Home Forums Fishing Flyfishing Questions - its Greek to me

Well, my son is 5 now and bugging me to go fishing. No problem there but I have a burning desire to learn to fly fish. Basicaly more back home in WI/MI. So I have Cabelas catalogue, a coupla fly-fishing mags ect and I can not make heads or tails of it.

My regular fishing usually was smallmouth bass on UL to L spinning tackle, and Walleyes and Pike on L to medium action tackle. I think I would like to start of flyfishing for smallmouth and panfish.

I am looking for either books or dvd's that can help explain all of the equipment - WTH is a tippet, leader, backing, the rod and reel designations/diferences - line diferences ecetera. Would give me something to play with while my son is catching crappie and bluegill on the old worm and bobber <img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/wink.gif" alt="" />

Any direction others could point me in would be appreciated. Web based forums would help too!

Thanks

Teal , get Thyself to the nearest fly fishing shop and start asking questions!
Chances are there will be a "long rod looney" that is hanging around that will take you out.
And whatever you do, don't overlook those Bluegills and crappie with the fly rod! <img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/smile.gif" alt="" />

Thoae little guys fight like crazy and will hit a cork popper till
there is nothing but a little cork left! <img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/grin.gif" alt="" />

Cat

You could visit forums like ...fly fish south...north georgia trout online (NGTO)....very helpful folks on these or many others that you could google

Nothing works better than throwing some line, even in the lawn....
The rods are usually 2, 3, 4 piece...backing (braided nylon) is put on the reel first w/ the fly line attatched to the end of the backing and then the leader (tapered mono or florocarbon) attatched to the end of the fly line ....put a piece of yarn on the end of the leader and play in the yard ...casting is usually a SOFT ten o'clock to two o'clock motion...line goes behind you and stretches out (loading the rod) and then forward to the ten o'clock ..just don't horse it..casting is a delicate presentation...and a roll cast is a must cast in small streams which is pretty much like rolling a loop down your yard with a garden hose....as you lift the rod and the line comes near your feet you flip the tip forward and the end of the leader lands several feet in front of you.....

5WT 9' means a nine foot 5 weight rod...WF5W means a 5 weight line that has a, Weight Forward, fatter end to it...

there are many varibles to say the least but a great deal of satisfaction and let that five year old cast and blast too...have him hold that rod end about 2 feet off the ground and go back with a semi quick motion and then a slower forward motion and watch the grins....
as already said start hanging around a local fly shop if available and you will pick up a ton of info.......Boots

Don't overlook a local club. There'll be a sum of knowledge there just begging to be plucked.

Thanks guys - just a little overwhelmed with all the new jargon that doesn't match previous fishin terms <img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/wink.gif" alt="" />

teal,

I don't know if there is a Trout Unlimited chapter in your area; but I have learned more about fly-fishing and tying from the members of our local than all that I have read or watched on videos. Good luck- you will love it!

Qtip
Soli Deo Gloria!
To God Alone Be The Glory!

Teal, you're in for some fun, both the fishing and the learning. Casting a fly line is one of the most pleasurable fishing experiences, even if nothing bites the fly . Grace and symmetry and Zen and all that stuff, plus it's a fun way to catch fish and sometimes it catches more than other methods. Wish we could go out for a couple of hours.

Good counsel already. Here's another two bits worth. My assumption is that you'd like to get started, have fun and not spend a bundle until you have enough experience to pick out the high quality gear that fits what you want.

I wouldn't spend a ton of money until I understood all of those terms and which gear choices I liked. If you know anyone who fly fishes who could teach you even a bit of technique, then I'd say buy a matched combo package from Wal-Mart or Cabelas, where they have a matched rod, reel, line and leader/tippet all in one package for low to moderate cost. Learn to use it and then give it to your kids when you move on to better items that you want.

