Beginners Page: A Place to Find Answers and Ask Questions
I get so many questions from folks learning to fly cast, and ultimately fly fish. Beginners are particularly reluctant to demonstrate their lack of knowledge, though they shouldn’t be! Fly fishing is rather complicated and detailed. The reward is great, but the challenges sometimes seem too much. This page is a companion to the FAQ page, but you can engage by sending a clarification question, of suggesting an additional area of confusion that I can help clear up. Most importantly: “Welcome aboard!” I think you’ll love the experience of becoming a fly fisher!
Equipment: Fly rod. Not intended to cover every possible item, explain it fully, and describe its use, but just the starting points. The fly rod is the most significant piece of equipment, and probably most expensive to enter the sport. I won’t dig very deep into costs and the ongoing debate about quality and effectiveness, but will simply provide some understanding of equipment. Our modern fly rods are clearly the most capable and researched equipment in the history of the sport. In my lifetime, I’ve gone from bad bamboo to early models of fiberglass and on to modern materials, particularly to graphite. The design of the modern fly rod is to make it close to effortless to cast a weighted fly line, tapered leader, tippet and fly. First bit of confusion for the new fly angler is the descriptions of fly rods, from fast to slow “actions”. A beginner may benefit more from a certain action, but without practice and experience with a fly rod, the new fisher will not know what he’s trying to assess when shopping for her first fly rod. Lessons help, and your instructor will likely be able to introduce you to a range of rods that begins to advance awareness of your style and effectiveness of certain actions.
The next confusing area relates to “sizing” a fly rod. The American Fishing Tackle Manufactures Association (AFTMA) in the 1960’s set standards for the manufacturer of fly lines that balanced the “weight” of a fly line to the flex and strength of a fly rod so that the designated rod “weight”, the term really describing its strength and responsiveness and what fly line would “load” the rod, matched the grain weight of the fly line that would best respond to the rods action. Prior to this standard the rods were built without clearly being marked for fishers to match line and rod action. Now, rod weights from 2 through 12 are labled so that the angler can purchase the correct weight. This matching can be tricky as your skills advance and you want a certain “feel” in your casting stroke and purpose for the type of fishing you might do. Line to rod weight matching is mostly easy, but its not the final word, many line manufactures offer lines heavier or light (rarely) to achieve higher performance from certain rods, but for know, just know the a 9 foot, 5 weight rod will cast a 5 weight line, the most common agreed upon trout rod and action for most situations.
Key Points:
Action means the fly rod stiffness from “fast” to medium. Few manufacturers would label their rods “slow”. Softer rods can be easier to cast, and lack power to cast distance.
Weight is the size of the first 30 feet of the fly line, not the weight of the rod. The standards are set and choosing a fly rod of a particular “weight” tells you what fly line, and the general strength of the rod. The bigger the weight, the larger the fish it can handle.
Larger weight rods (and line) can cast larger flies, but it sacrifices accuracy and delicate presentation.
Fly Lines: A very technical component of the fishers equipment, but for the beginner, the only thing to understand is that the “taper” of the thick fly line has many designations depending on fish the angler is pursuing, type of flies being cast and size of fish. For our purpose, most will want a weight forward taper, the designation on the packaging will look like this: WF5F, meaning “weight forward taper in size five”, and the last letter F meaning “floating”. There’s also sinking lines with different sink rates and shooting heads with greater weight for casting heavier flies for longer distances. If you have a chance to cast a 8 foot, 6 inch 4 weight and intend to buy it, look for a WF4F line. Quality and cost vary and seeking advice from fishing partners and fly shop professionals when making a selection is wise.
Key Points
The taper of a fly line helps transfer the energy of the casting stroke through the line to deliver the fly to the target.
The package designation of the fly line explains both its taper and weight.
There are floating, sinking and sink-tip lines for different fishing situations.
The line weight should match the designation of the rod “weight”.
Leaders and Tippets: Tapered leaders are designed to advance the energy of the cast past the end of the fly line and down the taper of monofilament that is clear and ends with a fine diameter of material where the tippet is attached. The tippet is simply an extra foot or two of monofilament, usually the same diameter as the final foot of leader to which it’s tied. Two values here: one to extend the barely visible (to the trout) line a little further from the thick, heavy fly line, and second, so that in the routine of changing flies seeking the best size, shape and color to attract the fish, you would reduce the tapered leader to the point of needing to change it, but just use up a foot or so of tippet then break it off and add a new two feet section. The leader and tippit are both designed to hide the fact that the fly selected to fool the fish is connected to the angler some 30 or 40 feet away!
Key Points
The tapered leader serves two purposes: transferring the energy of the cast to “turn over” the fly, and hiding the fisher from the quarry!
Tippet extends the life of the tapered leader and adds more distance from the fly to the fisher.
The leader and tippet use designations (1X to 7X) that are lighter strength and less visible to the fish, the larger the number.
Flies: A whole lot to learn here, it keeps fly fishers busily active and interested! The history of fly fishing is captured in the origins of trout flies and the original tier, the materials used, hook size and insect being imitated! But you’ve got another 40 or more years to figure that out! Just a little information about types and sizes for now!
