Amadou

[Traditionalist]

Amadou is obtained from a fungus which grows on trees. The horse shoe, or tinder bracket fungus, Fomes fomentarius. It was commercially processed at one time for a number of things, one of which was tinder for flintlocks, ( the fungus is also known as "German Tinder), and similar firearms etc. The fungus was soaked in urine, which contains nitrates, or in various other solutions, and then dried, making it highly flammable. It was also widely used as a styptic, for stilling blood, by dentists etc. It may well be that the dentist?s stuff was not soaked in urine.

It is the best drying agent bar none for dry flies, most especially CDC and various fur flies, and I would not like to be without a piece in my fishing jacket. It is often difficult to obtain nowadays ready-made, and is expensive.

The raw fungus is not common everywhere, ( there is a great deal of it in the woods around my home however!), and it is quite difficult to prepare for use.

Much of the stuff offered for sale to anglers as "amadou", is not amadou at all. I have seen all sorts of stuff.

Amadou looks like a piece of dry wash-leather when dry, in a range of shades from yellow to dark brown. It is brittle, and must be handled carefully, or it will disintegrate. Prior to use, it must be soaked, and then gently pressed out ( do not wring!). It will remove moisture, slime, etc from dry flies immediately, simply by pressing these between the amadou.

It may be glued ( around the edges only!) Or sewn to a piece of leather for use as a "fly-dryer".

For absolutely perfect results, the amadou should be used in conjunction with a small canister of ground silica gel ( These are the small beads of stuff, usually packaged in small sachets, used to prevent moisture in computer packaging etc). Crush the beads in a soft cloth using a hammer. Or use a coffee grinder. ( I use the same coffee grinder which I use for making dubbing, a Krups 75).

To use the substance, put the fly in the container ( 35mm can), and shake it. It will be returned to its former pristine glory almost immediately. Treat with floatant if required ( NOT CDC!!!).

The reason amadou is called amadou by the way, is that this is the French name for the fungus.

Pictures of the fungus, which is usually found on Birch trees, and eventually kills them, but can also affect others, may be found here,

http://www.grzyby.pl/gatunki/Fomes_fomentarius.htm

If you find this fungus, then the amadou can be found inside it. Cut the outer skin off, and slice the fungus from top to bottom. Most of the fungus is gills, the substance we require sits on top of these gills. This strip must be cut off, and soaked for at least a week, in a solution of ordinary washing soda, and then pressed, or ( carefully!) hammered flat. The result when rinsed and dried should be a sheet of amadou. Hammered amadou will be soft and felt like, and may be used as it is. Strips of amadou must be soaked first and then wrung out.

Before storing, make sure the amadou is dry, if stored wet it will rot.

This fungus is often confused with "Birch bracket", see;
http://www.uksafari.com/birchbracket.htm which has no amadou in it.

I have quite a few notes on some of these things. Mostly I try to use stuff that is harmless to myself and the environment, especially on stream. This is not always possible, I still use permaflote for some of my dry-flies for instance, even though it contains Carbon-tetrachloride. Because it performs well for me, and I still have a few bottles of it.

Much the same effect can be obtained by spraying flies with ordinary household furniture polish containing silicones, which is cheap and extremely effective. I have used "Pledge" wit success, ( choose the non-perfumed variety),but there are a number of products out there which are equally suitable. This only works when the flies are dry. Spraying already wet flies is a waste of time, and will actually seal the moisture in.

I also use a pre-treatment product called "Watershed" on some flies. It works on CDC for instance, but does not bring any massive advantages. It works extremely well when applied to nymph dubbing, causing the dubbing to hold large numbers of small air bubbles. I use this on weighted nymphs only, as it is otherwise impossible to sink them! On hare fur and similar flies it works very well indeed.

Quite a few people are often amazed that I would use a "dry-fly dressing" on nymphs, and many have never heard of such a trick before. Believe me, it can be very deadly indeed. Flies so treated will often outfish other flies ten to one.

I have tested large numbers of various things over the years, and what I now use reflects my experience and thoughts on the matter over that time. In order to gain a permanent ( or at least semi-permanent, till I find something better), place in my repertoire, a method has to be easy, effective, and preferably cheap. I go fishing to fish, not to mess about changing flies all the time, or hopelessly trying to keep them floating, etc etc. The more time your fly is on the water, and functioning properly, the greater your chances of catching a fish.

