Which Floats Best?

Рет қаралды 13,340

9 ай бұрын

Video compares the floatability of various fly tying materials.
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Пікірлер: 31

@FlyTyer1948 9 ай бұрын

A testing engineer somewhere is adding “poke test” to the quality control testing list. :-) I’m surprised your Antron floated near the surface after poking. Mine sank after poking, but floated quite nicely when treated with floatant.

@MoFlyFlinger 9 ай бұрын

I personally have become a heavier user of Macrame, mainly due to its super low cost and WIDE variety colors. I use it in place of elk hair on my caddis which is a very popular dry here in Missouri. I also pretreat each fly with water shed at the bench. It also does a great job as a strike indicator as well. But as you say, it has really become up to the tyer to choose which is great!

@ryantherock7664 9 ай бұрын

Great effort thank you.I love these tests

@billninke4232 9 ай бұрын

Oops, accidently hit the comment button before completing the comment. Below is my full, hopefully correct, comment. There seem to be two performance groups. In the first group Zelon, EP Trigger Point and Fulling Mills Ultra initially float high and don't sink. All the others are in a second group that initially float then sink after poking but come back to just under the surface. Another candidate is Crinkle Hair(Dry Fly) from Fly Tyers Dungeon. I performed the same test on it as Tim did and it joins the second group. The fibers in the first group are more expensive (sometimes considerably) than those in the second group. Zelon and Wapsi Antron are nylon. Zelon originated as a carpet fiber and was given special surface features in its forming to repel dirt which is why it floats as it does. It failed as a carpet fiber since it stained easily. But this means it can be dyed easily to yield many colors suitable for fly tying. Zelon is no longer made and the last stock is owned by Blue Ribbon Flies and maybe Umpqua. Antron originated as a yarn fiber with an faceted cross section that makes the yarn shine and can catch and retain air bubbles once submerged. Gary LaFontaine exploited this in his caddis patterns. I believe it is to still being manufactured. All the other fibers are polypropylene. I believe polypropylene has a specific gravity slightly less than 1.0 so pre-treating it with Water Guard or other surfactant as does Puglisi or extruding it with interior air pockets seem to be the two ways to make it float right from the start. Of course you can treat any of the fibers with Water Guard or floatant to make them float after tying them in. So spend more at the start or spend less at the start and then work a little harder at the end to get your fibers to float. A choice typical of those we make as tyers.

@tomt5176 9 ай бұрын

Hi Tim. Very informative short video. Kudos to EP trigger point. My cat ate the first pack I purchased, good thing it wasn’t homework! Thank you for keeping us in the know.

@rogerbird7015 9 ай бұрын

Excellent application of the scientific method in your unscientific experiment making for very sound results! My hat is off to you, Mr. Flagler!

@patrickcanty4166 9 ай бұрын

That was fun and informative - thanks for sharing! I was actually surprised the Antron yarn floated as well as it did, as I have always been led to believe it is more suitable for wet fly applications. Thanks, Tim!

@randychinery-kq8ru 9 ай бұрын

Terrific simple demonstration. Great 👍 presentation. Thanks

@dsmith2601 9 ай бұрын

Love EP Trigger Point both for the colour blends and it’s floating character!

@sergtang5593 9 ай бұрын

Add some floatant in your test to compare fibers behaviour… that change the result?

@lathandeyoung8886 9 ай бұрын

Nice video. Thanks

@chasecook3854 9 ай бұрын

EP fibers are the only thing I tie my hopper and stone/salmon fly patterns with. I also put them in a dubbing loop and use them as the body in a gurgler. Works really well and is a super easy tie.

@charlieboutin3341 9 ай бұрын

I think it was Great scientific research. Hope you had a lab-coat on. 😄 Thanks a lot Tim! 👍👍👌

@justinmcquaide4862 6 ай бұрын

Very interesting video

@ruebdogg1 9 ай бұрын

Nice fulling mill plug

@gregb8824 9 ай бұрын

He gave equal praise to Ep fibers, I was surprised how much credit he gives to Antron which seemed to fail floating all together. One more poke on the antron and it would have been shipwrecked.

@tonysobina8390 9 ай бұрын

I like this test, however, I think the next one should be finding a nice riffle and seeing which ones survive! I have a friend who has shown me how well macrame works, and it was really impressive..

@MarcTelesha 3 ай бұрын

I have been using ep trigger points for the last three years. I still believe cdc and real snowshoe hare are better but the synthetic cleans up and last longer after catching some fish.

@b4franco 9 ай бұрын

Great subject, Tim...we certainly need more "scientific" investigations like this because a great looking dry fly is worthless if it doesn't fish well. Now that you've broken the surface (pun intended), it would be great to compare floatants with the same precision tied dry fly on different hook sizes.

@billninke4232 9 ай бұрын

There seem to be two performance groups. In the first, EP Trigger Point and Fulling Mills Ultra float high and don't sink. All the others are in a second group that sink but come back to just under the surface. Another candidate is Crinkle Hair from Fly Tyers Dungeon. I performed the same test and it joins the second group. I believe polypropylene has a specific gravity or 0.96 so treating it as does Puglisi or forming it with interior air pockets seam to be the ways to make it float

@ShortyOnTheFly 9 ай бұрын

"Poking": A new procedure in the scientific method.

@HerveFavoriti 8 ай бұрын

Very interesting. Can you give me your opinion on the kapok. Thank you .

@justinmcquaide4862 6 ай бұрын

Funny I’ve just bought some kapok but haven’t tried it yet apparently it’s really good ?

@robgreen6697 5 ай бұрын

I appreciate this was an unscientific test, good nonetheless. Is there to your knowledge the data on the density of the materials?

@ryantherock7664 4 ай бұрын

Hi Tim so what is your wing material of choice?

@dirtyjeansjenkins 9 ай бұрын

do you think some of these products made specifically for tying come pre treated? when reading up on them it seems like EP fibers and others do have some additional treatment specifically for floatant. i only mention it because the macrame has proven to be really good for me, but only after a bit of treatment.