For those just starting out...

Fishing A Learning Experience, Pass it On.
1

Here is my take on how I got started.

      I started by taking up my dad's old K-mart fiberglass rod and learning how to cast, the wrong way. I had no instruction except a 5 min tutorial from my dad and what I read on the net. I then stumbled on a guy named Keith at the International Anglers in Pittsburgh. He taught me how to cast and corrected all my mistakes. Now I knew how to get the line out, I still didn't know where on the water to put the fly. It was still a total mystery to me. How it was supposed to look, how it was supposed to feel, I still had no idea. So I read everything I could get on fly fishing, watched youtube vid's and tried to make it all fit but it just didn't come together for me.

So 2 years after I took casting lessons, I took a beginner fishing school class. Since I had been on the water so much and had done alot of knot tying and casting, I was way ahead of the learning curve. I ended up being the only one to hook and land a fish. I will post pictures of that fine rainbow. Since then I have been able to catch fish. And you know what? I don’t do a damn thing different today than I did 2 years ago, the books were right, the advice I got was right, I just needed to believe in what I was doing and cast to all the water avaliable, not just the prime lie’s. Now, onto the rules of beginner success.

Rule 1. Casting, you can’t practice enough, read, watch, do, in that order. Get an experienced caster to watch you and you watch them. When you just start out, make sure you go over the proper form and motion, talk yourself through it, go slow then it will become rote and then natural to do. You will start to notice when your casting wrong once you get it right.

Rule 2. Tie knots and lots of them, study knot and rope work books and copy the knots that are not only fast to tie but strong. Practice them all the time!.

Rule 3. Get out to the water often! You don’t have to have a fishing rod with you, just get out there. Practice casting on the water with only a yarn fly, watch the water, learn to read it, watch what it does to your line. Get real experience before you fish so when you get out there to fish you know what its like, no surprises. But do it where you don’t fish! You don’t want them to get used to knowing when your there and giving them undue pressure.

Rule 4. BE SAFE!!! If it starts to lightening, get away from the water! Quick! Don’t wade water thats fast and deep and don’t wade shallow and fast water, carelessly. Don’t wade while you cast and don’t cast while you wade. Pay attention because one false move and we are lost another family member. Fly Fishing is a fraternity, we hold our brothers and sisters dear. Use the buddy system, safety in numbers.

Rule 5. Become knowledgeable. It will only enhance your experience as a fly fisher and will ease your learning curve a bit. Read Everything by the late Al Campbell on this site. Trust me, its worth it.

Rule 6. Be courteous. Share the water. Don’t crowd a good hole and if you get crowded, leave, there are other holes to fish. Don’t be that guy.

Rule 7. Be compassionate to the fish you catch, put them back if you can(catch and kill streams will not sustain many trout over the summer so keep a few if they are not wild trout streams, they are good eating). Pack out more than you bring in, pick up others trash, fishing line and bait containers. I once spent a January afternoon walking the shoreline of a lake I grew up fishing with my dad and filled my pockets with spent and discarded snarls of line, lead and hooks. I found bait fishing gear aplenty as well, you never know the treasures you may bring home. Don’t leave tippet and broken leaders in or around the waterways, it doesn’t just look nasty, it could hurt fish and other wildlife.

Rule 8. Share your experiences, introduce new people to the sport, help out everyone the best you can. Because everyone was a beginner, once.

Rule 9. Above all, have fun! Thanks go to Michael Brown for reminding me of this rule and for being the first one to read this post.

Now I want to make it known, I am by no means an expert. I am still beginning myself but I wanted to get this out before I got too far along and forgot most or all of what I struggled with. So good luck, be safe and tight lines!!!

2

… to a lurker ??

And a warm welcome from SE Idaho even if you have been lurking.

For sure, you have been learning. Very much enjoyed your first post.

Reminded me of one of my most valuable lessons. I had been fishing a nice little stream and routinely catching six to ten trouts. I ran into an acquaintance there one day who had caught 25-30 trouts in just a few hours.

All of a sudden, knowing that there must be a lot that I wasn’t doing right, I started figuring out what I was doing wrong. Learning to read the water was the big one. I’m still learning, but the fish let me know regularly that I’ve come a long way since starting out on that little creek.

John

Somewhere along the line, I realized that …

3

ScOttad,
First of all, welcome aboard. It looks like I don’t have to tell you that this site is a wealth of information. From what I get out of your post, your way ahead of the learning curve. We never learn it all, but you are way ahead of the game. I too have learned a great deal from Al Campbell. He was a real gentleman and willing to share everything he knew.
Again, welcome!

4

One thing i’ve learned in my first year with the long rod is that the fish always have something to teach you, its up to you to figure out just what it is.

I just needed to believe in what I was doing and cast to all the water avaliable, not just the prime lie’s

Technique is much more a factor in fly fishing than any other form of fishing, which rely more on gear. Just like I learned of “lure confidence” while spin fishing, I think there’s alot to be said for both “fly confidence” as well as “technique confidence”. Why are so many trout caught on woolly buggers every year? I think it has to do with the fact that so many beginners learn to tie and fish it first, thus they have success with it early in their careers, and ever after, they associate that fly with success. Now they’ll fish that bugger longer and harder than any other fly in their arsenal. The law of averages tells us that this is a recipe for success with any fly.