The permaflote is not cheap, unless you make it yourself. It is merely white silicone grease dissolved in carbon tetrachloride until a saturated solution is reached. Solid white furniture wax, also works very well. the carbon tet solution has some secondary benefits which are not immediately apparent. It is easy to use. Just dip the fly in the bottle and allow to dry. Dipping the fly in the liquid also cleans and dries it ( Carbon-tet is used as a dry-cleaning agent) removing fish slime etc very well.

Used in combination with a dessicant, and a piece of amadou( which is used first on soaked flies of course), makes flies float long and well, and also keeps them in pristine condition. It will also not discolour fly-dressings, as some substances do. Extremely slimed or otherwise dirty flies are best washed first with a detergent. ( A small container of soap solution also has a permanent place in my vest).

If you don?t want to use carbon-tet, then lighter-fuel ( very highly refined petrol), will also work, although it is not quite as good. It may also cause some varnish to dissolve, and discolour some materials, especially modern plastics or foams. Carbon-tet will also attack some foams and plastics. However, foam flies should float intrinsically in any case, making floatant superfluous, and so this is not a problem.

In cases where I only wish to apply floatant to a part of the fly, ( wings, shuck, thorax, breathing filaments), or to the tippet etc, I have a small plastic tin of silicone grease in a polythene zip-loc bag ( this stuff will otherwise leak out at some point and stain your vest etc irrevocably, just like some other stuff). This also works well when applied to the bodies of dubbed nymphs, causing large numbers of trapped air-bubbles to adhere to the fur. This gives an extremely lifelike imitation of many emerging nymphs.

It is particularly good on weighted emerging caddis imitations. It is not as good as pre-treating the dubbing, ( described above) but better than untreated nymphs by far.

Silica gel is an amorphous form of silicon dioxide, which is synthetically produced in the form of hard irregular granules (having the appearance of crystals) or hard irregular beads. A micro-porous structure of interlocking cavities gives a very high surface area (800 square meters per gram). It is this structure that makes silica gel a high capacity desiccant. Water molecules adhere to the gels surface because it exhibits a lower vapour pressure than the surrounding air.

When an equilibrium of equal pressure is reached, no more adsorption occurs. Thus the higher the humidity of the surrounding air, the greater the amount of water that is adsorbed before equilibrium is reached. It is in these higher humidity conditions (above 50% Relative Humidity) that stored, or in-transit, electrical or electronic items, medicines, powders etc etc, are susceptible to damage.

The beauty of silica gel is the physical adsorption of water into its internal pores. There is no chemical reaction, no by-products or side
effects. Even when saturated with water vapour, silica gel still has the appearance of a dry product, its shape unchanged.

Grinding it to powder reduces its effectiveness for its originally intended purpose ( protecting goods from moisture in-transit), but makes it perfect for use on flies. Simply drop the fly in the powder. Shake well, and then re-treat the fly with floatant if necessary.

Most of the powder falls off the fly as it adsorbs the moisture. A quick flick, a good blow, or a false cast removes the rest. I usually carry two small film canisters of the powder. Small screw-top bottles also work well, and are easier to use with cold wet hands. Warming the crystals, or the powder, drives off the adsorbed moisture, and regenerates the material completely. Just place in the oven at 80?C for twenty to thirty minutes, and the powder completely regains it?s absorbent properties.

Silica gel has many other properties that recommend it as a desiccant;

It will adsorb up to one third of its own weight in water vapour. This adsorption efficiency is approximately 35% greater than typical industrial desiccant clays, making silica gel the preferred choice where weight or efficiency are important factors.

It has an indefinite shelf life if stored in airtight conditions.

It can be regenerated and reused if required. Gently heating silica gel will drive off the adsorbed moisture and leave it ready for reuse.

It is a very inert material, it will not attack or corrode other materials and with the exception of strong alkalis and hydrofluoric acid is itself resistant to attack.

It is non-toxic and non-flammable.

Standard white silica gel is referred to as being non-indicating. As it adsorbs moisture it remains physically unchanged. Non-indicating silica gel is both cheap and effective, available loose in bulk packs or packed in sachets.

Self-indicating silica gels are coloured gels whose colour changes as they adsorb moisture. I have occasionally used these, but there is no particular advantage in doing so, and they are more difficult to obtain anyway. ( Although they are also often used to protect things like tabletted drugs etc in transit).The ordinary silica gel beads used in packing many things are quite sufficient for fly-drying purposes.

