Any Fly Fishers Here?

[Dan-o$]

I try to imagine teaching myself to fly fish. I'm pretty sure I would just be out there beating a fly to death on the top of the water, ha ha. I imagine it would be like watching someone learning how to tee off in golf using youtube.

View attachment 72969

Did you guys all just buy a pole and do it, or did you get lessons, or did a father or grandfather teach you?

Book called the Curtis Creek Manifesto can help a lot. Yes self taught. Pracice at the park on the grass, fly lines can get abraded on concrete. One day with a guide might be all you really need.

 

[Dan-o$]

Here is a very nice all-purpose, beginner setup that is also nice quality for $169:

Best Fly Fishing Gear Online | ReelFlyRod

Visit ReelFlyRod and discover the Best Fly Shop in the USA! Shop All the Best Brands in Fly Fishing and enjoy first-class customer service and expert advice.

www.reelflyrod.com

Plus, I believe you can get money off your first order with them.

nice orvis store in reno nearby, may check that out but still wanting the 3 wt. for the brookies.

 

[Dan-o$]

Two major items on my bucket list are fly fishing for tarpon and peacock bass.

Oh... might as well include bone fish if your going that far...

 

[cosmicfolklore]

Book called the Curtis Creek Manifesto can help a lot. Yes self taught. Pracice at the park on the grass, fly lines can get abraded on concrete. One day with a guide might be all you really need.

I started out on the banjo teaching myself, and by the time I sat down with an expert, I had more unlearning to do that would have been necessary than if I had of just been shown in the first place. So, I am always more weary of teaching myself things like this.
The shop near me that sells flyfishing gear, does do lessons, but only if you buy their expensive as shit poles. Their website doesn't specifically say that, but they have no problem telling you when you ask in person. I don't have a problem dropping a grand on something. I just don't want to do start with an investment like that on something I may just not like. As posted above, I am not sure sports fishing is for me.

But, i love these discussions.

 

[sandollars]

I try to imagine teaching myself to fly fish. I'm pretty sure I would just be out there beating a fly to death on the top of the water, ha ha. I imagine it would be like watching someone learning how to tee off in golf using youtube.

View attachment 72969

Did you guys all just buy a pole and do it, or did you get lessons, or did a father or grandfather teach you?

I just bought a pole and did it.

It's not as difficult as we portray. It's like anything else, there are levels of competency and I am no Super Bowl caster but can catch as many fish as the Emmitt Smith's and target those underwater predators with the best of them. It took me about 30 minutes to get a decent feel for the rod and line and then another 30 minutes to learn how to present the fly. In that 60 minutes, I caught 3 fish. I was "hooked" after that

Fly fishing gets romanticized a lot and the descriptions used can paint a picture that it's difficult, but it really isn't.

Seriously.

 

[sandollars]

I started out on the banjo teaching myself, and by the time I sat down with an expert, I had more unlearning to do that would have been necessary than if I had of just been shown in the first place. So, I am always more weary of teaching myself things like this.
The shop near me that sells flyfishing gear, does do lessons, but only if you buy their expensive as shit poles. Their website doesn't specifically say that, but they have no problem telling you when you ask in person. I don't have a problem dropping a grand on something. I just don't want to do start with an investment like that on something I may just not like. As posted above, I am not sure sports fishing is for me.

But, i love these discussions.

There's a new rod out recently by Sage called the Sonic. It is a fantastic rod and reasonably priced for one you will keep for the rest of your life. I own one (a 9 foot 5wt )and it really is nice. Pair it with a Lamson Guru S reel and Scientific Anglers WF5F line and leaders and you're all set!

 

[alaskanpiper]

ive fished the kenai and use minimum 7 /8 wt. sockeye, steelhead, etc. Streamers, black purple, must look like candy they hit em hard man! caught a nine pound trophy rainbow on a 5 wt. had it mounted used a size 14 ehc (elk hair caddis). want a 3 weight for the brookies around here Northern Nv. Fish on (Y).

That's a nice Kenai trout for sure! Had to be close to 30 inches if not slightly more. Nice work! The fatty in the pic I posted earlier was caught on a #12 prince nymph on a dead drift in April. It was my last trip for the spring before they started spawning (I don't like the idea of pulling them off their beds). Late winter is an awesome time to fish trout on the Kenai. It's all bug fishing, the water is lower, and there is virtually nobody on the river.

 

[alaskanpiper]

I try to imagine teaching myself to fly fish. I'm pretty sure I would just be out there beating a fly to death on the top of the water, ha ha. I imagine it would be like watching someone learning how to tee off in golf using youtube.

View attachment 72969

Did you guys all just buy a pole and do it, or did you get lessons, or did a father or grandfather teach you?

Dad early on, but he is a freezer fisherman so it was few and far between, but later in life some friends and I got much more into it. As @sandollars said, it's actually not so difficult as much as it is awkward. Once you get the hang of it it becomes second nature. Kind of like cadence when smoking a pipe. At first it seems super awkward to make it work, but after you get the hang of it it becomes second nature.

 

[shanez]

I try to imagine teaching myself to fly fish. I'm pretty sure I would just be out there beating a fly to death on the top of the water, ha ha. I imagine it would be like watching someone learning how to tee off in golf using youtube.

View attachment 72969

Did you guys all just buy a pole and do it, or did you get lessons, or did a father or grandfather teach you?

I read a lot, watched a few youtube vids, and just started playing around. I would go to a lake in a nearby city park and practice. It seems like there were always people around willing to give me tips and pointers. After a little while I developed a good rhythm and shortly after that I was the one giving tips and pointers.

It's a very relaxing, fluid motion after a while, almost addictive even. Sometimes I catch myself false casting too much when I really get that candy cane "A River Runs Through It" shape going.

