Snowshoe hare feet ?

[BilletHead]

   No Amadou fancy patch for me. An elcheapo knock off phony shammy cut into many pieces and you will have patches for eons. 

[tjm]

I bought a car wash "chamois leather" (lambskin I presume" 20-30 years ago and the same small piece has been squeeze drying my flies since. Tied a few shammy worms with strips of it but never caught a fish on one.  I have dried flies with pads of Bounty when I didn't have the leather and that works too. I imagine the mushroom pads are a status sign with some or just a sign. Kinda like the $200 finger nail clippers, no doubt both work but I can't convince myself that they are necessary.

I've yet to try fancy Frog Fanny. Having read too many British novels as a youth things called "fanny" always strike me as a little off colour. And I've always thought a "fanny pack" should be worn in front like a sporran.

[fishinwrench]

2 hours ago, BilletHead said:

 No Amadou fancy patch for me

Me either.  A T-shirt sleeve does the job just fine. 

 

1 hour ago, tjm said:

I've yet to try fancy Frog Fanny.

Frogs Fanny is really good stuff.  It wicks every bit of moisture out of a fly...like immediately..... Then just blow the dust off and you're good to go.    From what I understand the stuff is used in the photograph developing industry and can be bought in huge bags really cheap.  But that little bottle of it lasts me a couple years....and I like the little brushes.      I'd rather just keep the Frog Fanny company in business. 👍  

FYI: if you don't blow the dust off, you can float a weighed nymph with that stuff.   

I absolutely HATE Ginks or other paste type floatants.   They ruin peacock herl or anything that you want to appear fuzzy.   Plus they leave an oil slick on the water which can't be a good thing for your rise-to-bite ratio.

[tjm]

Wonder if a living bug doesn't have oil in it. The number of times I got a rise to those slicks makes me think trout like them.  I get by with Albolene when I use any floatant.

The  chemist that wrote about substituting for various floatants and desiccants recommended this  or this  as  being the  right form of silica to float stuff and as being the same as hydrophobic powders - Frogs Fanny, or Loon Outdoors Blue Ribbon Floatant.

And for desiccant to dry the fly before adding the Frog Fanny he recommend  silica gel which is a solid desiccant that absorbs water. It is commonly packed with electronic equipment to keep it dry.

He said to get  Top Ride mix the two together or to get Frog Fanny just use fumed silica.

A theory is that Frog Fanny on a wet fly repels the water into the material and keeping it wet. I'm guessing that squeezing the fly dry is about as good as shaking it in powders.