DISCLAIMER: I'm a Fly Fishing Newbie - work with me here...
After buying my first fly outfit this year, I got the standard weight-forward, floating line (SIDE NOTE: I actually wanted to get double taper for the roll-casting capability but that is becoming a rare bird, apparently). After a few outings, it became apparent that my floating line was quickly becoming a sinking line - so it was time to get some floatant (I have yet to cast a dry fly because there hasn't been a need for it... if I ever do, then the floatant will be applicable here as well).
A quick web search revealed some pricing but I couldn't bring myself to pay $5 or more for an ounce or two of what seemed like trivial stuff. So I dug deeper and found that, basically, floatant is just waterproofing agent with a quickly evaporating carrier. Think of it as car wax that dries quickly.
Some deeper searching revealed the old DIY recipe for fly floatant: naptha and paraffin wax. Simply shred up some paraffin wax (I used an unscented, uncolored candle because none of the local shops carry general purpose wax anymore) and put it in the naptha until you find the saturation point where additional wax will not dissolve (it takes a couple hours for the naptha to do its thing on the wax so a dose of patience is helpful here).
Once you've got your concoction ready, you can simply dip a fly (or fly line in my case) in it and then air it out with a couple false casts - it will dry in an instant. And you'll be waterproof beyond comprehension. It works really well.
I'm sure that there will be those who won't like the naptha - it certainly isn't ideal but you are putting a million times more hydrocarbons into the air when you fill up your gas tank (the tank vapors are displaced into the atmosphere by the liquid gasoline). Used properly, the naptha will not be introduced into the water (I recommend carrying only a small amount to avoid accidental spills).
Some notes:
You may be tempted to heat the mixture in order to increase the wax concentration. I actually did this by bathing a (vented!!!) concoction into some boiling water - and it worked... until it cooled down and the wax solidified. This might be helpful for "hot dunking" some flies at home but it won't help you out on the water.
An oil base might be tempting but I didn't try it (linseed oil?). Too messy?
I used a pill bottle to hold my concoction and it worked fine. Make sure that you test whatever you might use. The naptha could possible react and leave your with a big mess.
FLAMMABLE!!!
I tried some alcohol-based hand sanitizer as a substitute for the naptha - the idea was that this is not flammable but evaporates quickly. Unfortunately, it did not dissolve the wax like I wanted - even after heating the final mixture. It worked to some degree but not nearly as well as the prescribed recipe.
A hotter mixture will hold more wax than a colder one. It may be helpful to find a mixture that will work in both hot and cold weather. I mixed mine in hot weather but found that, on a cold morning, the whole mixture had turned into gel - which was not helpful.
I am open to input. Please let me know your crazy ideas (e.g. - A1 Sauce, garlic, plutonium, etc).
After buying my first fly outfit this year, I got the standard weight-forward, floating line (SIDE NOTE: I actually wanted to get double taper for the roll-casting capability but that is becoming a rare bird, apparently). After a few outings, it became apparent that my floating line was quickly becoming a sinking line - so it was time to get some floatant (I have yet to cast a dry fly because there hasn't been a need for it... if I ever do, then the floatant will be applicable here as well).
A quick web search revealed some pricing but I couldn't bring myself to pay $5 or more for an ounce or two of what seemed like trivial stuff. So I dug deeper and found that, basically, floatant is just waterproofing agent with a quickly evaporating carrier. Think of it as car wax that dries quickly.
Some deeper searching revealed the old DIY recipe for fly floatant: naptha and paraffin wax. Simply shred up some paraffin wax (I used an unscented, uncolored candle because none of the local shops carry general purpose wax anymore) and put it in the naptha until you find the saturation point where additional wax will not dissolve (it takes a couple hours for the naptha to do its thing on the wax so a dose of patience is helpful here).
Once you've got your concoction ready, you can simply dip a fly (or fly line in my case) in it and then air it out with a couple false casts - it will dry in an instant. And you'll be waterproof beyond comprehension. It works really well.
I'm sure that there will be those who won't like the naptha - it certainly isn't ideal but you are putting a million times more hydrocarbons into the air when you fill up your gas tank (the tank vapors are displaced into the atmosphere by the liquid gasoline). Used properly, the naptha will not be introduced into the water (I recommend carrying only a small amount to avoid accidental spills).
Some notes:
You may be tempted to heat the mixture in order to increase the wax concentration. I actually did this by bathing a (vented!!!) concoction into some boiling water - and it worked... until it cooled down and the wax solidified. This might be helpful for "hot dunking" some flies at home but it won't help you out on the water.
An oil base might be tempting but I didn't try it (linseed oil?). Too messy?
I used a pill bottle to hold my concoction and it worked fine. Make sure that you test whatever you might use. The naptha could possible react and leave your with a big mess.
FLAMMABLE!!!
I tried some alcohol-based hand sanitizer as a substitute for the naptha - the idea was that this is not flammable but evaporates quickly. Unfortunately, it did not dissolve the wax like I wanted - even after heating the final mixture. It worked to some degree but not nearly as well as the prescribed recipe.
A hotter mixture will hold more wax than a colder one. It may be helpful to find a mixture that will work in both hot and cold weather. I mixed mine in hot weather but found that, on a cold morning, the whole mixture had turned into gel - which was not helpful.
I am open to input. Please let me know your crazy ideas (e.g. - A1 Sauce, garlic, plutonium, etc).