 

[shanez]

But, I think of lure fishing as being the equivalent to fly fishing, except with out the cool dance of the line in the air.

There is an art to using lure in general but especially top water. I've got some bass poppers for fly fishing that I'm hoping to use this summer at a couple local little lakes and try to catch a bass or three.

Funny thing I notice about bass boats, Guys in the boats will cruise along the coast, casting as close to the bank as possible, and guys on the shore are casting their lines out as far into the middle of the water as possible. No matter which way your fishing, it seems like they think the grass is greener. But, definitely a bass boat isn't required either.

I've always thought of bass as preferring slower moving, murkier water with lots of stuff to get my line hung up on. No need to cast far for that!

Smaller trout will swim in a kind of school along the shoreline in a circle around lakes and bigger trout seem to move up and down in depth depending on the time of day.

 

[shanez]

The shop near me that sells flyfishing gear, does do lessons, but only if you buy their expensive as shit poles. Their website doesn't specifically say that, but they have no problem telling you when you ask in person. I don't have a problem dropping a grand on something. I just don't want to do start with an investment like that on something I may just not like.

Here is what I started with and no lessons:

Cortland Fairplay Fly Combo | Big 5 Sporting Goods

The Fairplay Fly Combo is perfect for the first-time fly fisher. Preloaded with a 65' orange fly line and 150yds of white backing, this combo is ideal for Pan Fish, Trout and Bass.

www.big5sportinggoods.com

It was on sale so I didn't even spend the $90 price!

Isn't peer pressure fun?

Even if you don't take up fly fishing I have a suspicion you'll like this particular fly fishing book:



Or pretty much any book by John Gierach. His humor also played a part in my enjoyment of learning to fly fish. The guy is a riot.

 

[alaskanpiper]

Here is what I started with and no lessons:

Cortland Fairplay Fly Combo | Big 5 Sporting Goods

The Fairplay Fly Combo is perfect for the first-time fly fisher. Preloaded with a 65' orange fly line and 150yds of white backing, this combo is ideal for Pan Fish, Trout and Bass.

www.big5sportinggoods.com

It was on sale so I didn't even spend the $90 price!

Isn't peer pressure fun?

Even if you don't take up fly fishing I have a suspicion you'll like this particular fly fishing book:

View attachment 72993

Or pretty much any book by John Gierach. His humor also played a part in my enjoyment of learning to fly fish. The guy is a riot.

Gierach is a great writer. Just listened to a great interview he did with Steven Rinella on the Meateater podcast. I also very much enjoyed the "Trout" two volume set by Ernest Schweibert. Randomly won the set in a Rotary silent auction.

 

[trudger]

Just needs to be a fishable cast. It's all presentation on fishy water. I catch fish while I'm lighting my pipe and the current drifts my dry downstream. I also don't catch shit all week on world-famous Blue Ribbon trout streams.

 

[krizzose]

I love it, and used to tie quite a bit, but I've let lapse for many years now. I live in Michigan, so my home waters are the Manistee, Little Manistee, and Au Sable rivers. Dry fly fishing is great, but for my favorite by far is throwing big streamers with sinking line in May, September, and October. Second place is chucking and ducking for Steelhead. Third place is salmon in the rivers (the Little Manistee has a very early run of salmon, and it's possible to catch Lake-fresh chromers in July; I should say hooking them is possible, landing them is a little more difficult.

EDIT: a hopper and a dropper in July and August is also a blast.

 

[BarrelProof]

Dammit. Caved and bought a new set up. About to go dig the tying gear out of a box and get back after it.

 

[Dan-o$]

I love it, and used to tie quite a bit, but I've let lapse for many years now. I live in Michigan, so my home waters are the Manistee, Little Manistee, and Au Sable rivers. Dry fly fishing is great, but for my favorite by far is throwing big streamers with sinking line in May, September, and October. Second place is chucking and ducking for Steelhead. Third place is salmon in the rivers (the Little Manistee has a very early run of salmon, and it's possible to catch Lake-fresh chromers in July; I should say hooking them is possible, landing them is a little more difficult.

EDIT: a hopper and a dropper in July and August is also a blast.

is that Pa. ...may be going to Pa. soon

 

[Dan-o$]

There is an art to using lure in general but especially top water. I've got some bass poppers for fly fishing that I'm hoping to use this summer at a couple local little lakes and try to catch a bass or three.

I've always thought of bass as preferring slower moving, murkier water with lots of stuff to get my line hung up on. No need to cast far for that!

Smaller trout will swim in a kind of school along the shoreline in a circle around lakes and bigger trout seem to move up and down in depth depending on the time of day.

good lure guys do the best here in the carson tahoe ranges

 

[Dan-o$]

There's a new rod out recently by Sage called the Sonic. It is a fantastic rod and reasonably priced for one you will keep for the rest of your life. I own one (a 9 foot 5wt )and it really is nice. Pair it with a Lamson Guru S reel and Scientific Anglers WF5F line and leaders and you're all set!

you would have probably eventually played better banjo maybe

 

[sandollars]

Dammit. Caved and bought a new set up. About to go dig the tying gear out of a box and get back after it.

Fly fishing gear acquisition is also a slippery slope...... Beware.... ?

 

[Dan-o$]

That's a nice Kenai trout for sure! Had to be close to 30 inches if not slightly more. Nice work! The fatty in the pic I posted earlier was caught on a #12 prince nymph on a dead drift in April. It was my last trip for the spring before they started spawning (I don't like the idea of pulling them off their beds). Late winter is an awesome time to fish trout on the Kenai. It's all bug fishing, the water is lower, and there is virtually nobody on the river.

that is doable for us, out of anchorage drive down. snow? bears?? weve fished the sockeye run