Reliable Float?

I had a dissapointing experience with an Isonychia spinner that would not float after landing one fish. There were several trout rising in the rapidly waning light. The naturals were large. About a 6 2xl. Does someone know of a pattern with foam that is a reasonable imitation of large spinner/duns like Brown Drakes and Iso s that are reliable floaters? My deer or moose hair patterns are aggravating flops that sink at the worst times.
I need good directions as I am a traditional tyer who has only begun to think about using foam. Thank you

What type of hook and floatant are you using? If the hook is to heavy nothing will keep it floating.

Ausable: I would use a TMC 5212 hook. Put a hump of closed cell foam above the intersection of the poly wing and the hook. Use superfine dubbing (sparse) and make a splayed tail with 4 microfibbets. You can also investigate articles about the "Serio" spinners.

If you're looking at foam for the body, check out razor foam as very thin in diameter. Cut the foam in a strip and wrap. You can palmer with thread then for durability if you like.

For my iso spinners I simply use poly yarn for wings and hackle around the base. I've never had a prolem before, just tie them on a light wire hook and you should be fine. And what are you using for tails? the tails support the heaviest part of the fly (the bend) and if you're using a material that isn't very stiff the fly will sink.

As far as using foam the only way I can think of is by tying in a small piece of foam where you tied in the poly yarn. Almost like an orange foam indicator on an ant.

To keep my parachutes, ants, spinners, and duns floating I only use gink (or another type of "grease" floatant) on the wings (parachutes, poly yarn etc.) and foam indicators. But I don't like to coat the entire fly with the floatant because I think that it holds down the dubbing fibers and takes away from the fly. When I catch a fish on the fly I simply apply frogs fanney, squeeze the fly, blow it off and keep fishing. I just think the body of the fly looks more realistic
when "grease" floatant is not applied, just my opinion,

hope this was of some help

Thanks for the responses. The fly was from a local shop and a commercial tye. I think the tails are moose mane and the body deer hair. Wings are furnace hackles supported by conventionally wrapped hackle.
I am going to create my own pattern and incorporate the lighter hook suggested above and I think I will use a foam body tied on a needle or constructed like a thinner foam hopper and I have some polar bear hair or poly for a wing.
Maybe it is good this happened so that I will devise a pattern that wont fail when most needed.
Does polar bear hair make a good spinner wing on big mayfly imitations? I read about someone catching a very large brown on a Hex imitation with polar bear wings. I guess it is time for me to learn about the world of foam flies at least for giant spinners. Once again thank you and I hope more people respond with more good suggestions. you would have to have been there in the dark with all those fish gulping flies and my imitation passing over and by them futiley.

Try the compara spinner with a foam back.

Go with the lighter hook... wrap the thread, tie in tails... Like the microfibbets, dub the first third (or a little more) of the body with dubbing the to match the natural then cut and tie in a small strip of foam as wide as the spinners body and long enough to reach the eye. Next tie in either a grizzly or light blue dun hackle feather to the hook sized so that when wrapped around the hook the wings are spinner lenght. Dub to a a point 4/5 down the back of the hook. Now grab the hackle and wrap it 6 to 8 times around the body moving forward with each wrap until you are at the end of the dubbing. Tie down the feather. Now grab the foam and push it down over the top of the fly pushing down the hackle sticking directly vertical from the back of the hook. Tie down the foam. Now use the thread to make a nice head. turn the fly upside down and make a v-cut to remove the hackle sticking directly down and your done. If you wish you can color the foam on top of the fly with a orange flourescent marker for improved visability at or near night. Grease the fly before fishing it. This fly has been a killer for me tied to match many different mayfly spinner falls.

I'm interested, it sounds like a good idea but tough to visualize, can you post a pic?

I have excellent results, as measured in floatability, durability & catching with a simple dubbed body pattern (I use rabbit) with Hi-Viz wings (tied on the sparse side). You can use poly yarn instead, but I feel that Hi-Viz is the best synthetic yarn on the market for spinner wings. And adding a foam wingcase over the thorax area as mentioned by NJ Fred will truly make it super buoyant- like him I use a TMC 5212 hook for my bigger dries (less metal = better floatation), and Microfibetts for the split tails.

Actually have to credit Aaron for getting me to use the 5212, its a great hook for any bug in a size 10 or bigger- just remember it's 2xl, so that means you need to buy it one size smaller to out the same length as a standard dry fly hook.

The guys here have a video showing how the compara spinner is tied http://www.wonderhowto.com/how-to/vi...ishing-234102/

Now the only difference is that just before he ties in the hackle tie in the foam. Think of the foam as a wing case almost. You can cut it a little wider than the body below. Now dub the rest of the fly and then wrap the hackle like he does. Tie off the hackle. Now take the foam which is sticking off the fly where it and the hackle was tied in and fold it down over the hackle. The hackly on top will compress down to the sides. Tie the foam off and trim. It will look like a wing case. Now all you have to do is V cut the bottom of the fly. BTW... another advantage of the foam is that you don't have to worry as much about getting enough turns of the hackle in as the wings will fill in with the additional hackel when you tie the wings down. Hope this helps.

This is hands down my favorite spinner pattern. It's a killer.