Cleaning & Drying Flies

[jamieof]

I find when a fish takes the fly deep (deep as in to the gills), it ends up with quite a bit of slime and blood on it.

I've been washing it off gently in the water, then shaking and blowing on it to get some of the water off, but I can't seem to get the same floating action after that.

Is it necessary to change flies after a hit like this, or is there something I can do to continue with the same fly?

Thanks.

Jamie.

 

[jpbfly]

After washing it in the water,you can wipe it with a paper tissue or a piece of leather.Old anglers used steam to clean their flies at home

 

[Rip Tide]

What I do is after I rinse the fly off in the water, I'll then dab it dry in my bandanna.
Then I'll dip it in desiccant crystals, after which I may or may not reapply floatant.

You can buy desiccant prepackaged for fly fishing, but what I do is reuse those little white packets (that say "do not eat" ) that come in everything from electronics to vitamins. I like to pulverize the crystals in a coffee grinder, but if you don't they'll work almost as well.
Take the crystals out of the little bag and put them in a pill bottle. When you need to dry your fly, just drop just it in the bottle (while still on the tippet) and shake.
You should be good to go, even without reapplying floatant.

When your desiccant becomes too saturated, you can recharge it with a short zap in the microwave.

 

[FrankB2]

I dress the fly with Loon Aquel floatant before using it. That helps keep the fly from getting too saturated for a while. When they don't float quite as well, I do one of two things. I shake them in the water to remove all the gunk. A well-tied should withstand a good shaking. I then squeeze it dry on my vest, and re-apply floatant. Sometimes I decide to let the fly sink just below the surface. This method has produced some really great results, especially when the topwater action slows down.

 

[FISHN50]

I keep a small vial of 90% alcohol on my vest & when a fly gets fish slimed I put it in the alcohol & shake it up. This gets rid of the slime. I blow on it a few times & stick it in some powdered desiccant & dressing & it's ready to go again. The whole process takes 3 min or so the fly floats like new.

Neil