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While out tubing on trout lakes it's pretty common to have a few rise right beside the tube.
Here in Ireland dapping is carried on by many fishing natural (live) flies from a drifting boat on a lough. It is also widely used in Scotland. And very effective it is too. Especially good for big trout.
Especially when mayflies of size, grasshoppers and daddylonglegs are being blown onto the water. Big bushy artificial flies work well too, not only for brown trout but also sea run trout.
Description of dapping here; [url "http://www.fish4ituk.co.uk/articles/lugg/dapping1.htm"]http://www.fish4ituk.co.uk/articles/lugg/dapping1.htm[/url]
Now to get to my point: It has occurred to me that the tube is perfect for fishing the dap, with no need for special equipment, since a 10 - 11 foot rod will get the line out plenty far enough to cover those fish popping up beside the tube.
So this is a big entry on my "to do list" for next season.
Has anyone tried dapping stateside? Flygoddess? Maybe it would be very effective bringing up big fish on Pyramid or Henry's in a breeze?
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In California Dapping is when you get too far out past the kelp and the White Sharks investigate [pirate]. There was an older gentleman that used to fish Oso Lake from a float tube. He used a ten foot rod, twelve feet of 30 pound test, and a big concoction of a fly big as a Red Winged Blackbird. No Hook! No Reel! He would stuff that rig way back into the willows and stick ups. And Huge bass would explode on his fly. He would even land a few as these fish just wouldn't let go of their bird meal. You could hear him and those fish banging away. Sometimes the twigs would fly. He alway came out smoking a cig, covered in spiderwebs and cottonwood crud. And smiling.
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[cool][#0000ff]I have dipped and dapped all over the country from a float tube. As you have perceived, the stealth approach afforded by the float tube makes it possible to make natural or light presentations within a rod length of your craft, without spooking the fish. [/#0000ff]
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[#0000ff]I have made several special rods and purchased a couple of others that are especially designed for reaching out and silently dropping a light jig or other lure right next to cover...or back in holes in brush or trees, etc. I love to fish that way. I call those rods my "dip sticks". Many practitioners of such sport refer to it as "tule dipping"...in reference to the type of water reeds in which it is often done.[/#0000ff]
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[#0000ff]Dapping...the presentation of skittering flies on the surface, through the use of long rods and by allowing the breeze to lift and drop the flies, is not widely known or practiced over here. But, I assure you that I have used that method on more than one occasion to enjoy great sport with cruising and feeding trout. It also works well on bluegills and other "sunfish" in our waters. It is a lot of fun to just tease the little tykes by dropping the fly on the water and then lifting it off as several rush it all at the same time. [/#0000ff]
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[#0000ff]Our largemouth bass can become very surface oriented, especially when younger and smaller. I have had a couple of trips in which small bass were cruising the shallow water at the end of a cove, swimming beneath hovering damsel flies and dragon flies, and occasionally leaping into the air to try to snap one up. Sneaking into a good position and then waving a large fly of any kind above the water was an invitation to some splashy leaps and a lot of fun on a light rod. If you do drop the fly onto the water in such situations, a vicious strike is almost automatic. One of my little tricks was to drape the fly over a hanging reed and then to wiggle it just above the water. What a hoot to watch a small bass spy the fly, cruise into ambush range and then charge and leap to pluck the fly from its overhanging position. [/#0000ff]
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[#0000ff]I have also used the dapping technique to catch numerous stream trout, especially in small streams in which the fish hang out under overhanging branches or undercut banks. It is almost scary how fast those little stream fish can move when they rocket out and smack the skittering fly.[/#0000ff]
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[#0000ff]Let us know how your tube dapping sessions go. I assure you that it is much easier to control movement and presentation from your tube...rather than having to keep handling the oars or having someone else do it and trading off with them.[/#0000ff]
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[cool][#0000ff]No breath holding here. No ice dapping either. I can wait for spring.[/#0000ff]
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Well here is an interesting wrinkle:
years ago, just when I was getting my first float tube, I went fishing in Lough Sheelin with my brother. The usual way to fish there at the time was with a fly rod.
We didn't know the lake so well then, and picked a bad time, July, after the mayfly, the perch fry explode, and the trout turn to shallow water fry feeding at dawn, laying up in the deeps the rest of the 24 hours to digest their feed.
So we figured on the 1st day that we had better get up early if we were to catch anything on the fly, the rest of the day being devoted to trolling spoons etc for fry feeder programmed trout that had retreated into the deeps.
So 4:30 the next morning out we went with flyrods sinking shooting heads, and fry type flies about 1" long. We were gonna clean up!
The fry were everywhere. Then a black roadway would open up thjrough the fry shoals, where a big trout was sweeping in under that place.
The trout would use their tail as a concussion depth charge weapon, and after the fish had passed, a line of little white bodies would drift up to the surface.
Then along he would come again, rising to take them calmly off the top, like taking dry flies!
We were not geared up for that and learned a new behaviour of trout. We tried conventional stripping of fry lures ... no result. The bouyant fry lures were only being invented then.
But some locals turned up who knew what to do. They set up dapping rods, with 1" white flies and dibbled the "dead fry flies" on the top. Trout from 2 to 4lbs fell for it.
We asked them "wouldn't it be easier to just cast a floating line with the same flies?"
The reply came back "if we do that the fish will see the line on the surface, those big trout are very line sensitive, and we would have to cut it down to weaker bs mono. With the dap we can use nice strong gear and they never see it!"
I never heard of dapping the perch fry anywhere else but there. But I have seen trout to 9lbs were taken that way .
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... that is a great story... thank you for sharing...
MacFly [cool]
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[cool][#0000ff]We also have a lot of perch in the lakes of Utah, and their young are also a primary forage item on the diets of several species...including trout. However, the larger fish usually make their feeding attacks underwater and I have never observed the "cripple, kill and chomp" behavior you describe. [/#0000ff]
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[#0000ff]I paint my own jigs and lures and one of my most effective patterns in the past couple of years is the "pale perch". I think there is a picture of one of my jigging spoons in that color in the post I just put up on "Last Tubing Trip". I also make painted body jigs and flies, that I paint in that same color combo after wrapping the bodies in some craft cord to build them up to the right size. I have made some in the 1" -2" range that I use behind a bubble (on spinning gear) and also as a drop shot lure for fishing them in deeper water. I would bet that they would work well for the surface feeding trout too. When I wrap them and paint over them a bit of air is trapped under the paint and they are somewhat buoyant. I can also make them with slender balsa or cork bodies. I used to make a lot of small poppers to imitate tiny shad in similar sizes and they worked great when predators were chasing the young of the year shad.[/#0000ff]
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