Since I posted a similar article on another board in America, one of the contributors there, Mr Bob Balogh very kindly pointed out that this stuff can be got from florists and the like very cheaply, as it is used for drying flowers. Furthermore, the indicating gels are available there. It is nice if you can see whether the material need regenerating. They are usually blue, and turn pink when they have adsorbed the maximum of water

Grinding them may be done with a mortar and pestle, or with a coffee grinder etc. At a pinch, use a hammer, wrap the beads in a cloth, and tap the cloth with a hammer until the beads turn to powder. The beads themselves will also work without being ground, but are nowhere near as quick or as effective.

Keep the container with the powder in a pocket close to your body. The warmer it is, the better it is.

All this might seem like an awful lot of trouble to go to, but in fact, it is quite easy and quick to do, and it will ensure that your flies perform properly for long periods of time, and often give you a much greater chance of fish. I use these things not only because they are free etc, or because I am a cheapskate! But because they work, and very well too.

TL
MC

[haresear]

You don't do things by halves Mike. Yet another informed and informative post.

I tend to use proprietary stuff myself, being a lazy B.
I bought some silica powder (Shimazaki, I think) and it is invaluable for getting you fishing quickly again after the fly becomes slimed up. Just swish the fly in the water to remove the worst of the slime, blow the excess water off and drop the fly in the powder and shake the the bottle.
Blow on the fly again to remove the powder and you have a pristine dry fly.

I hadn't even considered Amadou, because of the mystique surrounding it and the alleged difficulty of obtaining it. Up until now I have relied on fast short false casts with a haul to flick the excess moisture off the fly. Maybe I should venture into the woods with a photo of Fomes Fomemtarius.

Alex

[Traditionalist]

You don't do things by halves Mike. Yet another informed and informative post.

I tend to use proprietary stuff myself, being a lazy B.
I bought some silica powder (Shimazaki, I think) and it is invaluable for getting you fishing quickly again after the fly becomes slimed up. Just swish the fly in the water to remove the worst of the slime, blow the excess water off and drop the fly in the powder and shake the the bottle.
Blow on the fly again to remove the powder and you have a pristine dry fly.

I hadn't even considered Amadou, because of the mystique surrounding it and the alleged difficulty of obtaining it. Up until now I have relied on fast short false casts with a haul to flick the excess moisture off the fly. Maybe I should venture into the woods with a photo of Fomes Fomemtarius.

Alex

Nothing against buying stuff,but only if it is superior to what I can make or otherwise obtain.  I resent paying for something that does not work very well, or is sold at outrageous prices for no good reason except that somebody can make a large profit.

I believe that suppliers should earn their money, and also be able to advise competently if required. Those who are only interested in flogging ( often sub-standard) stuff at the highest mark-up are wasting their time with me.

The dry shake, and also "frog?s fanny" , is hydrophobic fumed silica, sold under the trade name of "Cab-o-sil" among others. The complete description is Cab-O-Sil TS-720 .   Other types will not work, so if you buy any make sure you get the right stuff. It MUST!! be hydrophobic fumed silica.

Hydrophilic fumed silica is also available ( used mainly as resin thickener) ,and is completely useless for drying flies.

It is  better than the ground silica gel, which only dries the fly. The HFS powder not only dries the fly, but also acts as floatant because some of the fine powder is embedded in the fly and is strongly water repellent.

Never could see much point in doing things by halves!  I think one might say that my motto strongly resembles "Get in there and fill yer boots!". 

TL
MC

[Wildfisher]

and also be able to advise competently if required ........................

That's just about every modern tackle dealer out then. 

Seriously though, I agree with you and  it's a bloody shame, that the kind of tackle dealers I knew as a lad (all anglers themselves) who  offered good advice and personal service seen to have gone for good. There are  a few left in odd corners  of the land but other  than Hugo Ross in Wick I struggle   think of one. I always try to buy at least a  few flies and some spools of nylon when I am up there (even if I don’t need them), these kind of places are few and far between nowadays and it would be a great pity if they disappeared altogether. We are all to blame though to some extent, price is everything and some local chap trying to make enough to keep his stock up to date, pay his rates etc can't find it easy now.   

[rabbitangler]

Kate Flemings in Blairgowrie??

[Traditionalist]

Life can be very interesting.  I was in a tackle shop not all that long ago, because I wanted some nylon.  To be "fair", it is not a "Fly" shop.

The assistant at this shop had sold a guy a fly-rod, a fly reel, and a fly-line, and while I was waiting behind another bloke to pay, the guy who had bought the clobber came in and was talking to this assistant, telling him that he just could not get on with the rod, and there must be something wrong with it.

