It’s taken a little while this year for the dry fly fishing to become a more routine aspect of a day on the water. Over the last week, fishing dry flies caught at least a couple fish each day that I was guiding.
Rising fish are a treat. Even if you don’t see any fish rising, you might be surprised to find a few fish looking up this time of the year. If you like catching fish on the surface, it’s worth tossing a couple dries around to see if you can bring fish up to eat.
Keeping your dry fly floating is an important part of effectively and efficiently catching fish on the surface. I get a lot of question regarding how to dress a dry fly. In my vest, I carry Gink and Frog’s Fanny. Here are a couple of tips on how to use both styles of fly floatant.
Gink – Gink is a light paste gel that is meant to be rubbed on a dry fly. I apply Gink into each dry fly that I fish, prior to casting the fly the first time. I usually do not re-Gink a fly after the first time. If the fly starts to sink after fishing awhile, I switch to Frog’s Fanny to get the fly floating again. The only time that I don’t use Gink first is on flies tied with CDC.
Frog’s Fanny – Frog’s Fanny is a powder desiccate used to dry out flies. I use Frog’s Fanny to dry out flies that are wet from being fished. Most times when I reach for Frog’s Fanny, it’s after I’ve Ginked a fly and fished it awhile. I usually only apply Frog’s Fanny to a fly prior to fishing it, if the fly is tied out of CDC and not Ginked first.
Using a combination of Gink and Frog’s Fanny works well for me, but there are a bunch of different floatant options out there for dressing dry flies. In a nutshell, when it comes to applying floatant to flies I usually use Gink as Step 1 and Frog’s Fanny as Step 2.
Grab your dry flies, get on the water, and give Gink and Frog’s Fanny a try. It took a little longer for the dry fly fishing to get going this year, but over the last week it’s been a lot more productive. If you need to get in on the action, talk to Joel to schedule a couple days on the water.
Great tip Kyle, I started using both years ago! I don’t always use Frogs Fanny as any of the dry desiccates seem to work just fine. I call them shake & bake.
Thanks Roger. There are certainly a lot of floatant options available that will also work. I have always been a fan of Frog’s Fanny because I like being able to work the powder into the fly with the applicator brush. Tight lines!