I just bought my first fly rod a little over a week ago, and am hooked. I am a 47 year old mail and have been fishing with conventional gear for at least 40 of those years.
What I mean by conventional gear is spin casting, spinning and bait casting. I enjoy using this gear but the fly rod has already found a high ranking in my gear, and I have only caught a few very small bluegill with it so far. I am still not casting very well but it is getting better every time out.
I am from Northwest Indiana and have few spots to fly fish for Trout but hopefully by the time the trout and salmon start running up the rivers my casting will have improved enough to go after them. Until then I am going to continue chasing the bluegill, bass, and work on my casting skills.
Welcome! I am 49 and picked up this addiction 1 year ago. I now fish for everything with a fly rod! My goal for the summer was just to ‘somehow’ catch a bass on it. Well some 150 or so bass later I say I reached my goal
I’ve caught trout(rainbow, brown, brook), bass, crappie, bluegill all ‘on the fly’.
scubatim;
Welcome aboard! Check out Fly Fishing 101 for some help. (I bought my first fly rod in 1971!)
Join us in the Chat Room some evening.
I also suggest checking out the Michigan Fish In photos under “Fish - Ins”. You may want to start making plans for next year!
Actually putting your other gear away for the season isn’t a bad idea because it will force you to rely on the fly gear, giving you more incentive to improve. I did that one year a long time ago. Now, except for very rare occasions, my conventional gear is just gathering dust in the garage.
Well done, putting away the coventional gear shows commitment. I did that many years ago and don’t regret it. The only time I will use it now is to show my grandkids the joy of catching a Blue gill.
Enjoy.
Hey scubatim, I started fly fishing earlier this summer myself and am very glad I found this site. There are some really good people here and I have learn alot in just a little time. Where at in In are you?
Come up to Michigan and practice with us at the mico fish-in in September. If you haven’t caught a trout on a fly yet I know a spot on the Rouge that is almost guaranteed to produce (unfortunately it’s a riffle full of three inch rainbows but there are lots of bigger fish to found without the guarantee).
Hey Panman, what’s wrong with the moniker “Tim”. One of the best fisherman and flytyers I know is named Tim. Okay, yeah, I’m talking about me, but still, not such a bad name when you think of some of the alternatives 8)
Bluegill222: Whats wrong with the name “Tim”? Nothing, Nada, Zilch. I have went by “Tim” for over 66 years now. I was born way premature and everybody thought I would not make it. Grandma nicknamed me Tiny Tim after the Dickens character. Now I am gray haired, 6 ft tall and too fat :shock: But life is good!
Welcome scubatim !!! I started flyfishing about 2 months ago at age 32 and I love it. Remember to have fun casting and consider catching a fish as a bonus .
The last month I have been messing with tying my own stuff which is something I recommend you try.
JRA I do not get down when I do not get hook ups, If I hooked every fish that hit my fly they would call it catching not fishing.
That being said it would be nice to get a hook up with a quality fish but that will come. In the mean time I am just enjoying getting out and working on my casting and it is getting much better.
As for fly tying I have been to a couple of fly tying opens at the local Bass Pro Shop and find it interesting and will end up buying some stuff and getting started soon.
If you’re in the NW corner of Indiana, you’ll have to try the St. Joseph River that runs through both Indiana and Michigan. It’s got at least two good steelhead runs and some killer smallmouth bass fishing in the summers.
Best of luck on the new addiction. I started fly-fishing at 47 myself and it’s been a great ride.
The big advantage you have is that after using “conventional tackle” for 40 years…you already know how to catch fish. Fly rodding just offers different ways that let you keep doing the same thing. But it’s the delivery of insect imitations (the main prey item for many fish) that sets fly rodding apart as the most efficient system.
Keep casting. Nobody who gets it perfect can keep it perfect, but you’ll start getting it good enough that you generally will get by. Thinking about “presentation after splashdown” more than “casting” seemed to help me the most, back when I first started fly casting. You can have the world’s worst, or the world’s best, casting form…but a fish ain’t gonna take your fly until after it’s in the water, right?
Actually, that’s really good advice. The beginner usually spends way too much time worrying about distance and style issues, when the difference between fish and no fish more often lies in fly selection and presentation. A good presentation on a short cast will catch way more fish than a sloppy resentation on a long cast. Work on putting the right fly in the right place, the rest will come with practice. Most important: just have fun!
That is so true. In all actuallity, the ideal way to fish a river is to start right in front of you and work your way across. That way you are covering the whole surface without spooking the fish.
I find I catch a fair amount of fish around 5’ in front of me.
Plus, river flow permitting, you can wade across as you go, so long cast are really not all that critical.
Now steelhead and some other conditions will require longer cast, but you can get into fish with out it.
