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re: Beginning fly fishing
Posted on 5/12/15 at 2:18 pm to bbvdd
Posted on 5/12/15 at 2:18 pm to bbvdd
Given you only have a week to learn, spend the $ and get a lesson in casting and reading the water or stick to hiking/ watching your buddy while drinking on the bank. IMHO you will be so frustrated you will never try it again. 
1
Posted on 5/12/15 at 4:10 pm to Britlab
Tip #1 keep your wrist stiff...DO NOT flick wrist up and down.
#2 The direction and movement of the rod TIP will determine where the line goes. Keep rod tip up and do not dip back, if you do your line will dip back behind you.
#3 Start by just flipping short distances....its fishing not casting.
#4 Start in open area to avoid back casting into trees.
#5 Bring lots of extra flies.
#2 The direction and movement of the rod TIP will determine where the line goes. Keep rod tip up and do not dip back, if you do your line will dip back behind you.
#3 Start by just flipping short distances....its fishing not casting.
#4 Start in open area to avoid back casting into trees.
#5 Bring lots of extra flies.
Posted on 5/12/15 at 5:32 pm to ZacharyTiger17
Lots of good advice in this thread so i'll try to hit a couple of new points...
when you do see that indicator go under or do something funky or you just get a funny feeling, lift the rod tip straight up. It might just be the bottom or a rock or weird current but hook sets are free. And it could be a trout. But remember, it's not a bass. If you try to do some monster bass/baitcaster hook set you'll rip the fly right out of its mouth.
when deciding on where to fish don't overlook small water. it can be much less intimidating as your options for what to do, where to fish, etc. are often dictated pretty clearly to you. as a bonus to a beginner, you can often fish smaller streams all day without being required to make real casts. lots of little rolls, pickup/put down type action. Hell half the time on little creeks you can just lift your flies out of the water and swing them over to the next drift by just holding the rod real high.
I will repeat the advice about talking to local shops.
sometimes size matters. If the shop guy says they are hitting fly x in size 18, don't be surprised when your size 12 of fly x doesn't work.
get a couple of tapered leaders (9' 5x is a good all-arounder). get a few different sizes of tippet. 4x-7x will probably take care of everything you will do on this trip. If money is tight just get 5x and 6x. Just get mono for all of the above as it is more versatile than fluro.
If you decide to fish more than one fly at once (which is very effective but not the easiest for a beginner to cast), decrease the tippet size as you go from fly to fly. i.e. tie fly #1 to your leader with 5x tippet. tie fly #2 to fly #1 with 6x tippet. that way if you hang fly #2 you are more likely to get fly #1 back.
watch this for more gear advice
when you do see that indicator go under or do something funky or you just get a funny feeling, lift the rod tip straight up. It might just be the bottom or a rock or weird current but hook sets are free. And it could be a trout. But remember, it's not a bass. If you try to do some monster bass/baitcaster hook set you'll rip the fly right out of its mouth.
when deciding on where to fish don't overlook small water. it can be much less intimidating as your options for what to do, where to fish, etc. are often dictated pretty clearly to you. as a bonus to a beginner, you can often fish smaller streams all day without being required to make real casts. lots of little rolls, pickup/put down type action. Hell half the time on little creeks you can just lift your flies out of the water and swing them over to the next drift by just holding the rod real high.
I will repeat the advice about talking to local shops.
sometimes size matters. If the shop guy says they are hitting fly x in size 18, don't be surprised when your size 12 of fly x doesn't work.
get a couple of tapered leaders (9' 5x is a good all-arounder). get a few different sizes of tippet. 4x-7x will probably take care of everything you will do on this trip. If money is tight just get 5x and 6x. Just get mono for all of the above as it is more versatile than fluro.
If you decide to fish more than one fly at once (which is very effective but not the easiest for a beginner to cast), decrease the tippet size as you go from fly to fly. i.e. tie fly #1 to your leader with 5x tippet. tie fly #2 to fly #1 with 6x tippet. that way if you hang fly #2 you are more likely to get fly #1 back.
watch this for more gear advice
Posted on 5/12/15 at 7:02 pm to Barf
quote:
I'm going to sound like an arse by saying this but you're not going to learn how to cast in a week by watching youtube videos.
I don't really agree with that at all, and find that to be somewhat of an elitist fly fishing mentality more than anything else, which is lame.
You can definitely learn to cast without lessons. It may be frustrating and take a little more time, but it's easily doable. I never took a lesson for fly fishing, and I cast fine. I'm not a pro caster or anything, but I can haul/double haul, roll cast, sidearm, and cast with my wrong hand pretty well (and some other casts I don't really know the name of). If you're a competent fisherman with conventional tackle, it shouldn't take you long to at least attain some minimum amount of competency with a fly rod. Just practice before your trip.
There are a lot of videos on youtube that can help you with tailing loops/wind knots and other casting errors. I find that fly casting is a lot like duck calling. A lot of people focus on looking good and achieving some good looking loop, as opposed to just doing what works/feels right. Who cares if your loop doesn't look like everyone else's if you're catching more fish than them anyways?
quote:
experience on the water
This is unfortunately 100% correct. No amount of casting videos/lessons/practice in your yard will prepare you for actually fishing with a fly rod. The only way to get better at that is to get out there and do it, so expect frustration. That being said, you're going to an awesome place, so just get out there and enjoy it while learning something new. You'll get better with time, and chances are you'll get hooked on it, so there'll be plenty of time.
This post was edited on 5/12/15 at 7:06 pm
Posted on 5/12/15 at 7:15 pm to ccard257
quote:
ccard257
quote:
sometimes size matters. If the shop guy says they are hitting fly x in size 18, don't be surprised when your size 12 of fly x doesn't work.
Amen. Not always but sometimes it makes all the difference.
I was throwing a siz 18 caddis emerger pattern and slaying them on Satuday. My buddy next to me with a size 16 of the same fly wasn't catching even 1/4 of the fish I was til I gave him my other one.
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