Aviation

Whatever you can easily afford, transport, and catch fish with assuming you have adequate technique to use it properly. That’s about it. With the exception of certain types of fishing where gear typically has to be very well engineered, large game saltwater for example, most people will have the same success with a decent $150 Cabelas, TFO, or other decent quality rod as they will spending $800 or more on a super high end sage or other brand. Unfortunately, fly fishing has become the epitome of a pretentious and unnecessarily expensive sport, and it’s just not necessary to enjoy and be successful at it. I have sold all my super high end sage and other rods for Cabelas 6 piece travel rods, and I do still have a nice 3wt G Loomis 4 piece that I got a great deal on, but I travel a lot these days and I have zero regrets for accepting that a $500+ rod and a $300+ fly fishing reel is a complete waste of money for me for the type of fishing I do. I’ve still caught more fish ... Continue reading →

Casting a fly line is different from spin casting or casting a lure, something most everybody is familiar with. Someone new to fly casting may bring with them some of the habits they have from spin casting. In casting a fly, it is actually the line that you are casting. Here is the way I do it. (I first practiced at a park). You take some line off the reel and let it sit near your feet. Start with a back cast but stop the fly fishing rod just past your head(If you head is 12 o’clock, you will move your rod between arc of 10 and 2. What this does as you line moves behind you is “load” the rod, i.e. the line bends the rod back and then as you cast forward, then rod accelerates forward. You can then lay the line down on the water(grass) or you can “false” cast and repeat the sequence remembering the 10 and 2 rule. Of course, when you are ready to put the line down, you will end your cast with the rod parallel to the water. Here are some tips I try and ... Continue reading →

I cannot catch fish for love nor money, so I understand your concern. I simply do not have the patience. I am one of those who equates fishing with lowering a fishes lunch into the water, one piece at a time, using with a ridiculously expensive gadget, the hook end of which is commonly lost in the process. But I enjoy going fishing with others. I can open beer, I can gut, scale and clean fish, and ice them down. I can offer congratulations when someone actually catches a fish, and commiserate when one gets away, agreeing that it was twice as long as it actually was. So, do not pretend, and I would not bother to buy gear. It will likely be the wrong type, anyway. Ask your prospective father in law to show you how to tie the knots, how to gut and clean. Find out what his favourite beer is, and buy that, instead of fish hooks. If he asks if you bought a fly fishing rod, or line, tell him you spent the money on flowers for his daughter. You should actually do this, of course. Go out to ... Continue reading →

As you approach the stream, take some time to observe the surface of the water and the air above it to see if any insects are presently hatching. If so, then capture one and choose a fly pattern to match it in size and color (called matching the hatch). However, if there is no hatch presently happening, matching the hatch is not possible. So, instead, try examining the streamside foliage (especially the undersides of leaves) to see what types of insects inhabit the stream you are fishing and again choose a fly pattern to match in size and color. However, since insect activity tends to lull during the period from mid-morning to late afternoon, then you might want to try prospecting with Attractor patterns instead. Attractors are fly patterns that imitate natural insects in size and shape but are tied in bright, non-natural, color patterns to attract the trout and convince them to strike. Dry fly patterns such as the Royal Wulff, Grizzly Wulff, Tennessee Wulff, Royal Coachman, Humpy, ... Continue reading →

For reasons that are not entirely clear, trout will sometimes strike a brightly colored May Fly, Caddis Fly, or Stone Fly pattern that does not closely resemble any fly that they are commonly used to seeing. Also, for reasons that are not entirely clear, tout seem to be attracted to and are enticed to strike by certain colors. Therefore, when choosing Attractor fly patterns, I use my "Three-Color Attractor System". As the name implies, this system consists of the three colors trout seem to be most attracted to and which consists of flies that are predominately red, yellow, or green. For instance, the Royal Wulff, the Carolina Wulff, and the Tennessee Wulff fly patterns are quite possibly the most productive attractor dry fly patterns ever designed. Each of these patterns is tied to resemble an adult May Fly in shape but, there are no naturally occurring may flies in existence that actually exhibit the color combinations presented by the dark green, iridescent, peacock hurl ... Continue reading →