Dry flies, wet flies, streamers, emergers, nymphs are the most mentioned of flies and their names give away how they are used. Dry flies imitate two feeding opportunities for trout and other fish; aquatic insects “hatching” or returning to the river or lake to lay eggs making the insect vulnerable. Fish feed on the insect while the insect is on the surface, and terrestrial, dry land insects that are wind blown or simply fall into lake or stream water and become a bonus (but frequent) opportunity for fish. Depending on what stage the insect is in during metamorphosis (the scientific name for the process of changing the life cycle of the insect) the dry fly name and description varies (duns, spinners, cripples, emergers, and others). Streamers are designed to imitate small fishes or some aquatic insects with unusual behaviors such as dragon fly nymphs. Streamer flies are fished differently, require less attention to drag free drift and movement is imparted on the fly by the angler. Wet flies are drag free drifted such as a dry fly, but under the surface (not floating) and some movement can be applied depending on the pattern and based on what the natural insect would do! Nymphs are available to fish at most times and make up a large share of their diet. Their availability is often unintended: aquatic nymphs do move around as they feed on bottom vegetation, but if they lose their grip on the bottom of a lake or stream they become momentarily vulnerable. Of course, when experiencing metamorphosis those insects will swim or float to the surface and provide opportunity for fish. Another oddity in the aquatic insect world is the pupae, a stage of development found in insects with “complete” metamorphosis (four stages: egg, nymph, pupa and adult). There are other odd and fascinating forms of insects trout feed on with their own special attributes, making fly fishing ever varied and interesting!
The other thing to know is that all this insect life is imitated by the fly tier with different sizes and types of hooks, and materials such as thread to secure different furs, feathers and tinsels to the hooks. Each of these flies are named, usually by the tier but not always in their name. It can be fascinating to track down the original tier, what insect he or she was trying to imitate and how they chose the name and how they employed it when fishing! More fun stuff to learn. A last thing, for now, about flies is hook size and resultant size, shape and color of the fly. Hook sizes for tying start at tiny size 28 (larger number, smaller hook) all the way to size 1. Salt water flies and flies to entice large game fish like muskie start at 1/0 and go as high as 6/0, larger number, larger hook and resulting fly. Now you know why fly fishers wear vests with many pockets stuffed with box after box of fishing flies! When buying or tying flies collect multiple copies of the same pattern in different sizes. You can't possibly have every pattern and size you will ever need all at once. Believe me, I have tied thousands of flies and still spend time at the bench! If you are interested in a handful of recommended fishing flies, email me: FlyCastingAcademy@gmail.com .
Key Points
Trout fly sizes range from very small (28) to an inch or more (1).
Matching a fly to the food a fish is eating is one of the great challenges of fly fishing.
Fly tying is its own hobby: you can buy flies or learn to make them yourself.
Flies are named by their inventor, and the “recipe” for each flies are well known, and many variations are added by different tiers.
Flies are an attempt to imitate the natural food of the fish.
Waders and Wading Boots: Unless you have a fishing boat and like to fish from it you will need waders and wading boots. Current flow in trout streams is fast, potentially dangerous and cold. You can get away with wet wading in warmer months but you still need to deal with slippery rocks and varying depths of water. When I began, I used old tennis shoes and glued carpet scraps with rubber cement to the bottoms to keep from slipping. Ankle support is also very important. I’m not going to say much more on this topic other than to say the waders are an example of getting what you pay for. When I've worked in fly shops I advise customers that it’s $100 annually for waders: you can buy the cheapest you can find, they will leak after one season (assuming you fish a lot!) and you’ll need another pair the next season, or you can invest in $500 to $600 in a great pair and count on at least 5 or 6 seasons before they leak; your call. Waders are probably, in the long run, one of the most expensive parts of the sport. A $1000 fly rod is a big expense, but it's not likely to ever wear out and if well taken care of, your great-great-grandchild will cast that rod with pleasure long after you're gone.
Key Points
Waders and boots keep you dry AND safe.
Knots: I would strongly recommend purchasing a book (or go online) on knots: there are so many and they mostly work just fine, but some are designed for salt water big game or specific situations like line-to line. Here’s a list of knots I recommend for fly fisher:
Nail knot: they make a tool that really helps with this knot, though you can use a real nail to hold the loops in place to construct the knot. This knot is most often used to create line-to-line connections, and because we fish with a thick fly line that will compress when backing or a leader are attached, it’s important. Get the tool and practice. I don’t care for loop to loop connections as a dry fly fisher, I believe it disturbs the surface too much. https://images.app.goo.gl/VaBteKPYthvKBevN7
Improved Clinch: I attach all of my flies to the end of the tippet with an improved clinch. There’s a couple of others that work well, and some find the improved clinch tricky, especially in low light or if eyesight is compromised. Look up “uni-knot”, Davy knot or turtle knot. Some anglers use the clinch, without the Improvement! https://images.app.goo.gl/QyhrDYQyHbHCgpDh6
Double Surgeons and Blood Knot: I use the Double Surgeons knot for connecting tippet to leader when fishing trout, but when I fish steelhead or salmon I use the blood. The blood knot is a bit harder to tie, but is really strong. https://images.app.goo.gl/hnDKpKGvWqf17mGN6
If you can tie at least the nail knot, the improved clinch and the surgeons knot; you’re ready to fish!
Key Points
There are many kinds of knots for fishing, choose the ones that work for you.
Practice!!