Dapping on Loch Lomond (Page 4).

The Daddy!

Flies.
As the song goes "there's only one fly for dapping, one fly for da...pp..ing, there's only one fly for dapping."

The Daddy of them all: The Daddy Longlegs

Well maybe I'm getting carried away, as mentioned previously, sea trout will take traditional dapping flies, they worked in the past and they will work now.

However, one glance into my dapping fly box reveals one fly more than any other. It comes in a range of dressings from heavy to light, it comes in a range of colours from light to dark, it is the Daddy of Dapping flies... the Daddy Longlegs.

Dressed in a range of colours and sizes, the "Daddies" are deadly for sea trout.


Take your pick from this lot!

So what in my opinion makes the daddy good in relation to the more traditional dapping flies? These dapping flies seemed to concentrate on ensuring the ability to float for long periods was paramount, this was achieved by using copious amounts of hackle wound onto a relatively heavier "lightweight salmon iron" hook than we would use nowadays, then there were sometimes the addition of "protruding horns" made from hair. The overall look was sometimes hard to relate to any possible kind of insect these could represent. Now I know I've mentioned that sea trout in general have ceased to feed in fresh water and that it is the chase and capture of what they take as a natural prey item that brings them to our lure. However having our lure look like something found in nature that is capable of evading capture by flying away from an interested sea trout can do us no harm at all.

Let's look at the Daddy Longlegs style of dapping fly. For a start it looks generally more insect like, look at the slim line body either on the hook shank or as a detached body. Look at the wide spread distinct wings, look at the relatively compressed hackle area in contact with the water (compared to some traditional dapping flies) and lastly look at all those potentially mobile trailing legs as it is moved across the water surface. Now imagine holding one above your head and looking up at it. This is the view a sea trout or salmon would fleetingly see as the fly skips along the wave. The hook shank would appear to merge into the detached body or be accepted as a dangling leg, the trailing legs, wings and body would be silhouetted against the cloud covered sky and most of all there will be the illusion of life as it will move and look like a struggling insect trying to free itself from the surface film as the wind blows it across the loch.

It looks alive and lifelike ready to fly out of reach: Grab it while you can.

Easy pickings for a bored sea trout to experience the thrill of the chase and the moment of capture. Yes, if only we can find one in that taking mood.

On the next page, we'll look at presentation of the fly.

Continue to Page 5...