MidCurrent Tested and Trusted: Fly Agra Floatant
Whether its catching too many fish (I know there’s no such thing) or bad drifts soaking the fly, eventually even the most stalwart foam-based bug will take on a little water. Of course, there is a simple solution—add floatant.
Floatant comes in a variety of types—dry powders, fancy sprays, oily gels, and gummy pastes. Each is effective, and as a fly fishing guide I’ve used just about all of them. Yet I never found a floatant type or brand that really stood out and each one eventually failed, leaving me with a dry fly that was more waterlogged than Rose’s picture from Titanic. Eventually, though, I found a brand that seemed to last longer than any other and was incredibly easy to apply. It’s called Fly Agra.
Neat and Easy
While the clever name certainly makes it stand out, its effectiveness does, too. Like most floatant, Fly Agra is a silicone-based liquid you can coat onto your dry fly to seal out water and keep your bug floating for hours. Unlike most floatant brands, which leave long oil slicks on the water and leave your fingers looking like you just blew your nose into your bare hands, Fly Agra is nice and clean. Apply it, give the fly a few false casts to dry, and you can fly fish for hours without any residual effects.
Fly Agra is also extremely easy to apply. It comes in a small plastic jar with a wide mouthed lid. Take off the cap, dip your dry flies, then you’re ready to fish. Unlike most floatant, you only need to apply it once. In fact, one jar will last an entire fishing season.
Floating Forever
No other floatant I’ve ever used lasts as long as Fly Agra. One application and you’ve got hours of dry fly fishing ahead of you in almost any situation. I’ve put Fly Agra on large, foam dry flies during stonefly and hopper hatches when my flies are absolutely getting chewed to hell—and they keep floating. I’ve put it on sparsely tied mayfly patterns that normally only have one or two drifts before they flounder like a punctured raft—and they keep floating. In short, there’s never been a time when I’ve had Fly Agra fail me.
One of first times I ever used Fly Agra was a mid-winter midge hatch on the Yellowstone River. It was during a heat wave and the river was a bit swollen with fallen snow. The fish had pushed up to fast-flowing edges where they could sip the miniscule flies from the current breaks. I couldn’t splash my flies down on top of the feeding trout but was having a lot of trouble keeping my midge clusters on top in the riffles. So I dipped my midges in Fly Agra and was absolutely shocked at the difference. My flies not only floated, they practically skated on top of the water as they drifted right into the rising trout’s jaws.
Stay Dry My Friend
Dry fly fishing is always a challenge. First you have to pick the right bug and then drift it naturally over a rising trout’s nose—and so many things can go wrong from bad drifts, to accidentally spooking the fish, to bad hooksets. The last thing you need is a sinking fly. That’s why Fly Agra can and will be the one of the most important tools in your gear bag. With just a quick dip, Fly Agra keeps your fly on top of the water where you need it to be, leaving the rest up to you and the trout.
