|
April 6th, 1998
The "DAP"
I
recently received an e-mail asking how to fly fish a ten
foot wide stream with a nine foot fly rod. Oh yes, the banks
were overgrown with brush. And, he said there was no place
to make a cast. Well, sometimes a question is so easy it defies
answering. The simple answer is ya' can't do it!
Not in the normal sense of the
word, anyway. But, that does not mean you can not
aggravate and bother the inhabitants which live there.
Some may suggest you use
a very small (six foot) fly rod. I base the size of fly
rod somewhat to the size of the intended
quarry. A ten foot wide stream could be holding steelhead and
be six feet deep. I would, instead, use a eight and half, or nine
foot rod and do what has been done for literally centuries. I
would pull out enough leader to reach the water and DAP.
You literally bounce the fly just
on the surface. You're not getting more than a drift
of a couple of inches. If you can see the fish, bounce
it right over them. They will think it's some
bug who just hit the water. Do it enough times they think
there is a lot of them. This is a dry fly technique.
If you have not heard of this
practice, it only means you have not read enough
fly fishing books. You maybe have even
done it, not knowing it had a name. If there was some other
way someone would have figured it out and written a book
about it by now. If there is, I have not yet read it.
Is it a type of cast? Can't say I
would buy that. A method of pestering fish perhaps,
or annoying them, but not a cast. Is it
a way to break a fly rod? It is one of the many ways you can
accomplish it, for sure. But, it is not a cast.
Now, if the stream is only ten
feet wide and is shallow, then what? Well? So what!
The size and type of fly are determined
by the insects at the time. So are the leader and tippet.
Nothing changes, with the possible exception the fish may be
spookier than in a deeper stream.
So now to address the unheralded worm fisher. He with no
organization, no library of books each resplendent with wonderful
pictures of various worms in fetching poses. To him who has no
need of excuses and never has been tempted to go that devious
route, I say congratulations, you are indeed a man. A man in a
man's world. One who needs no one. Needs no reason for not
excelling. You simply go out and fish. As man was meant to do.~ JC
Till next week, remember ...
|
