I can so relate with this :)

[ness]

Anybody know what the dry powder is? I'd bet it's just a repurpose of a material used for some other reason. 

[BilletHead]

      Here you go Wrench.  I can tell you when I first started I found this available on the market in a small bottle. 

http://www.drlogik.com/flyfloatants.html

BiletHead

  PS Please don't light one up and torch yourself. Would hate to loose a good boat motor mechanic .

[snagged in outlet 3]

33 minutes ago, ness said:

Anybody know what the dry powder is? I'd bet it's just a repurpose of a material used for some other reason. 

Gotta be a run of the mill desiccant of some kind. 

[BilletHead]

35 minutes ago, ness said:

Anybody know what the dry powder is? I'd bet it's just a repurpose of a material used for some other reason. 

There is often confusion between desiccant crystals and powder crystaline floatant. Desiccant crystals are silica gel, just like the crystals in electronic gear and shoes. Powders like Frogs Fanny and Loon Blue Ribbon are hydrophobic fumed silica. Both silica gel (the desiccant) and the fumed silica are made of silicon dioxide (silica). Hence the confusion. Same chemical in different forms.

Combination products like Shimazaki Dry Shake and Loon Top Ride have both silica gel and floatant powder. They are called “Shake and Bake” products and will dry and waterproof the fly with a single treatment.

After the powder floatant in the shake and back products is used up, the remaining drying crystals cna be renewed bey putting the crystals in a glass dish and microwaving the crystals on high for 15 seconds X 2. The water will escape as steam and the pooping noises are the crystals exploding. Put the crystals back in the original container and use them to dry flies.

     

     Above Copied and paste for you Ness

   

 Also I bought some stuff called feather dry that I used when treating wild turkey feathers I dyed for fletching hunting arrows. A fine powder worked great and I am sure it is like frogs fanny. I use that for filling my "shake and bake" type bottles of drying powder,

  BilletHead

[Flysmallie]

1 hour ago, fishinwrench said:

Well here's my thinking on the matter, correct me if I'm wrong.

1.  Dry fly hackle fibers aren't going to absorb water, so any coating you put on them is just adding weight. No?

2.  A blob of Gink or any other silicone dropped into the water...SINKS, so it's heavier than water and doesn't shake off on a backcast. You can't blow it off, so WFG does it do? 🤔

I get it if it is a deer hair bug or a fly with considerable mass where it may keep water from absorbing into a larger area (pocket) but we are talking whispy little dry flys here.   

The powdered stuff seems to have a use, but the liquid/gel crap.....I don't get it. 

 

I don't know but I can put it on a g-gnat and that baby will ride high and pretty. When it gets all slimy I can wash it off, squeeze it in between two layers of cotton (the hoodie I'm wearing) lube it back up and ride high and pretty again. But I'm not gooping it on. And if I do get too much it just gets the cotton squeeze again. I don't know but it works. I carry frogs fanny too and it works well. 

[Gavin]

The best dry floatant ever is parrafin disolved in white gas. Don't smoke when using it though.

 

[ness]

52 minutes ago, BilletHead said:

There is often confusion between desiccant crystals and powder crystaline floatant. Desiccant crystals are silica gel, just like the crystals in electronic gear and shoes. Powders like Frogs Fanny and Loon Blue Ribbon are hydrophobic fumed silica. Both silica gel (the desiccant) and the fumed silica are made of silicon dioxide (silica). Hence the confusion. Same chemical in different forms.

Combination products like Shimazaki Dry Shake and Loon Top Ride have both silica gel and floatant powder. They are called “Shake and Bake” products and will dry and waterproof the fly with a single treatment.

After the powder floatant in the shake and back products is used up, the remaining drying crystals cna be renewed bey putting the crystals in a glass dish and microwaving the crystals on high for 15 seconds X 2. The water will escape as steam and the pooping noises are the crystals exploding. Put the crystals back in the original container and use them to dry flies.

I remember a bottle of stuff I had a while back that had larger chunks and a finer powder mixed in. Liked that stuff, but don't remember what brand it was. The stuff I have know is very fluffy and dries a fly off nicely, but it will look like a snow ball on the end of the line if you don't blow or false cast the stuff off.

I always felt drying off a fly with amadou or chamois or whatever would smoosh it, requiring on-the-stream grooming, so I got out of the habit. 

Albolene anyone? Still got a tub of that around somewhere. 

[fishinwrench]

54 minutes ago, ness said:

 

I always felt drying off a fly with amadou or chamois or whatever would smoosh it, requiring on-the-stream grooming, so I got out of the habit

Back when Metz and Hoffman was the best hackle available that was definitely the case.  The good Whiting stuff we have now can take it without any problem.  Smoosh away!

[fishinwrench]

1 hour ago, BilletHead said:

      Here you go Wrench.  I can tell you when I first started I found this available on the market in a small bottle. 

http://www.drlogik.com/flyfloatants.html

BiletHead

  PS Please don't light one up and torch yourself. Would hate to loose a good boat motor mechanic .

I had heard or read about that years ago, but forgot about it.    Might be ok for a Pre-treat but I'm not keen on carrying it around on me or in my waist pack.

I have some Water-Shed that I got to treat deer hair bass bugs, but man that stuff is not to be messed with indoors! I actually began to hallucinate (started seeing tracers).  I won't use it at all anymore.

[Flysmallie]

Of course I fish dries so much that it probably means nothing to me. 

Just found my bottle of Gink. Busted lid, bone dry. 

Been thinking about showing some RR fish my g-gnat. That would require me to tie a few so who knows.