Used to Gillie at the Loch Maree hotel it was very popular there, some guests had a Bruce and walker Dapping rod, others had a Shakespeare Telescopic and some used their salmon rods ,the original rods seemed to Be whole cane, with a Built cane tip, some of the guests used 4mm nylon ribbon instead of floss, I got some Polypropylene floss which was better than the nylon stuff,the Nylon floss deteriorated fairly quickly in the sun we tested some at only 6lbs BS after a couple of weeks use,what Hamish says about the lengths is right, I always thought it had been invented by gillies that were fed up with flies whizzing about their ears, I was in a boat when the Bow fisher put a fly in the arm of the stern fisher, over my head, it's not something I would want to do easgach 1