A fly shop probably will have someone who can tell you a ton, but usually they also want to sell you higher end stuff. If you don't know anybody to teach you, then it is worth it most likely to pay more for their gear in return for their expertise at the fly shop.

I haven't tried it but I'd guess that you can get definitions of gear on the web, though word definitions in such a nuanced hands on sport are woefully limited.

The most basic component of fly fishing is that you cast the line, not the lure. In physics terms, it is the fly line weight rather than lure weight or sinker that provides the mass to cast.

Here area a few definitions and comments that may help get you started.
1. You can't go wrong with a nine foot rod.
2. A basic level floating line will do fine to start, especially on bass type fish.
3. At your stage, for bass and smaller fish, the reel is mainly a place to store the line so start with a low cost simple one.
4. For leader/tippet I'd start with level non-tapered leaders of regular mono, just use a five to eight foot length of six or eight pound line.

More detail:
Rod: Lots of good ones available. The cheapest ones are wonderful now compared to the best 25 or 30 years ago. A seven weight rod nine feet long is the all time middle of the road and a good place to start for average bass, perch, etc. Rod weight means the rod itself gets heavier and capable of casting heavier lines and so larger flies as it goes up. Ten weight would be for salmon, tarpon, big bass in heavy cover. Smaller numbers, like a 4 weight or less, are for light, delicate trout flies, though as in all sports, it is fun and some guys get off on catching big fish like steelhead with 2 weight rods. Rod stiffness is a whole nother world. Older fiberglass rods are more forgiving to the beginner, but I'd go with a lower cost graphite as a good mix of quickness and gracefulness easy on a beginner. I'd ignore stiffness physics for now.

Reel: mainly a place to store line till you get into more advanced fly fishing and big fast fish consistently over ten pounds. I dislike the endless clicking so favor ones that I can turn off the clicker or remove it myself. You don't really even need a drag, especially if you have one that you can palm the rim and use hand friction on the rim of the reel for a drag.

Line: The line is the most important part of the fly fishing system because it carries the lure and drops it on the water. There are ever more sophisticated fly lines that feature subtle diameter tapers for various purposes, and also feature high tech materials in the line core and coating. No need to learn hardly any of that to start. Go with a level floating line.

For bass. perch, maybe pike and such, a level line is plenty good to start with and the lowest cost usually. Level means the line is the same diameter from one end to the other. Double tapered means it is big in the middle and small diameter on each end, so when you wear out one end you can reverse the line. The smaller line at the fly end of a dobuel taper is mainly for casting trout flies to picky trout in a more delicate way. Weight forward means the line is bigger and heavier near the fly end of the line, for casting large heavy flies.

The basic fly line floats, but there is a whole class of fly lines that sink, either the whole line or more typically just the tip. I'd stay away from all of that till you learn more and are comfortably adept with a floating line. The sinking lines are much harder to get up out of the water to cast. Sinking tips and such get a fly deep in the water quickly, essential for some steelhead, salmon and trout situations.

Leader: Tapered leaders are not essential for your purpose though they present a fly a little more gracefully as it lands on the water. I'd start with eight pound mono for bass and go up or down as cover and my preference indicated. To start, I'd try a five or six foot leader and shorten it if it is hard to cast.

A tippet is not quite the same as a leader but technically refers to the terminal end of the leader from the days when guys tied sections of sequentially smaller line end to end to step down or "taper" down a leader. You can still buy such knotted leaders. The x system of leader diameter (3x, 6x, etc.) is also not worth getting into to start.

Nail knot: The nail knot to tie a leader to a fly line is worth learning, and there are several variants of it. I'm sure it would be online and is sometimes illustrated on leader packages.

On leader, here is one step beyond a simple piece of mono. I tie a tapered leader to my fly line and when I have used up the tip (each time you tie on another fly, you use up a few inches of leader) then I use a blood knot to tie on a tippet of whatever weight level leader I want. That way I only tie maybe one nail knot in a week or more of heavy fishing. I just keep replacing the tippet. The butt end of the tapered leader is probably 30 lb. mono, tapered to say four pound. When I've used it up back to maybe ten pound diameter, that's when I tie on a tippet of four pound. Don't know if this makes sense. I'm lazy, the nail knot is a bit of hassle, and the fish bite just fine on my system.

