NOTHING OLD EITHER

August 30, 2010

I just love fishing catalogs. This week the Game Fishing Catalogue 2010 from the Glasgow Angling Centre, Autumn Edition, (yes Scotland) made it across my desk. What fun with lots of new things and even very old. As long as so many of our readers are talking about Tenkara, here’s another one to play with.

Dapping. Well, not exactly. The rod telescopes and has a guide at the end of each of the seven sections. It comes in powers, Premium 2 and Premium 2 Power. Here’s the deal, this rod does take a reel, you need 100 meters of mono backing, 50 meters of Dapping floss (like dental floss, yes really) and some Dapping flies.

It is a very popular method on large stillwaters (lakes, lochs, and ponds) in Scotland and Ireland. The floss line is knotted every yard or so and acts like a sail, blowing the fly out in front of the boat, with the rod held high so that the bushy fly skips enticingly across the surface of the water. Trout and often Sea Trout are brought to the surface and if not caught by the dapper will often be taken by their boat partner on conventional fly tackle. Sort of like the teasers used by the salt-water anglers to bring marlin and sailfish in close for casting distance.

The original Dapping was more like the Tenkara with a fixed length of line tied on the end of the rod. This isn’t that. In fact, the late Gary LaFontaine allowed us to excerpt his book Fly Fishing the Mountain Lakes, in our Stillwater section.

“In the United States, stillwater anglers react to wind differently than do United Kingdom lake specialists. In the U.S. most fly fisherman will quit the water when the wind rises to anything more than a mild breeze. In England many anglers won't fish in a dead calm, even if trout are rising, but they'll rush to the water when it's blowing a gale and churning a lake to white froth.

That afternoon with James Harris at the Hog Hole a strong wind kicked up, sending spray into the air, and within an hour every angler on the pond rolled up his tackle and left. This left James and me with all the water, which was probably a good thing since we were going to use a method no one there had ever seen before.

I'd read about the Floss Blow Line, and had even thought of trying it. But I never acquired the right equipment, not bothering because I decided it was probably a limited technique that would only work in perfect dry fly situations. From what I had read, the method was an anachronism even on United Kingdom fisheries.

James strung up two long fly rods, each one more than 11 feet, and put reels on them filled with flat floss. Knotted at the end of each floss line was three feet of 4X leader material. The flies were palmered dry flies, a Soldier Palmer on his and an Orange Asher on mine.

The wind ripped the surface of the pond, peaking at twenty miles per hour. In this weather it was almost impossible to do anything other than dap a fly, but I had doubts about whether it was worth fishing at all.

James said, "It's easy," getting the wind at his back, lifting the rod straight up, and unfurling line. His fly bounced on the water a few seconds and then vanished in the swirling silver of a large rainbow trout.”

To read the complete story, click HERE.

Part of what makes fly fishing so appealing is the variety of methods one has at their disposal - just the number and type of flies available is mind-numbing. But you can use floating lines, sink-tip lines, and full-sinking lines, intermediate and shooting heads to deliver your choice of flies.

We don’t always find our particular nitch right off the bat. Some folks love flowing waters, small streams or majestic rivers, other farm ponds, high mountain lakes, reservoirs whatever works for you. No rules enjoy what you have. Find a system that works for you.

One of the nicest things about fly fishing is the only person that you really have to please is yourself.

  

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