re: The Fly Fishing Thread: Questions, pics, discussion all here

Couple photos from yesterday. Best conditions have been in forever. Lots of really heavy slots in the way back in the ponds already. Several overs that went 10lb+ too.

I was just telling my dad I wanted to get into fly fishing & i see this thread... it's a sign.

Finally made my first outing today. Safe to say I am hooked, this shite is awesome.

Started at my private pond where I struck out completely, not even a nibble. Threw popper, clouser, wooly bugger, bream killer...nothing. Not sure what the deal was. I was pretty discouraged but my pond is flooded from all of the rain, something was off.

Went to the pond in my neighborhood after that with a small chartreuse popper and they couldnt stay off of it. Damn near every cast a bream had it going under. I caught about 20 bream. I know there are some decent bass in there so I want to try to target them soon.

First fish on the fly

Nice little Bluegill! (Or Green Sunfish?) I love these little fish on my 3 weight rod. They will hit anything - though oddly enough I've caught them on everything but a popper - and their "fight to weight ratio" is pretty high.

They're also good practice for detecting nibbles and strikes when going after other fish. I don't use a strike indicator while nymphing and I feel like fishing Bluegill on the fly has made me more sensitive to when trout take them. Caught this wild Brown Trout on a Copper John with no strike indicator a few weeks ago (after a week of nothing but Bluegill):

I get almost all of mine from Miller's fly shop and they're good flies, can't speak to Big Y

So an update for myself:

A few pages back, I was debating on whether to get a 4 or 5 wt rod for my first setup. Ended up going with a 4 wt Fenwick Eagle and going to match that with a Redington Pathfinder reel.

Planning on making my first venture out with my new setup on Saturday to the trout stream north of Bham. Needless to say, I'm pretty pumped. Going to rig everything on Friday night and set the alarm early Saturday. I'm already making it out to be like Christmas Eve in my mind

Driving over a neighborhood bridge and saw this one rolling on glass minnows down below, came back and she was still there

Is it worth it to buy a pair of Simms waders or would something like frogg toggs do just the same? Also do you guys prefer waders with booties and then wading boots or the ones with boots already?
i know literally nothing about waders, except that I would like to purchase a good pair.

My dad bought me some Simms as my first pair of fly fishing waders when I was a kid. It's been 12 years and I still use them with no leaks. The waterproof zipper on the chest pocket broke last year, but other than that I've never had an issue with them. I may only cold water fish 5-10 days per year but it's still impressive that they've lasted this long. The Simms now though are crazy expensive though