DAPPING ON LOUGH DERG 



Another twenty minutes and we reach our destination, 

 where the welcome of the country greets us. There are friends 

 to meet — some old, others new. There is the news of the 

 fishing to discuss, and the all-important topic of the weather. 

 There is luncheon, and we do justice to it. Then there are 

 rods to unpack ; and finally there is Danny to find. Of 

 Danny more anon. 



Dapping is a peculiarly Irish form of sport, with a fascina- 

 tion of its own. I have delightful recollections of Lough Corrib, 

 and of the Westmeath Lakes in this connection ; on both I 

 have had good sport in good company. But of all our dapping 

 districts I prefer Lough Derg. I admit that I fish Lough 

 Derg under specially favoured conditions, but I know of 

 no place where this fishing is to be carried on amid more 

 romantic surroundings or lovelier scenery. And nowhere are 

 there better fish, heavier or stronger fighters, than in the great 

 lake to whose shores I have brought my readers. 



Nearly half of its splendid length now lies before us. Its 

 lower half is invisible behind a range of hills to the left, but 

 away in the blue sky, some twenty miles off as the crow flies, 

 we can see the black mass of the Keeper Mountain frowning 

 down on Killaloe at Lough Derg's southern extremity ; and 

 the broad waters before us, varying from three to ten miles in 

 width, are dotted with rocks and islets — some bare, some 

 tree-covered — and are narrowed by promontories or widened 

 by bays. Here, surely, is an ideal home for sportive trout, 

 a fisherman's paradise ! 



Into the technique of dapping I do not go. Technicalities 



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