To my complete amazement, indeed almost to the point of disbelief, the great gormless assistant actually rolled his eyes, and shot us an evil looking grin while this poor bugger was trying to trot out his tale of woe. I was immediately seized by an almost overwhelming desire to smack him right between his eyes, but fortunately I managed to resist temptation!

In front of me, the guy who had just paid for the tackle he had bought was on the point of leaving, but he turned to me and said, "go on Mike. Give him a hand".   I did not recognise him, but he obviously knew me from somewhere or other, maybe a show or a class or a demo, I don?t know.

As it turned out he was a regular customer, and knew the owner well, and he simply walked the two or  three steps to where the bloke was standing, and completely ignoring the assistant, he took him by the arm and said, "Come over here lad, we?ll help you out".

Normally, especially as a stranger, I would be very very wary of even opening my mouth in many tackle shops, unless I was specifically asked to do so. But "pressed into service" as it were, in this case, I had no other option. After some chit chat with the owner, we went out to the car park to "have a look". he set up his gear which was all threaded up etc, and only taken down at the ferrules,and tried to cast.  It was quite impossible of course.

I simply held my hand out, and he gave me the rod. "Who set this up for you?"  I asked.  "The shop assistant here" he replied.

Seldom have I seen such an almighty cock-up!  The WF line was mounted wrongly on the reel. Not only was the thin end to the fore, the real was set up for left hand wind, but was mounted for a right hander, and the line was spooled the wrong way round! But the absolute and incredible "cherry on the cake" was , the line was threaded through the keeper ring! At least I though this was the "cherry on the cake" but I was most severely in error!

The rod was a 9?6" #9 weight. The line was #10 WF floater, and the reel was the size one would use for a #6 weight rod, and so it was impossible to turn the drum when all the line was wound on, indeed it was not possible to wind all the line on to the reel at all, a couple of yards were left over. he had this in loops in his hand.  There was no backing on the reel. The guy in the shop had told him that that was how fly-anglers "did it".

It took me about twenty minutes to get everything sorted out, including changing the reel for a larger one, reversing the reel drag and check mechanisms on the new reel, putting on some backing etc , and another ten minutes to show him a basic overhand cast. He was quite delighted, and asked me what I thought of the rod.

I asked him what he was going to use it for,  and my credulity was once again strained to it?s utmost, indeed I am sure I heard it "twannnnggg" as it hit the uppermost stop bar....................

"I have been invited to fish the local stream for brown trout" he said. "The guy in the shop told me this is a good rod".

This is what happens when you get involved...................

After a short talk with the owner, I promised to come back the next day and set the guy up.  Which I did. I did not see the assistant again.

On the morrow, after I had set the chap up  with various tackle from the shop, ( which turned out to rather a lot cheaper than what he had been sold in the first place) , and he had gone merrily on his way, the owner of the shop invited me in for a coffee.

He seemed a pleasant enough chap, whose main interest was boat fishing for cod on the Baltic.  In the course of conversation he said to me,  "It really is a problem, the "?%&$?$&&"  rep brought us all this fly-fishing gear, but I have no idea what it?s for, there is a very good mark up on it, but it is difficult to sell because people just don?t know what they want".

Awestruck, I refrained from any further comment, drank my coffee and left shortly afterwards.  I  have not been back in the shop since.


There is another little story about a tackle shop which you might find enlightening, but I will put it in the "rods" thread where it belongs.....................


TL
MC

[Highlander]

The reason amadou is called amadou by the way, is that this is the French name for the fungus.

Whilst that is quite correct the name is more likely derived from the latin
ad manum dulce (soft to the hand)
Where ever it comes from a most useful aid for the dry fly man.
Watch out for the Samadou make, this is a synthetic & not a patch on the real stuff.
Tight Lines

[haresear]

I've been using Shimazaki Dry shake for a couple of years now. It works a treat.

I also have an amadou patch to take up the initial wetness of the fly before dunking it in the Shimazaki stuff.

[Traditionalist]

It only works really well when it is soaked, and then pressed out. Must be dried before storage though, as it will go mouldy otherwise.

TL
MC

[Wildfisher]

Well known angler  and long time writer Geoffrey Bucknall once wrote  that Amadou is less effective than a piece of kitchen roll. I always just use tissue myself. With CDC flies, tissue then pop it in the dry shake. Works a treat