Fly fishers are inveterate tinkerers, always looking for the best way to do things. Here’s a video of a Spanish angler who has devised an ingenious system for drying out his CDC dry fly. Since you can’t use floatant on CDC, it usually requires several sharp false casts to get such a fly floating again after it’s been sunk. But sometimes even false-casting won’t get the fly completely back into high-floating shape, so here’s another method.
Warning: The video is entirely in Spanish, but it doesn’t matter. The technique is clear, even if you can’t understand the words.
What do you think?
Clever
Brilliant!! Typically Spanish! I lived in Andalucia for nearly 4 years… The Spanish are (apologies to Frank Zappa) the real Mothers Of Invention…
My thoughts: Yes, it will work, as long as your only problem is wet CDC. The powder desiccant that’s sold will also work for wet CDC flies. However, if your problem is fish slime, neither method works very well.
My experience with CDC is that it will float as long as want it to, but once you catch your first fish, it’s time to change flies. I would use CDC flies more often if I didn’t have to change flies after each fish.
When u catch fish just take fly and sunk it in water and wash it good… after u washed fly u can use this system couple of times… after that use paper napkin and fly is almost as new. I honestly never change fly after i catch a fish.
A simple paper towel or napkin sucks the water right out much like an amadou except better (and cheaper). Pretreat your cdc fly with Loon Lochsa or Dry Magic and your cdc will float a long time and it will also help resist the slime.
Bueno
I think I’ll just start carrying my guitar on my back when I fish. That way I can attach my cdc fly to a string a play a little tune. Perhaps in the spirit of this video it’ll be in espanol.
“Aye, aye, aye, aye…. Cantar no llores….”
There is a very simple solution. Its called amadou. Its a natural mushroom that you put the fly in and pinch. Its instantely dry. Its a very old product and it doesnt require any chemicals, pastes or pixie dust crap. In fact, most of that ruins the fly. Real amadou isnt available many places. I sell patches for $7.50 and leather backed d rings for $8.50.
I’m interested in a patch of that stuff.
How long does it last? What’s the leather backed d-ring about?
More info please.
I find the desiccant residue just absorbs more water, so I change flies.
I’ve been using this for some time and it really works for me. Indeed fish slime needs to be washed out. Other than that the rubber band does the trick fast and simple.
Rubber band is a fine idea, particularly after rinsing off fish slime. A technique that works for me is to combine Frog’s Fanny with Dry Shake and mix it well. The larger Dry Shake granules tamp down the FF powder. Put the fly (tippet attached) into the bottle, cover, invert & shake well. Dry Shake absorbs moisture & helps get FF into the feathers. Remove fly, blow off any excess FF and cdc is as good as new.
if your cdc is fly is tied correctly with the right amount of cdc they float ridiculously well with a minimum amount of revival with amadou patch