Dia dhuit a Ronnan, I have been tying several emerger patterns for mayflies and I have had very little difficulty in regards to them sinking. I wouldn't use any floatant as this has a tendancy to limit the bouyancy that CDC naturally has. From what I understand, CDC is bouyant because it naturally traps air bubbles in its fibres, the fact that they come from the area of the preening gland and have a natural oily resistence to water is an added bonus.
A strong current will pull them under, and, as any dry fly, once water logged it wont trap the air bubbles necesary to keeing it afloat. The more you handle it with your fingers, the more the firbres are flattened down and this also limits the amount of air that the feather can trapp. When I have been tying my emergers I use three CDC feathers, whether or not this truly adds any benefit is left up to debate...three just seems a nice number to my eye. If anyone has any information to add or anything that contradicts what I said, please let me know...I have only just started using CDC as a common material in my tying arsenal, and any additional tips are greatly appreciated! Sl�n go f�il, Aaron Tester-Hall Rollinsford, USA By the way, since we're throwing about a bit of Gaeilge here...Out of curiosity,can anyone tell me what the Irish is for "fly-fishing"? That was not a term I ever learned when I was taking it in college. On a side note, I recently tried speaking with an Azeri who spoke just as much English as I spoke Russian and trying to explain fly-fishing was quite a task...especially when you speak Russian like a two year old like me!
