Went to the river today and it looked like chocolate milk… so, since I had the time I headed to a pond I had been meaning to try. started with a some nymphs withe orange thread head and a hackle collar and caught a few bluegills. Then switched to a wolley bugger and saw about 10 gills surround it and chase it all the way in…but nothing. Only when I would strip until about 3 feet of fly line out of the tip and slowly lift the tip and fly out of the water would strikes happen right when it was about to break the surface. The rod would end up over my head and it was very aggresive strikes as soon as the fly started rising fish came from very far away and just attacked. But in reality it wasn’t a very exciting way to fish. But, if things get slow and you know there are fish in there give it a try it saved me from leaving early. After about 8 fish I had enough…is this what they call dapping? Or is that with a 20 foot pole?
Janus
Janus,
I found this info;dapping (fishing)
Encyclopedia Britannica :
use in fly fishing
…trout on artificial flies and described how each fly was dressed (made). The rod they used was only 6 feet (1.8 metres) long and the line the same length, so that the method used was probably dapping, gently laying the bait on the surface of the water.
Doug
Janus -
What you describe does not sound like dapping. Dapping, as I’ve seen it defined or described, involves just touching the fly down to the surface, with or without moving it along the surface, other than what movement would be imparted by the current, if any.
Your description of your experience just struck me as the fish reacting to one of the key elements of most successful flies - action, or movement. It seems like those gills are accustomed to seeing bugs escape the watery world and attacking them just before they do so ???
Maybe the definitions I’ve seen, or as I’ve understood them, are not complete, and you were actually dapping. Whatever - if it worked and you enjoyed it, great. If you didn’t enjoy it, what difference does the name make ??
John
P.S. I only tried the dapping technique a few times - once on a small spring creek down in Utah, with a foam beetle. It worked well in a spot that I couldn’t get trout to take any other fly.
John you are correct. I was not dapping…here is an article in the NY Times about it.
http://query.nytimes.com/gst/fullpage.html?res=9500E5D9133FF936A25755C0A961958260
Pretty interesting.
Janus
Janus -
Thanks for posting the link - it is a very interesting article. Can always use some fresh ideas to work with.
I do believe, however, that dapping is better known and more widely used in this country than the article suggests. I’ve seen several articles on it in a variety of fly fishing publications over the past several years. ( Some of those articles might have been in older magazines since I read a lot of magazines from the '70’s and '80’s. )
The method described sounds good. But why would one send off to England for a special fly rod when you can use what ever rod, line, leader and tippet you have to achieve the same result ??
I think I was using a 7’6" for 3 wt down in Utah. And I’ve thought about trying it with my two handed 14’ rod if and when I can find the right hatch situation.
John
Is dapping the same thing as high sticking?
I used dapping to catch my biggest fish on Rocky ford this year when nothing else was working.
Noodling I believe involves letting your line down deep in the water to somewhere near the bottom. Put your rod on the rod holder or resting on the gunnel and tap the rod lightly to cause the fly to move seductivly in the water.
Kinda, dapping could be called high-sticking…with a dry fly.
High-sticking is using a very short cast (lob?) hold the rod high and level as it drifts back alongside of you using a sinking fly/nymph/worm.
I read an article on dapping and they used dental floss for the line. They let the fly drift in the wind on the floss and then lightly touch the water and then lift off again.
I’ve also experienced what you are describing with bluegills. In certain ponds I fish, they seem to really be attracted to flies that are jiggling up and down through the surface film.
Here is a Google search on dapping
I watched Al Crise do some impromptu dapping in Athens TX once. A Sunday AM at the Texas Freshwater Fisheries Center before we pulled out and headed back to western parts of Texas. The wind was up, Al had a small dry fly on. He skated that dry across the surface of Zebco Pond and those rainbows went berzerk! [FONT=Verdana][SIZE=2]They were leaping out of the water, going nuts trying to get to that fly. Al was cackling with delight and doing his darnedest to make sure that no one got the fly. Quite a reverse game but loads of fun.
I was inspired by that trick and lately have taken to getting up on the dock at my local fishing pond and dapping a dry just over the surface. The local gang of hoodlum bait-stealers congregate and get coo-coo even popping out of the water trying to get to it. Nice reverse flow after all those years of bluegills stealing my bait as a child. LOL
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Run a search on here, For Floss Blow Line…It is not dental floss…The spool I have is much bulkier and billowier than any dental floss…I can provide a PDF file of an article that appeared on here a few years back…a search here should turn up an article thats in the warm water archives on dapping…Techniques,Equip…Rods,Flies and Floss… and how and where to get them.
Heres a couple from the archives I found http://www.flyanglersonline.com/features/lakes/part98.php
http://www.flyanglersonline.com/features/oldflies/part200.php
http://www.flyanglersonline.com/features/lakes/part81.php This one is an article by Gary Lafontaine on the Floss Blowline Fishing…the Dapping PDF goes much more in depth.