As anyone who has fished heavy water knows, keeping your fly on the water's surface can make all the difference in getting that selective trout to rise and strike. Regardless of what fly floatant you use (Gink, Aquel, Mucilin, etc), it is likely the same thought has occurred to you while fishing: is there something better?
Recently, I was at a fly fishing show, and someone suggested what they thought was that something better: Rain-X. This, at first, seemed silly, but the more I thought about it, the more I wondered about the feasibility. On paper, it sounded as if it would work, and browsing through the internet (a scary notion I know) did not seem to object, so I decided to give it a try...scientifically...or at least as scientifically as my kitchen counter would allow.
For this test, I pitted a non-treated Rusty Parachute against two other, treated flies. One was treated with my current floatant, Loon Aquel, the other with Rain-X. For the Rain-X fly, the fly was suspended for 5+ minutes in a container of Rain-X, before removing, and hung overnight to dry. I was very careful not to matte down any of the dubbing, or hackle fibers. The Loon Aquel treated fly was prepared just as if I was on the Rapidan: coated with a pencil eraser sized dollop of gel, which was rubbed into the fibers of the fly.
The three Rusty Parachute dry flies: (1) untreated, control fly on Left, (2) Loon Aquel treated fly in middle, (3) Rain-X treated fly on right
These three flies were then placed into a container of water, and the clock started. After an hour, it was clear that the surface tension of the water was keeping the flies afloat, and no fly was showing any indication of being water logged.
The three flies initially placed in water
It was at this point I decided to push each fly underwater, to see if the fly could recover to float again. The result of this was surprising.
After an hour, surface tension held all three flies afloat
The control, untreated fly struggled to stay afloat, and sank after every attempt to get it to cling to the surface. This was no surprise as the fly was fully waterlogged, with little air still trapped to increase buoyancy enough to allow surface tension to do it's magic.
What was surprising is what occurred with the Rain-X treated fly. While the untreated fly at least stuttered at the surface, before sinking (seen during multiple attempts to refloat the fly), the Rain-X fly sank like a stone. Clearly, any water shedding properties were gone, and the fly was completely water logged.
I was worried none of the flies would float, until the Loon Aquel treated fly saved the day. Albeit not the highest floating fly at this point, the Loon Aquel fly was able to cling to the water's surface, and thus remain afloat. This was repeated several times with the same result.
Only the Aquel treated fly (far right) could float after being fully submerged
In retrospect, the results of this test were not surprising. Even though I made every attempt to prevent the Rain-X from affecting the dubbing of the fly, after drying it was clear that the dubbing had hardened and compacted, reducing the amount of trapped air, and overall fluff. These are things that are needed to help the fly remain afloat. Once the fly was introduced to water, whatever air pockets remained were filled with water, and the fly had no chance to win the contest. The Aquel, on the other hand, was able to fill the crevasses of the dubbing, post, and hackle, reducing the amount of water the fly could absorb, while keeping enough of the buoyancy of the fly intact, so as not to overcome the strength of the water's surface tension.
After this test, I stopped introducing my dry flies to Rain-X. Just goes to show that not everything you hear at fishing shows is correct.
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