Fly Fishing - Beginner
- Thread starter nedkelly
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Mackerel on the fly are excellent... I've only caught a couple but they go like a mini-marlin. Pollack should be incredible as you can usually weigh three macks for one pollack. Much under-rated, both for catching and for eating are garfish - tiny streamers with a wool body and a small (size 8 or 10) trailing treble do the trick. Honestly the only better tasting fish I've had than a mackerel straight from the sea, is garfish. Granted, the lurid green bones are a bit off putting for some folk, but I'd have it every day over any other fish I've tasted.
All this advice is spot on. Lessons first, to make sure you don't pick up bad habits, then watch others (how they retrieve, counting before they retrieve) and fish with a friend who you know will share info. Some fishermen can be really selfish and refuse to tell you what they are using, seeing it as jolly bad form f you ask them. Me, I don't mind telling people.
Some people will tell you not to spend much on a reel as it's only for storing line. You'll get your preferences and then you'll find your own way.
Don't forget, it's called fishing, not catching; so you will get blanks, but even then you go home with a soul full of calm.
Some people will tell you not to spend much on a reel as it's only for storing line. You'll get your preferences and then you'll find your own way.
Don't forget, it's called fishing, not catching; so you will get blanks, but even then you go home with a soul full of calm.
For small rivers look up Czech Nymphing
[video=youtube;oIvXSB2xFwM]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oIvXSB2xFwM[/video]
[video=youtube;oIvXSB2xFwM]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oIvXSB2xFwM[/video]
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The OP mentioned he was familiar with saltwater fishing. It's possible he'd be interested as well. Especially as he didn't stipulate either way.
personally i find books on hobbies date quickly and whilst casting stays the same the latest gear / flies and terminology is all well explained in a few issues of a decent magazine... i taught myself to cast because my dad had no interest in fly fishing only coarse so i got a split cane rod from a car boot for 50p about 26 years ago spent a school summer holidays casting on grass got reasonably good at it and convinced my maths teacher to take me...i learnt very well although i snapped the cane rod messing with it later to learn it was a hexagraph and worth a few quid :-D the best thing about fly fishing is its relatively cheap. Invest in a good rod (doesnt have to be mega bucks) the reel is largely unimportant although an arbor style reel helps keep your line less curly (i play my fish with the line i never wind onto the reel to play them) buy a cheap mill end line whilst learning and once your relatively good buy a nice floating line, some flurocarbon leader and a selection of flies. Learning to use the gear can take a few sessions learning entomology and watercraft is a lifetime of learning... bottom line is just make sure if your aching your doing it wrong and as long as you go home happy your already a fisherman and bagging a meal is the cream on top.
And that is fishing in a nutshell. Any fishing; course fishing, fly fishing, saltwater, freshwater.
"Very few things get as heated as a fishing (especially a fly fishing) discussion"
ONLY because of misguided SNOBS - eg infamous thick english cricketer on tv "Fly-fishing is so much more INTELLECTUAL"... =
ONLY because of misguided SNOBS - eg infamous thick english cricketer on tv "Fly-fishing is so much more INTELLECTUAL"... =
"who ever heard of a Scottish cricketer?"
Well, it's a really BORING game, hence its unpopularity in Scotland, but I guess all the teams that were beaten by Freuchie have heard of them...
Well, it's a really BORING game, hence its unpopularity in Scotland, but I guess all the teams that were beaten by Freuchie have heard of them...
"Very few things get as heated as a fishing (especially a fly fishing) discussion"
ONLY because of misguided SNOBS - eg infamous thick english cricketer on tv "Fly-fishing is so much more INTELLECTUAL"... =
There's a reason it's called coarse fishing..........that's because it's vulgar!😉😋
Well that's what I used to say to my sergeant major anyway.
I notice people are increasingly writing "COURSE" FISHING = quite right - tho I don't do it personally, it's simply vulgar to describe people who do, as vulgar...
There's much more brain-work in course fishing than snobby fly-fishing
There's much more brain-work in course fishing than snobby fly-fishing
No... it's coarse fishing and always has been. You can choose to be wrong if you like, that's fine, but it doesn't alter the fact that the name is spelled coarse not course.
Language changes... It WAS course originally - no doubt penned by a snob - but I like the strike-back of COURSE - especially in the class-ridden snobbish "uk"
stevie777 Thanks for the offer I might just take you up on it!
Im looking for an all round 'essential information' type manual covering the basics and from there I'm sure it'll take off.
Fly fishing by j r Hartley !
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The funny thing about that is that the telly ad was made in 1983 but the book was not published until 1991, of course there was no such book when the ad was made but someone (Roddy Bloomfield) cashed in on the ads popularity and got a real fly fisherman (Michael Russell) to write the book eight years after the telly ad and made a killing on it. Talk about sensing an opportunity. Oh and J.R. Hartley, real name actor Norman Lumsden didnt actually start fishing until he was 85 years old.
I hope that you enjoy fly fishing. There will be times to go home with a blank. Other times, you bring home supper!
Learn to cast, learn to "fish the fly", learn fish behaviour, study up on a maddening selection of aquatic insects, learn to tie your own flies.
Maybe you get curious about buying the parts and learning to build your own rods = not such a bad way to go.
Learn to cast, learn to "fish the fly", learn fish behaviour, study up on a maddening selection of aquatic insects, learn to tie your own flies.
Maybe you get curious about buying the parts and learning to build your own rods = not such a bad way to go.
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