Beginning Fly Fishing
Learn the basics with this video.
As the saying goes tie one on. In this case, I mean a fly. What is it about fly fishing that is such a mystery? Maybe a “misery”.
If I told you it is as simple as, get a 6wt fly rod, a 5/6 fly reel, 6wt forward floating line, 7' 4x leader, 2' 4x tippet. Put these items together to make a fishing system. You know backing on the reel, line attached to the backing, leader attached to the line, tippet attached to the leader.
Put the reel on the fly rod and bring the line through the guides. Hold out the tippet and 4x tippet and put a size “10 – 14 fly” on it. Pick a fly! Blue-winged olive good for most of the northeast around spring and through the early summer. I've used them into Sept.
The Blue Winged Olive Sparkle Dun imitates emerging mayflies just prior to the full dun stage. At this time, the mayflies are extremely vulnerable and fish will feed specifically at this stage of the hatch. Fly fishers who fish Sparkle Duns find great success and will catch fish others won't by matching this specific stage of the hatch.
Now go to a river, lake, stream what ever you want to call it and cast it and fish. Don't let some expert scare you into hiding in your garage or basement thinking it takes some other expert to tell you how to fly fish. I know “what are all the experts on the river going to think”.
I got news for you. $1,500+ in fly fishing gear does not a fly fisherman make. Most of them don't cast any better than you or me. Oh, they'll tell you they can put a size 22 fly on a dime at 60 feet into a gale force wind in the pouring rain at dusk. So what! let me ask you this? Can you cast accurately to 20 to 25 feet? Can you do it 90% of the time? Then you can cast a fly rod.
Most trout are caught are within that range. Don't believe me, look it up. Also, think about this. A trout can take and spit out your fly in a 1/10 of a second. Can anyone detect that at 60' away across moving water that is rising up and down and dragging your line along with it? I know you mend your line and fish on glass. Me to.
So there you have it. Just enjoy the sport of fly fishing. Put that rod together and loose a fly in a tree. Get out there and fish.
Fly fishing can take a life time of learning. Along the way stop and enjoy it. Who cares if it was a trout that took your fly or a bush. Tie another fly on and continue the day.
If you want to get the best out of fly fishing take a child fishing and catch their enthusiasm. They will teach you how to catch a tree and not mind.
Let the professional lessons come later. We all need them. Casting is about proper rhythm and muscle memory and a lot of other esoteric mysterious secret handshake stuff. But you can wait a little while.
Check out Fly fishing for Bass in the spring. See post Largemouth Bass. This is where you get to fish big flies that make a lot of noise. Bass fishing with a fly rod is a great way to practice your casting. In the spring when the bass are hungry a little bit of noise on the landing just gets their attention.
Oh, don't forget the Knot-Tier: Knot Tier
There's my rant and I'm sticking to it.
Tight line till next time
No comments:
Post a Comment