[Iain Stewart]

Offshore at the moment which allows me time to plan and dream of outings this year.
I plan on tying some foam daddies and deer hair daddies for dapping this year, along with large Loch Ordie and Black and Red Bibios.
I did have success on Baddenloch with pretty much everything I put on including Orange and Yellow Blobs, Daddies, Trad Wets and an Atomic Ant. Many missed takes and much laughter later I had the holy triology of brownie, sea trout and tiny grilse all to the dap.

Looking forward to exploring again on the Dap - What are everyone else's go to flies for dapping?

On a second point anyone recommend quality dapping floss that you can buy?

[Hamish Young]

I have some half decent floss you can have Iain, the best of 'recent' times was the stuff from Bob Church but 'Spinnaker' was my favourite 

Flies That's a complicated one to answer  But nothing small 

H

[Iain Stewart]

Aye all the recent floss I have had seems to have been made in the same factory. Flies sounds like a discussion over a dram or bottle or red possibly. 

[Hamish Young]

Standing invite 

[John Wastle]

Looking forward to exploring again on the Dap - What are everyone else's go to flies for dapping?

]

Hi Iain,

Daddies and Loch Ordies meet my requirements.  The Daddies below are based on the Lomond boys pattern using a detatched deer hair body.



Mine is a scaled back version without wings. For a simpler tie you can replace the deer hair body with foam but the deer hair is lighter. Colour is personal preference. The style is more important. These sit high on the water and trip across the surface like the natural. Versions in black and claret can work well at times for sea trout too. Olive (without the legs) for mayfly.

Loch Ordies are brown, black/white and olive.

For me the most important thing about any dapping fly is that as much as possible stays on and above the water for as long as possible. I therefore avoid water absorbant materials such as flosses and furs in my patterns.

It is also worth a fair bit of effort keeping the flies dry and high. Airflo Restore is a great treatment once you have removed water with amadou or kitcken paper. If a fly is damp and dragging rather than tripping, treat it or replace it.

We had a great 3 days dapping on a  mayfly loch last month. Once there was enough wind to dap it out scored dries and wets by more than 5:1.

John

[Terry Coging]

That's a nice daddy John along with a Loch Ordie most bases are covered, however I find that a bushy sedge works best sometimes.
I was on a couple of Oban lochs last week and annoyingly they were the only two half days of flat calm all week! I still caught though, using the wafting technique with the 14'6" rod. In calm conditions the leader set up is crucial. I used a leader made up from a  9' 3X tapered leader and 6'  of 0.16mm tippet. The dropper is much thicker and stiffer than the tippet and does not twist. With an anchor fly on the tippet the dropper fly can be jingled on the surface for a few yards each cast, effectively dapping. I rise a lot of fish and most are missed, but my boat partner rises none! When things are dour the 'jingling' certainly sparks fish into action. I also use a 2 dropper leader when there is a bit of breeze and jingle the top dropper as usual but also jingle the middle dropper (smaller fly) before lifting off. The long rod enables these techniques.
I've only dapped a couple of times this year but reverted to wafting when getting frustrated with the varying winds.
Unless the fish are really 'down' every day is a dapping/wafting day for me 

 

[John Wastle]

Thanks Terry.

I should probably add a few bushy sedges, especially for this time of year.