Review: High N Dry Fishing Products
Walk by the High N Dry Fishing Products booth at a fly fishing show and you’ll like see one of their staff attempting to waterlog a dry fly in a cylindrical tube more reminiscent of the stormy high seas than anything you’d ever encounter on the trout stream. Time and again, the fly gets sucked down into the water and swirled around, and time and again, it pops right back to the surface.
At an event at PA Fly Co in Acme, PA, I had the opportunity to talk with Ken Myers, one of the founders of High N Dry Fishing Products, and grab a couple samples to try on my next fishing trip. Specifically, I added the Liquid Spray Floatant and the Powdered Floatant with Applicator Brush to the various other products I use to keep dry flies working.
Fast forward three days to an outing on Pine Creek (north central PA) and a massive Blue Wing Olive hatch that decided to come off in the rain. A handful of trout ate the bugs in a heavy riffle in front of me. I tied on a size 18 imitation and used the same brand of floatant I normally use first. As predicted, within ten minutes, the fly began sinking more than floating, and I had to make more false casts to “dry it out” before landing the fly on the water. If you’ve fished dry flies in the rain, you know how hard it can be to keep flies floating, especially after a catch or two. Often, you’re better off tying on a fresh fly than reviving the old one.
After some frustration, I tied on a fresh BWO, this time treating it with the High N Dry spray. And then, following Ken’s advice, I applied the powdered floatant as well before even making my first cast.
The rain picked up but trout continued to rise, and over the next half hour, I landed a nice brown trout and had two others shake off, and I neve had to reapply more floatant! After catching the first brown, I rinsed the slime off of the fly, blew on it a few times, and it came right back to life.
No, it’s not witchcraft. It’s High N Dry!
I don’t know how they do it. I’m no chemist. But what Ken and his team have accomplished with High N Dry Fishing Products is simply remarkable. This is hands-down the best floatant I’ve ever used…and I’ve used a lot of them!
At the root of the brand is really just a group of folks who love fly fishing. That’s partly what makes High N Dry so effective. Only an angler can truly understand the pain points other anglers face and then figure out a way to fix them. Nobody fishing dry flies wants to spend more time trying to keep their imitations floating than actually fishing.
Years ago, in fact, I got so frustrated with the lack of quality of certain products that I quit using floatant altogether because they seemed overpriced while delivering poor performance. If my fly started sinking and I couldn’t get it to float with a few false casts, I just swapped it out for a fresh one.
As new products emerged, I gave them a shot, and while many floatants nowadays seem to work to some extent, others have worked better than others. But one thing I can tell you for sure: High N Dry is in a class by itself.
Dry flies treated with High N Dry Fishing Products don’t just float; they resist water. It’s incredibly effective for treating dry flies in a dry-dropper rig, too. No matter how many times they get pulled under or eaten by a fish, the flies somehow remain dry to the touch. The hackle, wings, dubbing…dry! Also – and this is a big one – High N Dry Fishing Products are not affected by temperature extremes. They’ll continue working no matter how nasty it gets outside.
Not only does High N Dry Fishing Products make great floatants, their products are environmentally friendly. Spill a bottle on the stream? No worries. These products are not solvent based, not flammable, and do not contain Volatile Organic Compounds (VOCs). All you have to do is sniff other brands to know those products do not meet the same standards as High N Dry Fishing Products.
And if you can tell just by their smell that High N Dry Fishing Products are better than the rest, just imagine how much you’ll like them once you start using them.
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