Great Question, I contemplated this a lot before I tackled mine. I think you probably can get a list of materials pretty easily if you don’t already have that figured out - but the question is how much space do you need, how easy to reach and what are some good solutions for storage and accessibility? So I looked at a few versatile solutions that I really like. There are some “fly tying furniture” pieces out there that are pretty handy. A spool caddy/carousel is nice for visibility and access - I have a lot of spools but tend to use 5–6 more than others so I leave them on the bobbin and swap in/out of my spool storage as needed. I also use 2 fly box caddy boxes, they each hold 6 of the slim fly boxes one has all my hooks and one has all my weighted heads/beads. Small at the top, bigger at the bottom…easy to look through without opening and always within reach. I use a tool caddy on my desktop from White River so my most often used stuff sits in it on my ... Continue reading →

When most anglers think of fly fishing, their first thought is of big skies and big water with fellows in waders battling huge Bull Trout in a Rocky Mountain trout stream or of quaint British gentlemen fishing with bamboo fly rods on a quiet, English, chalk stream. However, let me paint you a very different picture. For instance, imagine a fellow standing in the bow of his bass boat, on his local lake, fighting a huge, female, Largemouth Bass he has enticed off of her bed with a Wooly Bugger (one of the most deadly flies ever invented). Or, imagine a fellow sitting in his kayak, tucked into a quiet, secluded, shallow, grassy, cove where boats with deeper drafts can’t go and who is absolutely elated after hooking and finally landing a carp seemingly as large as his kayak! Then, imagine a man standing in the surf on a pristine beach casting to a school of voracious Blues or ravenous Striped Bass feeding just beyond the break line as one suddenly slams his Streamer pattern and ... Continue reading →

I would guess, no objective proof at hand, that among nymphing fly fishermen the Gold Ribbed Hares Ear nymph would be the most popular. Another guess for the dry fly fisherman would be the Adams dry fly tying. Another guess for the important class of minnow / leech imitators would be the Wooly Bugger. This trio of flies, in a variety of sizes, will cover the vast majority of fly fishing situations you will ever come across. There are lots of variations of these flies in color, texture, and size. You can also change the original recipe for these flies own/or add in many extra materials to these such as flash, bead heads, dubbing (body material) colors and textures, hackle (the feather that makes the fly tying look like it has legs) stiffness and color variations. I would say that if you only carried these three fly patterns you would be a very productive fly fisherman. The Green Drake,(Ephemera Guttulata). This hatch is a dinner bell for all sizes of trout such that even an amateur ... Continue reading →

I haven’t tried this so I’m just thinking aloud. However with a fly rod/reel you usually have a longer rod allowing you more of a whip and I think more importantly the floating fly line also weighs a significant amount more. To get around this maybe a fly tying with a bobber to add weight? Because the fly lines additional weight I think you have the ability to cast a fly further, if you tried doing that with a spin reel you would probably end up with a birds nest or not casting more than 1–2 rod lengths. The only limitation to using spinning gear is the extremely lightweight nature of a fly tying. Simply add a bobber to your line well above the fly for some additional weight and voila, you can now get some casting distance. Attempting to use a baitcasting style reel would be almost impossible thought. There is a device called a bubble you can thread your spinning line through. You partially fill the bubble with water until its casting weight is right. Then you cast ... Continue reading →

The first thing to consider would be your target species. There’s no point in tying 10” Deceivers to fish for bluegill… Once you’ve decided what you’ll be fishing for, do some research about local favorite patterns. This includes doing some googling, go to your local fly shop and talk to the employees. Find a couple of simple patterns to start out with. While you’re at your local fly shop, see if they do a fly tying night where you come in and observe, maybe borrow some gear and get your feet wet. if you decide at that point that this a path you want to take, there are some basics you will need. Vice - for holding hooks. A basic vice is cheap, but you’ll outgrow it quickly. Get a rotating vice if it fits in your budget. Get one with a base versus a C-clamp. Thread bobbin - spend extra for a ceramic lined bobbin Small, sharp scissors - these will be your best friend or your biggest headache. Whip finishing tool - you can learn to whip finish ... Continue reading →