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Removing grease from Dryflies

Posted: Sun Mar 14, 2021 2:38 pm
by Bendix
Hi All

I have encountered a “problem” which I hope that one of you can help me with...

During this weekend, I was spending time tweaking my dry fly box, and tying a few new dries for the upcoming season (I know it’s early to do this, but I had some time on my hands, so why not?).

While going through my boxes, I realized that some of the flies from last season, which have been sitting in the box since last May, where still filled up with dry fly gel (I use Aquel from Loon). And even though I always allow my flies to dry after a trip, the grease was still there...

So I decided to remove the grease somehow. The solution I came up with, was to put the fly in a piece of paper towel, and then squeeze it between my fingers to “suck” out the grease. Afterwards I would then “restore” the fly, by using the old trick of holding it over some steam from boiling water.

And while this way worked very well, it was however very time consuming, as I had to squeeze each individual fly in the paper towel several times to get the desired result...

So my question is: Does anyone here have a trick, so I can remove excess grease in a quick and easy way in the future???

/Bendix

PS: I will try to use less gel on my flies in the upcoming season...

Re: Removing grease from Dryflies

Posted: Sun Mar 14, 2021 4:09 pm
by Boisker
I’ve never really had to do that.
One suggestion would be to leave all the flies soaking in some hot water with some washing up liquid, perhaps topping up the hot water once it cools a bit, then rinsing them all off together with a few changes of cold water... then just leave them to dry, I’d probably pay them dry as a group with some absorbent paper first...
I haven’t tried the above, so perhaps try on a couple of flies first...

Re: Removing grease from Dryflies

Posted: Sun Mar 14, 2021 5:41 pm
by Mangrove Cuckoo
I would suspect that Loon's customer service department might be the best place to ask this question...

Re: Removing grease from Dryflies

Posted: Sun Mar 14, 2021 7:06 pm
by Paul Arden
It might be a weird question, but why remove it? :D I would have thought these flies would possess excellent floatation properties.

I believe that there are, or were, some compounds that were supposedly able to impregnate flies permanently. For me I would think it a bonus!

Cheers, Paul

Re: Removing grease from Dryflies

Posted: Sun Mar 14, 2021 10:29 pm
by Bendix
Hi

Thanks for the replies.

@Paul

The reason why I want to remove it, is that is has changed the color of the dubbing bodies. The flies are designed to imitate Mayflies at various stages, and so they are tied using synthetic dubbing in light tan and light yellow colors. But over time, the gel has turned the colors into a dull and dark brownish/greyish color... Not exactly what I want! But by removing the gel, the colors have returned to the original colors.

@Mangrove

That’s a good idea. I’ll try and send them an email next week.

/Bendix

Re: Removing grease from Dryflies

Posted: Mon Mar 15, 2021 11:43 am
by Viking Lars
If this is something you have to do, you’re definitely applying way too much gel.
In general I apply only to hackles and tail fibres and leave the rest.

L

Re: Removing grease from Dryflies

Posted: Mon Mar 15, 2021 3:38 pm
by Kevin P
A solvent would remove the grease. Petrol would do it - there are recipes for home-made floatants that are candlewax dissolved in unleaded petrol. I assume petrol would do the de-greasing job, or better would be dry cleaning fluid (CTC).
I always soak dry flies in a liquid floatant that leaves the dressings the original colour once the solvent has dried. The flies don't have the residual greasiness you get with Gink-style products, because the waterpoofing agent is a hard wax, so the grease doesn't get on your tippets. I find that flies soaked throughout in floatant stay dry almost indefinitely.
I currently use "Supaflote" (Halkins and Hartleys): the original "Permaflote" seems to have been discontinued. The recipe for Permaflote was: "Dissolve 1 per cent by weight of paraffin wax in CTC and then add 10 per cent by weight of Dimethicone 350 c/s."
Many of us will keep a jar of Fullers Earth for making sinkant, and the dry F.E. is also an excellent grease absorbent.
Kevin

Re: Removing grease from Dryflies

Posted: Mon Mar 15, 2021 4:18 pm
by Paul Arden
That impresses me Bendix. Obviously I’m never going to do that. But it impresses me! :) 👍

Cheers, Paul

Re: Removing grease from Dryflies

Posted: Mon Mar 15, 2021 6:12 pm
by Bendix
@Lars

You are absolutely right! And like I wrote in my first post, I will definitely try and use less gel on my flies in the future!

/Bendix

Re: Removing grease from Dryflies

Posted: Tue Mar 16, 2021 6:50 am
by Viking Lars
And one more thing. Many gels and other floating agents deposit an oil film as the fly lands, when used heavily. That easily puts off rising fish.