Dry Fly Floatant

[hairwing 0]

hairwing,

 

Interesting. I seen this Albolene stuff around at my oldest daughters house and never though it could be used as a floatant. Is there a curing time after applied similar to watershed floatant? does it work applied to leaders also to help them float

 

Mike

Mike

 

Is there any curing time ? No...I dress the fly and fish it.

 

I also use it as a floatant for the first several feet of my fly line and add it to the butt of my leaders, works great.

 

......and if you don't have one, a recent discovery of mine is the micro-fiber cleaning cloth to go along with fly and line maintenance. It soaks up water and dirt like you won't believe. I use one to pinch a fly that needs dressing or swipe a line to clean it.

 

Don't know anything about watershed.....I've been satisfied with Albolene for over 40 years and put any wants and needs for a different floatant behind me long ago.

 

hw

[Mickalo 0]

Is there any curing time ? No...I dress the fly and fish it.

 

I also use it as a floatant for the first several feet of my fly line and add it to the butt of my leaders, works great.

 

......and if you don't have one, a recent discovery of mine is the micro-fiber cleaning cloth to go along with fly and line maintenance. It soaks up water and dirt like you won't believe. I use one to pinch a fly that needs dressing or swipe a line to clean it.

 

Don't know anything about watershed.....I've been satisfied with Albolene for over 40 years and put any wants and needs for a different floatant behind me long ago.

 

hw

 

Thanks for the info. a jar of this stuff would last me a long time and allot cheaper then using stuff like Watershed or Gink (I've heard that Gink is the same thing as Albolene)

 

Are you talking about micro-fiber cloths like used for electronics ?

 

Mike

[hairwing 0]

 

Is there any curing time ? No...I dress the fly and fish it.

 

I also use it as a floatant for the first several feet of my fly line and add it to the butt of my leaders, works great.

 

......and if you don't have one, a recent discovery of mine is the micro-fiber cleaning cloth to go along with fly and line maintenance. It soaks up water and dirt like you won't believe. I use one to pinch a fly that needs dressing or swipe a line to clean it.

 

Don't know anything about watershed.....I've been satisfied with Albolene for over 40 years and put any wants and needs for a different floatant behind me long ago.

 

hw

 

Thanks for the info. a jar of this stuff would last me a long time and allot cheaper then using stuff like Watershed or Gink (I've heard that Gink is the same thing as Albolene)

 

Are you talking about micro-fiber cloths like used for electronics ?

 

Mike

 

I know the George Gehrke story, he worked across the street from me on a downtown Denver construction project in the '70's and was pushing his Gink in a local fly shop I frequented and I even spent some time working in the shop so the facts are undeniable with me. I will attest to the fact that Gink is repackaged Albolene.

 

My experience is with 3M micro cloth, I suppose many of these cloths will do the job.

[mikechell 0]

Alcohol isn't made from petroleum.

But if you're using plastic lines, synthetic (plastic) hair or flash ... anything plastic, then you are using hydrocarbon based products produced from oil.

[shoebop 0]

One note on using the naptha and parafin concoction. I have learned through trial and error that the best way to apply it is to pretreat the flies only. I do not use it while fishing at all for obvious reasons. It needs time for the naptha/white gas/coleman fuel or whatever you use to evaporate completely. So I give them a good dunking as soon as I'm done tying them. I used to blot the excess with a paper towel and set them out to dry but I found that I was removing too much of the wax as well so now I just shake them and set them out to dry. This way, they retain much more of the parafin which is really the floatant. The naptha is just the means to deliver the wax to coat all the fibers even deep inside the fly. If the fly gets slimed then I just rinse it off in the river and blot out the water. This works for quite a while but if it needs more floatant, you can use a dry floatant treatment or apply some other commercial floatant of your choice. As for the line itself, you can use a piece of parafin/tea candle to "wax" your line to make it float as well.

[mikechell 0]

One note on using the naptha and parafin concoction. I have learned through trial and error that the best way to apply it is to pretreat the flies only. I do not use it while fishing at all for obvious reasons. It needs time for the naptha/white gas/coleman fuel or whatever you use to evaporate completely.

I am not arguing, as I don't know what your experiences are. But I have frequently re-treated flies while fishing with no noticeable ill effects. By the time I've shaken/tapped the fly of excess, put the jar away, and made false cast back into fishing position, I believe the solvent is all gone. I've had hits on the first touch down after treatment, so my experience differs from yours.

[Larsonhelm 0]

I have tried this with both Naphtha and Zippo lighter fluid. They are different chemicals but both work. Nice thing about Zippo fluid is you can buy just 4 oz can and that's plenty. Probably have to buy a quart of Naphtha. Shave about 1 oz of paraffin or wax from one of those partially burned Christmas candles your wife has squirlled away somewhere.. best look for a paraffin candle.wax is somewhat translucent... into an 8 oz mason jar, add 4 oz of Zippo, put on top and shake a little.  THEN leave it alone overnight. Next day, you should find the mix has turned semi-solid at room temperature. If not wait another day, and if still not creamy, add some more wax. ( If you have NO idea how much an ounce of wax is, don't worry. you can't use too much because excess won't dissolve.)  Wax will dissolve until solvent can't dissolve any more.Excess will settle as clumps. . and that's when it will turn into a sloppy cold cream.   I use it like that, because as soon as you put some on your finger, it turns liquid and you just press that into the fly. To transfer to a container you can use while fishing, you can put the jar full (without lid!!!) into micro wave for 15-20 seconds (watch it closely) or a hot water bath... then it goes back to full liquid and you can dispense it without too much aggravation. I suggest you do this somewhere other than the kitchen counter because you are going to spill some and might get some grief about the smell of lighter fluid and the wax all over the place.  Clean up any spilled with paper towel immediately before it dries.. any residue will have to be washed off with lighter fluid or lots of detergent and hot towels.

And always keep in mind that you are working with lighter fluid.. and that fumes/vapors can creep across surfaces and ignite, probably making your DYI fly floatant experience a negative one.

AND when you fill your sealable floatant bottle to carry with you, fill it 3/4 max.. if it gets warm it will leak and the naphtha will burn your skin.