Folstaff wading staff

[Flydoc]

Do any of you folks have any suggestions for dampening the sound of the Folstaff wading stick hitting rocks on the river bottom. I worry that if I glue a rubber tip on it I'll lose some of the effectiveness of the wading staff. I'm thinking of putting some layers of epoxy on the tip but I'm not sure how well that would stick.

 

[Bamboozle]

Just the other night I was fishing with my Folstaf and slowly moving to get withing a few feet of some rising fish. They didn't budge or stop feeding.

I chuckled to myself about worrying about the noise from the staff and have never found it to be an issue at least in regards to fish I can see.

BTW, rocks and sticks crunching under you feet make noise too.

 

[larkmark]

I would consider putting something on to deaden sound. Pressured fish do react to sound. That lateral line on fish, they feel vibrations.... I have seen them stop feeding from boots crunching and even loud talking , which must create vibration somehow. I hate that tapping of my staff. I am going to put something on mine too.

 

[JF_]

I've used rubber heat shrink tubing. It wears relatively quickly though at the tip, so thicker industrial strength is best.

 

[RLeep2]

I believe that wading staff noise spooks fish to about the same degree as bright or loud colored fly line.

I also believe that loud or bright colored fly line spooks fish to about the same degree as earth tone or even invisible fly line...

 

[larkmark]

Simms makes a screw on rubber tip for their wading staff which they say improves grip on rocks. I don't know about Folstaff. My no name staff would not work with the type they make. I would imagine a good heavy rubber cap could be put on with epoxy and should hold up.

Rleep, Please continue in your beliefs. Also you could consider adding a splashy approach with lots of heavy waves and a fluorescent cap and shirt to your arsenal of stealth.

 

[larkmark]

Here you go-
https://www.feather-craft.com/item/lf002a/folstaf-rubber-cap/1.html

 

[Bamboozle]

larkmark wrote:

Rleep, Please continue in your beliefs. Also you could consider adding a splashy approach with lots of heavy waves and a fluorescent cap and shirt to your arsenal of stealth.

I fish all the time during hunting season with a blaze orange cap and bandanna around my neck. The fish don't give a rat's arse.

I also fish the Letort ALL the time in a bright colored shirt and with a red bandanna around my neck...

Believe what you want to believe regarding noise, colors and metal tipped Folstafs but good technique and stealth trumps gimmicks and paranoia every day...

 

[wildtrout2]

Bamboozle wrote:
I fish all the time during hunting season with a blaze orange cap and bandanna around my neck. The fish don't give a rat's arse.

I also fish the Letort ALL the time in a bright colored shirt and with a red bandanna around my neck...

Believe what you want to believe regarding noise, colors and metal tipped Folstafs but good technique and stealth trumps gimmicks and paranoia every day...

I can't associate dressing that way with any kind of stealth.

 

[rrt]

1. I agree that "good technique and stealth trumps...paranoia...." A careful approach to a feeding trout, IMO, is helpful.

2. I also believe that muted colors of clothing help and are a part of being stealthy and make a fly-fisherman less obvious to trout.

3. I am not sure about whether a brightly colored fly line frightens fish, but in the interest of stealth, I have always favored rather muted colors of fly line, too. Perhaps these help to compensate for my mediocre casting ability.

4. I have just begun using a wading staff the past couple of years. Mine is not rubber tipped. There have been a few times that I do believe the tapping of the staff put down fish I got too close to, but I can't really prove that. I do know this: Without a wading staff, I could no longer fish some of the places that I fished pretty thoughtlessly as a younger fly-fisherman.

(My staff is not a Folstaff [I don't know what it is]; it was a gift from my son for Christmas and has turned out to be about the best gift he ever came up with for me.)

 

[larkmark]

rrt, I really rely on my wading staff now too. Makes all the difference. I know a guy approaching 90 who still fishes Spring and Penns with his wading staff in one hand and rod in the other. He moves slowly and just makes short casts and catches quite a few.

I somewhere saw a video of a guy successfully call and shoot a turkey wearing a Santa suit. I guess anything is possible. I'll take every advantage I can. I fish for a lot of pressured fish and they can be tough.

 

[JohnPowers]

Never thought of that.....it’s the DAMN WADING STAFF....

 

[rrt]

Lark,

In "The Earth is Enough," the narrator's grandfather did the same thing: killed a gobbler while wearing a Santa suit. I could not do that, for sure.

And, on the stream, I wear muted old clothing that my wife tells me is disgusting. However, I have never had a trout criticize my "sartorial splendor"! I need any advantage I can get.

 

[larkmark]

rrt- I think that guy was reenacting that scene from the book you mentioned just to see if it could be done. Hilarious. Oh yeah I will take every advantage I can get with turkeys and trout. Call me paranoid but
especially with pressured bigger fish I am very craeful. Sometimes it works.

 

[PENZZZ]

For a lot of years I installed rubber crutch/cane tips on my various wading staffs. Nice and quiet but they didn’t wear well at all. More recently I’ve been using Fugi “gimbals” that I purchase from Mudhole. Much more durable and though they’re somewhat bulb shaped I’ve never managed to catch one in the rocks and pull one off. Search: Fuji Tapered Rubber Caps to see the sizes available. I bond them on with a rod building epoxy called “Rod Bond”.

Jeff

 

[sgrim]

I had a similar concern in years past about wearing studs in my boots and was advised that whatever sound they made was still quieter than the sound of me falling on my *** in the stream. Same holds true for a wading staff.