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Dapping Long Rods With Don Miller

Don Miller doesn't cast in the traditional sense. He "daps" by using a long rod to deliver both drys and nymphs to traditional holding water.

This week I'm in Idaho visiting Don Miller at his hideaway fishing camp at Pinehaven, Idaho. Don is a "dapper," a fly fisher who enjoys dapping (tipping) his special dry flies on the water using a 20-foot graphite rod built from a blank designed and made by the Babe Ruth of competition fly casting and G.Loomis rod designer Steve Rajeff.

Don is a hunter of big fish: He spends 90 percent of his time stealthily stalking them along brushy banks near backeddy pools and ten percent of it presenting the fly with just the tip section of the rod showing over the grass or brush. I'll have much more to say about this unique (and old) technique and the man who practices it when I get back.

Don Miller ties all his on drys and nymphs, spending a great deal of time to make his flies as realistic as possible.




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