"Must Have” Loon Products for Dry Fly Fishing | Rob Gee
It’s warming up again in the southern hemisphere, and you know what that means, Dry Fly Season! There’s nothing better than warm sunny days, with fish looking up, and all abandon thrown out the proverbial window as they chase down big dries. Of course, it helps if those flies are floating. Whilst no amount of hackle is going to keep your fly afloat all day, Loon have a range of solutions that will!
My dry fly routine is a three-part process that ensures they stay up longer, without need for constant redressing, even when dragging heavy tungsten nymphs underneath. After all, we want our flies on the water, not in our hands, fixing terminal humidity issues.
I start with a gentle application of Royal Gel, melting a little between my thumb and forefinger, then gently massaging it into hackle fibres and hair wings. You don’t need to go overboard here, just give it a light coating. The beauty of Loon’s Royal Gel, and Aquel too, is that they are temperature stable, unlike some other products on the market. So, even on a hot day, they remain in gel foam and don’t pour out of the bottle everywhere.
Then, I go straight for a dip, that’s Fly Dip, for the uninitiated. This stuff is pure magic! It’s a liquid, you dip your fly in it, it drenches the fly, the fly floats all day. Just about. It’s a fast-drying alcohol-based solution that forces water out of your fly even if it’s already soaked with water and leaves it with a fine coating of wax. You can take a drowned fly and bring it back to life in moments with Fly Dip. Just a few sharp false casts is all that’s needed to dry it out after a dip and your’ good to go. It’s so good, you’ll watch a fly get dragged under by current in fast pocket water, only to pop back up again and sit proud on the surface. Like I said, magic!
On a side note, I find it is a good idea to always carry two bottles of Fly Dip when you’re on the water. It may not have happened yet, but at some stage, you’re likely to drop the lid and not be able to chase it down in the current. That leaves you with an open bottle that doesn’t want to go to waste, and probably a few foul words uttered under your breath. In the unlikely event of being left in this situation, I keep a second half-full bottle in my vest. That way I can decant the other bottle into it, and then take the empty bottle home for the recycling bin.
Then, my third essential in the dry fly routine is treating my leader, to stop the swirling currents dragging it under. This is essential to improve presentation, as you fly will get dragged across the surface if the leader goes under. A healthy ‘glob’ of Loon Aquel rubbed from the dry fly right up your leader, and into the first few feet of fly line will take care of this.
Of course, none of this accounts for anything if you’re letting your fly line get pulled all over the place by the current. There is no magic product to fix a drag problem. That one’s in your hands!
Written by Rob Gee of Troutlore Fly Tying Store
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