dry fly dressing alternatives

[Chris Shelton]

I just discovered a great product which does not cake and matt the fibres on your dry flies at too and penetrates the individual fibres, leaving them completely impervious to water. The product has been used for a century for the waterproofing of garments. It is called Driza-bone garment dressing.

I have just filled my empty Gehrke's Gink container with the paste at a fraction of the cost of the real thing, and I suspect it will work even better than the stuff it replaced.

I would be interested to hear what other alternatives you guys find works for you. Mario uses Scotchguard and I would imagine that that would also work very well. Anything that repels water basically, but also manages to stay on the fly long enough, without having to re-dress it after every three or four drifts.

[MCC]

Hi there Chris

I am a total convert to the powder based products. Top-Ride, Dry-Dust or Shimizaki. Absolutely brilliant and it does not make the leader float, so it cuts down on having to de-grease the leader every time that I apply floatant to the fly.

After every fish the fly is simply rinsed, blown semi-dry and then given a quick shake in the powder. It floats like new.

MC

[Chris Shelton]

Hi MC. I recently saw the powder in action and I must agree, it works extremely well. What I am experimenting with at the moment is dressing my flies with Driza-bone at the tying desk, which would give the stuff a chance to penetrate the fly really well and make them all stream ready. The powder will be great to carry on stream for those inbetween moments when it starts to become waterlogged, like after releasing a fish for example.

[MaXiMuM]

I am intrested in the powder stuff, I believe it works very well.

I Scotch Gaurd my dry's on the bench, and then give them a little Gink, on the stream, but I would love to stop the Gink, as it leave a little oil slick on the water.

[spig]

I just discovered a great product which does not cake and matt the fibres on your dry flies at too and penetrates the individual fibres, leaving them completely impervious to water. The product has been used for a century for the waterproofing of garments. It is called Driza-bone garment dressing.

Hi Chris,

Where would one purchase this product?

Sounds interesting.

Andrew

[MCC]

Maimum

The powder works really well because it contains two types of powder. The one draws moisture out of the fly and the second floats the fly. This is also the only application that can be used on CDC patterns.

Incidentally, waterlogged CDC flies are best re-floated by firstly rinsing all slime off the fly, next squeeze all water out of the fly with a soft tissue and finally by shaking it in one of the powder floatants. Give it a try, you will be very impressed.

Spig, to answer your question to Chris, you will find the Driza-bone wax in Cavendish Square at the shop RM Williams Country Clothing.

MC

[MaXiMuM]

Thanks MC, I'll be off to the tackle shop, as soon as the wife gives me my allowance... have you got an idea of pricing, and is there a difference in the quality of the higher/lower priced products??

[MaXiMuM]

Chris, Tony has been telling me to get the Driza-bone stuff for a while, I might just give it a try at the same time...

[MCC]

Maximum

You can get all the Loon products locally. The Loon Dry Shake and the Loon Blue Ribbon. The Dry Shake should be about sixty bucks and the Blue Ribbon about eighty or so.

One thing to remember is to not use this on a fly that has a gel floatant freshly applied. The dust will matt onto the gel. I will however often start a new fly by treating it with a gel floatant and after the first fish or so, I switch to the powder.

Cheers
MC

[ShaunF]

Chaps, maybe this is a stupid question, but why do you need to redress your dries out on the stream ??

I soak my dries in Loon's Hydrostop for 24 hours immediately after tying and I have found I no longer need to use these other on stream floatants. ONe treatment and it floats likea cork forever, and you can treat literally 100's of flies at the same time.