Learning to cast is vastly easier demonstrated and emulated in person than it is learned by reading. On a lawn or dock, either clip the hook point of a fly off in the bend or just tie a knot of yarn fluff into the leader tip, and start casting about 15 or 20 feet of line. Play with it, with no hook. Less is more in fly fishing. Beginner fly casters normally work too hard, use too much muscle, move the rod way too far forward and backward. Keep the tip high overhead and just flick it. Keep the rod high overhead till you are ready to retrieve, after the cast. Retrieve by pulling line in by hand rather than reeling. That means that when a fish hits, you will have rod in right hand (if you are a righty) and the line in your left hand and will control hook set and initial run by hand, without the reel. As you retrieve, loops of line will form at your feet or on the water if you are wading. Whole nother world of what and how to do with that.

It is addictively fun.

Another couple of bits.

A huge obvious that I didn't spell out is to match your fly line to your rod weight. Both will be labeled, such as a 7 wt. line and a 7 wt. rod.

Backing is extra line that goes on the fly reel first, under the fly line. It is only needed if you hook a fish big enough to take out all of your 90 foot standard fly line and keep going for awhile before he tires enough to quit running. Dacron braid is the standard backing, usually 20 lb. test. It doesn't stretch and so doesn't warp your fly reel if reeled back in under pressure when fighting a big fish.

Oops. I thought I had read through the whole thread but I missed Bootsfishing's excellent stuff, and so repeated in my previous post some of what he said.

Find an Orvis flyshop and ask questions as already posted. Our local shop is filled with real experts. We happen to be lucky enough to also have a real smallmouth fanatic.

In a nutshell, for smallmouth you need to get the fly to the bottom so it looks natural. That means adding weight to the fly or using a sinking line or sinking tip. Nothing looks less appealing to a smallmouth than a crayfish pattern near the surface.

Crayfish are their number on prey. Woolyworm patterns are good for imitating their molt stage.

To cast these relatively big/wind resistant flies and use weight or sinking tips or sinking lines, you'll need some muscle. I'd say 6-8 weight line/rod combos are best. My preference is an 8 weight.

For bluegills, anything goes and to me the lighter the better. I have a 6 foot 2 weight that is loads of fun.

Maybe a heavier rod for you and a lighter one for your son would work? And you could then switch off.

Regards,

TM

Go to a meeting. Annual dues are $15.00.
Join locally, so the chapter gets to keep more money.

Guadalupe River Chapter of Trout Unlimited
The Guadalupe River Chapter of Trout Unlimited is a private, non-profit organization
... Guadalupe River Trout Unlimited PO Box 536 Austin, Texas 78767 ...
http://www.grtu.org/

By a book, get a fly rod some backing and mono for the tippet, and go fish.


That's how I started. Read one book, bought the stuff, tried, read more, tried more. etc etc.

I was flyfishing for 2 years before I ever met anyone else that did it.

My start was crude - at 11 I converted a spinning rod, used an old auto fly reel from local hardware, loaded it with a cheap sinking line (the only fly line they had) (no backing), knotted my own tapered leader and went fishing... caught some nice big bass on it in farm ponds with streamers.

Pretty funny when I think back on it. I had read the heck out of every Outdoor Life and F&S published though.

TM

Yep, it's really only as simple or as complicated as you want it to be.

I can teach anyone to cast a fly rod in an hour, unless I am married to that person.

I would suggest you PM Big Stick and get the lowdown.....

Thanks - fellas - been drooling over the Cabelas offerings and the new store is open on the 30th - gonna run up there and see if I can figure it out in the aisle <img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/wink.gif" alt="" />