Learning to cast...learning to fish...

[SW Ladyfish]

I'm curious about how people got started fly fishing. How did you learn to cast? Who taught you to fly fish?

I started fishing as a child with a cane pole and continued spin fishing. When I decided to fly fish, I took casting lessons.

My husband started with his father; but, is primarily self-taught. He claims he has all the bad habits to prove it! He's been fly fishing for longer than we've been married...and that's 35 years.

What about you?

[gadabout]

I taught myself when I was in my early twenties. I basically just read everything I could on the subject and went out and fished every weekend. Casting was difficult but I managed to catch a fish now and then so I just persevered. I never practiced casting away from the water. I just went out and fished whenever I could. Not too many places in Brooklyn, NY where you can practice flycasting.

[countrygent36]

I started out as a kid using my dad's boo and wind-up spring reel with mono line. Nymphing and hoppers only. Decided I liked to try casting and bought a broomstick at wally world. Never took any lessons, just started beating flys off rocks, and sometime in the water *G* I now have two St Croix rods that I use regularly and since started tying my own fly's. What a rush when you catch your first fish on a fly that you tied. HOOKED FOR LIFE.

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Best to remain silent and be thought a fool, than to open your mouth and remove all doubt.
Something I seldom remember to do.




[This message has been edited by countrygent36 (edited 12 June 2005).]

[white43]

I'm self-taught using illustrations from the old Field and Streams and Outdoor Lifes when I was a kid. My first rod was one of those octogon metal that slipped into itself a neighbor gave me for doing his farm chores as he died from lung cancer. I eventually graduated to a fiberglass rod somewhere in the late 1950s and early 1960s. After the metal thing everything has been so easy. jgw

[Canoeman1947]

Didn't start fishing until I was about 25 years old. Fell in love with it, but became bored with lakes and ponds all the time. I've always had a "thing" for running water. Started fishing with a neighbor who also loved streams, using light spinning gear at first. He broke out a fly rod one day and started using it. Kept trying to get me to try it, but not interested in "yuppie" style of fishing. He bought me a fly rod for my birthday. I resisted for about 18 months, then began to feel like an ingrate. Had him show me how to cast. By the next weekend, I had caught my first 2 pound smallmouth bass on a fly. I've only had a spinning rod in my hands twice since then, and that was 15-16 years ago.
Larry Compton

[fcch]

White,

"Field and Streams", ... Hey that brings back memories

SW, ... I guess I did it like Gadabout, ... read lots (still do), had a lot of frustrating evenings. I "git into it" to pass the time when holed up in logging camps around the central pateau in BC.

I learned lots when one of my Entomo profs turned out to be a FF'er. Turns out, most of the students took the course, not for the forestry side, ... but for the stream bio side and the ff'ing implications

Later I learned new techinques and tactics by observing (the scientific side in me always comes out).


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Christopher Chin
Jonquiere Quebec
[url=http://pages.videotron.com/fcch/:197d5]http://pages.videotron.com/fcch/[/url:197d5]

[RickB]

I was also a self-taught fly fisher. I have been spin/bait fishing most of my life. I got my love of fishing from my Mom, Dad went along but he was never big on fishing. I moved to SW PA in my late 30's and discovered fishing for trout (mostly bass and panfish as a kid) and figured that it was time to take up fly fishing as that seemed to be the "proper" way to fish for trout. These days I rarely pick up the spin or bait casting rods although I still do on occasion.

To get into fly fishing I basically read everything I could and watched videos, dvds and TV programs. I think I am a competent caster, up to about 50-60 feet. I am currently on a mission to improve my casting so I can enjoy additional fly fishing opportunities. I started recently with Joan Wulff's dvd and I am looking for somewhere to take lessons this summer.

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Fish more, work less!

I have always fished in some form or another all of my life.
Wasn't until about a month ago a friend introduced me to a real fly rod and how to use it.

Fun stuff! Now I am addicted.

[Migs]

I took a trip out to the Beni in Bolivia with my spinning gear, and saw one lady casting a fly rod. She lent me her rod and I was hooked from then on. If I had never seen it I might still be a spinner today. Funny thing is, its the visual aspect of the cast that caught my interest.

Migs

[brhokla]

I've been fishing for some time now but just recently got into Fly-Fishing. I have alway's wanted to try it but never had the time before in my old workplace. My hours and time spent at work prevented me from getting the time to do such a thing. I had to fish the local spots meaning strip pits and ponds due to my work schedule. I quit work and started selling Real Estate. I now have the time even though I still spend more time working than the average person. I talked my brother into taking a trip to the White River so we got a group of about 8 people to go. I then went to a local fly-shop and purchased my first set-up. An Orvis TLS Trident 5 weight 9' tip flex rod with a Orvis Battenkill Bar Stock reel. I was the only one on the trip to use a fly rod. While on the trip I left the group and went driving down some road in Cotter, Ark to explore the area. I drove up to some shop along the river on the outskirts of town and went in to look for information. What happened then was about a 2hour conversation and casting lesson from the nicest person I have ever met. I have since gone fly fishing about once a week. I haven't touched my other gear or spin gear since. As a matter of fact 4 of the people that went on the trip have now taken up fly fishing.