Second is technique. For all its popularity, I’ve had relatively little success nymphing. Therefore, when I hit the stream, I’ll try streamers, buggers, wets, dries, terrestrials, and eggs before I’ll pull out a nymph sometimes as a last resort. As a result, they’ve got fewer opportunities to reverse my opinion of them, and usually if I get to the point where I use them, the fishing is slow anyway, reinforcing their fishlessness in my mind.

As far as prime lies, with the faulty logic of fish only holding in the best spots, by June, several streams I fish would have no trout at all! I just try to remember: if I toss a fly out there, there is a chance, no matter how tiny, that I will catch a fish. If I dont toss a fly out there, there is a 100% chance that I will NOT catch a fish. You cant catch em unless your fly is on the water, so try to keep it there as long and as often as possible.

5

Cold, I too struggle with nymphing and avoid it as much as I can. Two of the better nymph fishermen I know are very tall. I think they have an advantage as less line is on the water and the angle also allows them a better feel for the fly. For trout the nymphing is a spring thing and the trout bite is a very subtle so it takes as much feel as possible. I’m vertically challenged…therefor a poor nymph fisherman. That’s my take on it anyway.

6

sc0ttad, Welsome to the board. Obviously you’ve been around longer than me, but welcome never-the-less.
Thanks for the lesson. There are so many aspects of this sport I don’t get. That’s why I hang out here, at my FF club and practice all I can. Jim

7

Not going to let you off that easily, Jim. I’m only 5’8" and a very adept nymph fishermen on just about any type of moving water, from small streams to large rivers. Time for you to start learning the essence of nymphing and getting more out of your time on the water, regardless the time of year !!

John

8

I see you’ve been bitten by the bug! Well, good on ya!

As my ‘handle’ implies I too am not any kind of expert but I promise there’s no one that enjoys it any more than I do. Just got in, as a matter of fact. Gott get ‘shined up’ to deliver meals on wheels.

Have a heckufa day!

9

I also just started fly fishing. no one in my family had ever picked up a flyrod so i had to read and watch all the movies i could. The books that helped me the most were the ones written by Dave Hughes. They taught me so much and were easy to understand. I still look back if i need to learn something for an upcoming fishing trip.

10

Im with you on this one John. Nymphing is my game any time of year. Im guilty of ignoring a good hatch because Im doing so well with nymphs.

11

I am so glad to see all the replies to my post! And from some experienced fly fisher’s as well!!! I liked your post Cold, I agree with you on fly confidence, to a point. I have cast nearly every fly in my box and I have fished egg patterns most and I limited out on a olive woolly bugger this year. I caught my first fish ever on a sucker spawn as well. Maybe I was just due or maybe I fish buggers better than eggs, who knows? Thank you all for the posts!!

12

Maybe I was just due or maybe I fish buggers better than eggs, who knows?

It’s harder to mess up when fishing a bugger. You can drift it, twitch it, swing it, strip it, and more. All of these methods get fish.

Eggs, for the most part, dont twitch, swim, levitate, or do anything except drift. When yours does, it’s identified as suspicious and ignored.

13

I think when I first started fishing a fly, as soon as my fly line touched the water, everything was seen as suspicious and ignored!! LOL

14

Wow, what a great post. You listed everything I was taught.
Casting: I was taken to a park and given lessons: 10 -2, over and over; feel the rod load-----I had no idea what he (my future hub) was talking about!!
Knot: I sat in the front room and went through 3 yards of line to learn to tie on a fly…I don’t want to talk about what it took to tie on a tippet.
Safety: I learned not to overestimate ourself quickly when I took my one and only dunk in a fast moving stream… I also watch the clouds, was caught once in a thunder storm on the water…scared me; never again
Knowledge…be married to an expert…(LOL)
Courtesy: Most flyfishing folks have it; my hub taught me what not to do early on. After that, what to do comes natural.
Catch and release: That’s all we do. We will break off a line if a fish is caught up in a snag and we can’t bring it to take out the hook (barbless)
Sharing: I am trying to get my granddaughters into fishing,…so far, no takers…my grandson just turned 4…I may work on him…

And above all…have fun, leave it as you found it,if not better.

15

ScOttad,

Excellent rules, not just for the new folks either. Every now and then we all need a reminder of those things that got us into fly fishing to begin with.

16

Back to the mini-controversy about being short as the cause of poor success nymph fishing. Nymph fishermen have two (or more) schools of thought on this aspect of fishing. To use indicators, or not. Thus there’s controversy about how it should be done. I don’t think your height has very much to do with your success, rather, the ability to stick with the program until success comes, has much more to do with catching trout on nymphs. I admire those who’ve put in the time and honed their instincts to the point where they’re proficient, without the use of indicators. I can get by on small steams, but it’s definitely hit and miss on the larger ones without an indicator. Using an indicator or dry dropper set-up can teach you a lot about where and how fish will take a nymph in different places. I advocate this is as a good way to learn, and then when the desire to graduate to going naked strikes, you’ll have an advantage. Either way, if you don’t keep nymphs on your tippet, you’ll never become proficient.