A Dry Fly That Holds Up
Lesson: Floatant, Hackle, and Staying Up in Chop
okay. we've built the caddis, we've stacked the wing, we've talked about my wings never being quite even and how i've made peace with that. this lesson is about the last piece of the puzzle — keeping the thing floating once it's tied, and getting the hackle right so it actually holds the fly up in fast water. this is where a dry fly either works or just gets waterlogged and drags under after two casts.
two separate things here. hackle is what you build into the fly at the vise. floatant is what you put on the fly at the stream. both matter and people usually only think about one of them.
hackle first
hackle is the stiff feather wound around the fly right behind the head, and its whole job on a caddis is to hold the body up off the water and give it some support in current. soft, webby hackle collapses. stiff, dry hackle stands up and does its job cast after cast.
when you're picking a hackle feather, bend it. actually bend the tip of the feather between your fingers before you tie with it. if it springs back fast, it's stiff enough for dry fly work. if it just kind of flops back slowly, that's better saved for a nymph or a wet fly where you want it soft and moving.
to tie it in: 1. strip the fuzzy fibers off the base of the feather so you've got bare stem to tie down. 2. tie the stem in right behind the wing, shiny side facing forward, dull side back — that's how the fibers will sweep correctly when you wind it. 3. wind it forward in touching turns, three to five wraps depending on how dense you want it. i usually go four. 4. tie it off, trim the excess stem, whip finish.
the mistake almost everyone makes their first time is winding too loose, so the fibers splay out flat instead of standing up at an angle. you want the hackle standing up and slightly forward-leaning, like it's bristling a little. if it's laying flat against the body, unwind it and do it again. no worries at all, it happens to everyone, it just takes a couple tries to feel the right tension.
floatant
floatant is the stuff you put on the fly to keep it riding on top of the water instead of soaking through. there are a few kinds — gel you rub in with your fingers, and liquid you dip the fly into. i use gel mostly. i work it into the hackle and the wing before i ever make a cast, not after it's already gone under.
a couple practical notes:
- don't glob it on. a little bit worked in with your fingers, covering the fibers evenly, is way more effective than a big blob sitting on top. too much floatant actually mats the hackle down, which defeats the whole point.
- reapply after you land a fish or after the fly's been dunked a few times. you'll feel it start losing loft — the fly rides lower, sits in the film instead of on top of it.
- our water here is hard, and between that and the dry air, floatant residue can build up on a fly over a season. i rinse mine in plain water now and then and let it dry out fully before the next trip. keeps it from getting gunky.
none of this is dangerous, it's just fussy. the one actual caution i'll give you: some floatants are aerosol and flammable, so don't be spraying that stuff near a lighter or a stove if you're camping and tying at the same time. i've seen people do dumb things around a campfire with gear they weren't thinking about.
why this actually matters up the canyon
this is where my opinion on fast freestone water comes back around. the trout in these little canyon streams don't get a long look at your fly — the current's moving too fast for that. so the fly doesn't need to be gorgeous. what it needs is to stay up in the chop, riding high through riffly, broken water, because that's where the fish are holding and that's where drag and sinking kill your presentation. a durable, well-hackled, properly floatant-ed fly that's a little rough-looking will out-fish a pretty one that sinks after the first riffle.
i tried to teach brittney to tie one winter, years back. she made it through exactly one fly — a woolly bugger, not even a dry fly — said it was relaxing, and never sat down at the vise again. i think about that a lot actually, because she got the point of it without needing to go further. tying is supposed to serve the fishing, not become its own whole thing you have to master. floatant and hackle are like that too. you don't need to obsess over brand of floatant or perfect hackle density. you need a fly that stays up long enough to fool a fish in fast water, and then you go fish it.
before next time
tie one caddis start to finish — hackle, wing, the works — and put floatant on it before you ever get it wet. see how long it rides high. that's really the whole test.