madam x

[Guest rich mc]

itried a madam x at shabbona sunday . i tyed up a size6 using black foam and black calf tail. gills were hitting it hard. it was a slow sinking fly as i tied the foam too tight or should have used a thinner wire hook. i changed to a bead head nymph on an indicator and it was non stop action. i talked to some other boat anglers about smallies and they said they havent caught as many as last year. last year they had some 18's on jig and pig and mepps spinners.

[Mike Flyrodder Miller]

Rich,

Something that I should have told you about the Madam-X (or any floating deer hair fly) is that you need to coat it with a floatant or the deer hair will absorb water and start to sink. And since you used calf tail that's even worse since it doesn't have the hollow cells to make it bouyant like deer hair. If you flair the tail more to act as a outrigger, don't pull the foam as tight when you wrap it, and coat it with floatant, you should get the desired effect. I thought you knew, but it's my fault for not reminding you of that. Sorry.

[Guest One More Cast]

Rich,

Something that I should have told you about the Madam-X (or any floating deer hair fly) is that you need to coat it with a floatant or the deer hair will absorb water and start to sink. And since you used calf tail that's even worse since it doesn't have the hollow cells to make it bouyant like deer hair. If you flair the tail more to act as a outrigger, don't pull the foam as tight when you wrap it, and coat it with floatant, you should get the desired effect. I thought you knew, but it's my fault for not reminding you of that. Sorry.

 

 

What are you recommending for floatant these days?

 

Pre-treat with Watershed?

 

Silicone as in Aquel or more of the paste-type silicone like Top Ride?

 

Joseph

[asherman]

I caught a couple of dink smallies on Sunday using a Madame X that I tied last week at our tying session. It floated pretty well with a coating of Gink. Once the sun was up I had resort to sub surface flies and plastic baits with the spinning rod. On Sunday, the plastics were working much better than flies.

[skjordan]

What are you recommending for floatant these days?

 

Pre-treat with Watershed?

 

Silicone as in Aquel or more of the paste-type silicone like Top Ride?

 

Joseph

 

I like to use Stimies this time of year (grasshopper?????) and I pre-treated them with Water Shed for the first time. I like it.

 

Yes elk hair floats, but these seem to float higher, for longer.

 

How do you like Water Shed??

[Scott Ferguson]

This thread is not at all what I was expecting.

[aloomens]

I thought the pre- treatment type floatants like Watershed where primarily for hackeled dry flies. Does it work for deer hair flies also?

 

I've always used Gink, and recently tried Aquel. It seemed very similar, but cost more and came in a smaller bottle. My biggest problem is that they don't last real long. Is watershed more or less permanent after it's applied?

[Mike Flyrodder Miller]

What are you recommending for floatant these days?

 

Pre-treat with Watershed?

 

Silicone as in Aquel or more of the paste-type silicone like Top Ride?

 

Joseph

 

Floatant is a matter of personal preference. Watershed works, but with flies that have a tendancy to absorb water like deer hair flies, I like to pretreat with Watershed and then apply a silicone type floatant streamside. The Watershed is a floatant that requires the fly to be treated 24 hours prior to fishing it. I don't know about most of you, but I seldom remember to do that unless I do it at the vise. If I'm not sure whether a fly has been treated with Watershed, I will treat the fly with a silicone paste type floatant.

 

The difference between the silicone floatants is primarily the melt point. The pastes have a higher melt point and so require you to warm them a bit more between your fingers as you apply it. The floatant then will cool on the fly and tend to last longer than will those of lower melt points. When a fly starts to sink, it's a result of one of two things.... either some heavier than water foreign matter has adhered to the fly/floatant or, more likely, the floatant has come off of the fly. The fly needs to be dried with a dessicant (silica gel) and the floatant reapplied. The silica gel type floatants (Top Ride) act to dry the fly by absorbing any moisture. They work great, but loose efficacy once the fly has been used a bit. They don't work as well as the silicone pastes.

 

That being said, when I catch a fish, I find that the best way to treat the fly is to remove the "fish slime" from the fly with a silica gel type floatant, which also dries the fly, and then reapply the paste type. It's worked for me for as long as I can remember. Your mileage may vary.