Want to know a good problem to have?

Catching so many fish that you’re struggling to keep your fly afloat.

While that might sound a little bit like humble bragging, it is something that happens to all anglers from time to time. The reality is that it can be problematic. If you’re catching a lot of fish, but you’re spending an inordinate amount of time messing with a sinking fly, you’re missing out on even more fish.

Whether you are hitting an amazing hatch on a spring creek or running up a mountain blue line, you want your fly to be the best tool for all the trout feeding with reckless abandon. I’ve put together a list of three concepts, with seven “tips” total, to think about to keep your fly high, dry, and appetizing for the fish.

It starts with the right fly, prepared the best way, fished with a little forethought:

The Right Stuff Here is the pecking order for floatability when it comes to materials:

• Foam
• Deer/elk hair
• Feathers
• Dubbing

That means a foam beetle will float all day every day, whereas a fur ant will sink after one fish. If you want a traditional fly, a small spun deer hair dry is about as good as it gets. They do take a little more work, so a bushy humpy (lots of hollow elk hair in the tail and wings) is a great alternative. I try to steer away from sparsely hackled, thick-bodied flies when I’ll be sinking my fly a lot in waterfalls and fish mouths.

Treat Them Right   While foam and tightly packed hair-bodied flies will float like corks, nearly every feather and fur fly is going to need some treatment. You’ll have everything you will ever need if you carry a bottle of floatant and a bottle of desiccant.

But I’ve  noticed that not everyone uses these two  treatments to the best of their ability.

• Floatant has to go on a dry fly while the fly is dry (get it?). The short story is that the floatant acts as  seal, and you don’t want to seal the sinking moisture in an already wet fly. I like to make sure that the gel doesn’t clump up the wings, hackle, or tail, and that it has a chance to dry before I cast.
• Desiccant is an underutilized product by many anglers. A quick shake revitalizes a fly instantaneously. It works best, however, after the bottle has been shaken. So: shake, put the fly in, shake again.

I’ve used a number of products, but I keep coming back to Orvis’ floatant offerings.

Right – Now Fish There are some other ways to keep your fly high and dry, leading to better drifts, resulting in more fish:

• Bad line  is bad. First of all, it doesn’t cast well.  If it is supposed to float, it stops after it begins to crack. Usually the first ten feet gets damaged right off the bat. This leads to a de facto sink tip, which will inevitably pull your flies under.
• Greasing leaders was a normal part of fishing during the days of gut (Google it). With the dawn of monofilament and it’s better buoyancy, greasing leaders fell out of fashion. If you know you’re going to be fishing dries, using a leader dressing ought to be an essential part of your repertoire. Appalachian Furled Leader Company makes Mountain Wax, which is an excellent dressing.
• Don’t overburden your dry flies. If you fish a dropper, make sure there is balance. A size 16 adams will float over a size 12 beadhead prince for a few drifts, but after that it will be fighting a losing battle. Make sure your dry is robust enough for your trailing fly.
• Fish the right way. If you let your fly drag, it is going to get submerged. If you pick up your cast lazily, your fly is going to get submerged. Fishing with intentionality leads to more fish, but also leads to a fly prepared for opportunities to catch more fish.

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So that is three – seven, really – tips for keeping your dry flies dry. Do you  have another technique that is worth adding to the list? Let me know in the comments below: