept above the water or calculated for in the materials you use. Some alleiveiate this by tying the flies with the hook point riding up, but again this can push the bend of the hook into the water.

 

Anyway, these are just my thoughts and experiences, take them with a grain of salt. Although, a good genetic hen cape runs about $20-25 and good genetic dry fly cape runs about, what.....$60 -70. It's been so long since I bought one I don't really know.

 

Also, keep in mind that the strength of the water tension is greatly determined by the amount of organics in the water your fishing, the temperature and the roughness of the water's surface.

 

And your casting abilities will greatly determine how lightly your fly lands on the surface and thus how well it's going to float and drift. Don't shoot your fly to where you want it. Cast your fly out over your target and gently drop your rod and line to the water's surface. I also like to fish a slack line style.

 

Carl

Share this post


Link to post
Share on other sites

Bumping an old post, but I thought this info may help someone else. I tied a humpy a while back and I soaked it for about 5 minutes in Loon Outdoors Hydrostop. It's a new dry-fly dressing, so it's something you'd use when you tie your fly and not in the field. As Bruce mentioned in his earlier posts, this is something that you'd want to let dry before using the fly. I'm sure the proper proportions and application of materials is instrumental, but this stuff really helps float a fly.

 

I filled a glass of water about a week and put it on my bathroom counter and dropped the fly in. After 4 days, the water started to evaporate, so I added more water with the fly still in the surface. The fly continued to fload through the disturbance of the new water being poured into the glass. A week later, the fly is still floating. So it's been about 11.5 days at this point... I guess the fly passes the test. I should probably throw the water out before I get in trouble for running experiments in the bathroom. :D

Share this post


Link to post
Share on other sites

Hi Dart, My dries float for about 3 seconds, before being engulfed. :rolleyes: Cheers, Jeff.

 

 

It reminded me of a time when I was in Cutthroat anglers and my buddy Trapper was giving a class on nymph fishing. The group of guys had just gotten off the Blue river and no one but Trap had hooked anything. One client asked, "So, Trapper, why don't you ever fish a dropper off your nymph rig?" Without missing a beat he said, "I just hate taking two fish off at a time." I laughed so hard, I shot beer out of my nose.

Share this post


Link to post
Share on other sites

My 2 cents....I agree entirely with Old Hat's explanation. Sitting on the surface tension and floating are two differnt phenomenon. Just becasue it's on the surface doesn't mean it's mimicking the insect. The biggest improvement in my flies abillity to stay riding high was by working on my casting, improving my mends, keeping my leaders good and stright and using lighter tippet.

 

CB

Share this post


Link to post
Share on other sites

Join the conversation

You can post now and register later. If you have an account, sign in now to post with your account.

Guest
Reply to this topic...

×   Pasted as rich text.   Paste as plain text instead

  Only 75 emoji are allowed.

×   Your link has been automatically embedded.   Display as a link instead

×   Your previous content has been restored.   Clear editor

×   You cannot paste images directly. Upload or insert images from URL.

Loading...

×
×
  • Create New...