Quick intro

[JasonC]

I didn’t see a new member forum to introduce myself, so I apologize if this is the wrong avenue and invite the mods to move this thread if needed. My name is Jason and I’ve been reading paflyfish forums for years now but couldn’t register until recently. Even though I’m not a fly fisherman, I know, a spinning gear guy, it’s a shame really...I come on here for everyone’s expertise regarding water characteristics and trout expertise. Believe me when I tell you from browsing other trout forums, you guys are hands-down, head and shoulders above others when it comes to all things trout related. Before you roast me, please know I’m not your average spinning fisherman. My hooks are never trebled, always barbless, I know how to handle trout as far as releasing them as healthy as they were caught, I never keep a single fish, and I don’t partake in any fishing when water temps rise above 70F in trying to not cause any unnecessary stress onto the fish. I hope you guys will welcome me as I eventually will wet a fly in the near future as I’ve always wanted to learn how to fly fish.

 

[Dave_W]

Hi Jason,
Welcome, and thanks for the kind words. We're glad to have you join our conversations. No need to apologize for being a spin fishermen. We'd be glad to help you try out fly fishing. Our Beginner's Forum is the place to post questions about basic fly fishing.
Enjoy.
Best,
Dave

 

[rrt]

Jason,

Good to see you here. If you want to learn to fly-fish, this place is a good starting point. Dave W. and others will be good mentors.

Actually, it is not too hard to learn how to fly-fish; the casting is a matter of timing.

If you get involved in fly-fishing, you will enter a life-long learning process, which is a major attraction.

Hope you enjoy this board, and I hope you give fly-fishing a shot. I think you'll be happy if you do.

 

[gulfgreyhound]

Welcome aboard. This is a great place to find mentors who will guide you on the great journey called Fly fishing.gg

 

[afishinado]

JasonC wrote:
I didn’t see a new member forum to introduce myself, so I apologize if this is the wrong avenue and invite the mods to move this thread if needed. My name is Jason and I’ve been reading paflyfish forums for years now but couldn’t register until recently. Even though I’m not a fly fisherman, I know, a spinning gear guy, it’s a shame really...I come on here for everyone’s expertise regarding water characteristics and trout expertise. Believe me when I tell you from browsing other trout forums, you guys are hands-down, head and shoulders above others when it comes to all things trout related. Before you roast me, please know I’m not your average spinning fisherman. My hooks are never trebled, always barbless, I know how to handle trout as far as releasing them as healthy as they were caught, I never keep a single fish, and I don’t partake in any fishing when water temps rise above 70F in trying to not cause any unnecessary stress onto the fish. I hope you guys will welcome me as I eventually will wet a fly in the near future as I’ve always wanted to learn how to fly fish.

Glad to have you post on here. No doubt, give FFing a try.

It's easy for a good angler to become a good fly fishermen. It's just a matter to learning to use the tackle and present your flies. But it's not all just about catching fish.

Give it a try and see. Let us know how we can help you get started.

 

[jifigz]

There is nothing wrong with using a spinning outfit. In all seriousness though I haven't touched any of mine in a long time. You will certainly find good advice here regarding fly fishing and all things trout. Welcome aboard.

 

[JasonC]

Thank you all for the kind welcome!

 

[jifigz]

Jason, my advice to you if you want to learn to fly fish is to buy a cheap 6 weight rod, get a cheap 6 weight reel (Okuma Sierra), buy a cheaper fly line (Scientific Angler's Air-Cel) and then hit up a local lake. If you give me your address I'll mail you gurglers, fur ants, san Juan works, woolly buggers, and clouser minnows and you'll be off and running with a good mix of patterns that will catch both trout and warmwater fish.

Seriously though, if you have pond near you that you can access or a lake or a warmwater stream, I would learn to fly fish by targeting some variety of sunfish right about this time of year.

 

[poopdeck]

Jason, learning to fly fish is not difficult, time, consuming, or expensive. You can pretty much disregard any other Myth you may have heard about fly fishing. It is only different from spin fishing. Since you already know how to trout fish the rest is easy.

I enjoy spin fishing and even bait fishing as well as fly fishing. It’s just another tool and what I use is based on what I believe will catch fish better at any given time. In fact I almost always carry spin and fly gear when I go out. No worries and enjoy the board.

 

[jifigz]

poopdeck wrote:
Jason, learning to fly fish is not difficult, time, consuming, or expensive. You can pretty much disregard any other Myth you may have heard about fly fishing. It is only different from spin fishing. Since you already know how to trout fish the rest is easy.

I enjoy spin fishing and even bait fishing as well as fly fishing. It’s just another tool and what I use is based on what I believe will catch fish better at any given time. In fact I almost always carry spin and fly gear when I go out. No worries and enjoy the board.

Oh poopdeck! I can forgive the use of a spinning rod, but I didn't know that sometimes you might still attach a Minnie, red worm, or wax work to your line. Now that I CAN'T look past. I'm just teasing you, obviously.

 

[poopdeck]

I don't stop fishing because the water gets hard. In fact, for some strange reason, I really really enjoy ice fishing and get bummed during the warm winters. I hate snow but I don't mind ice one bit.

Ive never caught a flathead on a green weenie and who doesn't throw out an occasional chunking rod during the early stage of the striper run?

 

[FarmerDave]

jifigz wrote:
Jason, my advice to you if you want to learn to fly fish is to buy a cheap 6 weight rod, get a cheap 6 weight reel (Okuma Sierra),

HEY! My Okuma Sierra is my most expensive reel!

:lol:

But seriously, it is.

Your advise is sound.

For most fresh water fly fishing, the reel is just a place to store the excess line. Okuma Sierra is one of the least expensive disk drag reels and works fine, but for most fly fishing I do, I don't need a disk drag.

Don't go too cheap on a click drag reel though. I once bought a cheap reel from Cabelas where the drag broke on first outing. It's free replacement lasted two outings. Very wimpy drag. When that broke, I stopped at a small shop out in the middle of nowhere and bought a Cortland Crown II for just under 30 bucks. It looked like it had a stout drag. That was about 25 years ago and I am still using it. They quit making it for awhile so I bought a backup and extra spool off Ebay for about $20. They might be making it again, but I don't know if it is the same.

You might also be able to find a good used middle of the road rod for about what you would pay for a cheap one. I have an older St Croix, 5/6 8 ft that a friend bought used and gave me as a gift. I think he was embarrassed fishing with me when I was using my 19.95 Cortland beginner rod. The St Croix has seen a lot of use, even for steelhead. Very good rod. Moderate action so it is forgiving. I have several more expensive rods, but I usually grab the St. Croix and take an Orvis Clearwater as a backup.;-)

I haven't been ice fishing in years, and I do miss it.

 

[gulfgreyhound]

Steelhead fishing qualifies as ICE FISHING in my book. GG

 

[salmonoid]

I learned how to fly fish because it made the season start a bit earlier, because I have two FFO special regulation areas in my county that got stocked before opening day and they were fair game as soon as they were stocked. But I am a trout fisher first off; the means to catch them is secondary to me. I now don't fish for stocked fish too much, but I really like being where wild trout live.

Experience on the water fishing for trout using one method will carry over to the other. Skills learned fishing spinners can help you swing streamers more effectively. Time spent reading the water is never wasted, no matter what kind of rod or reel you have with you (or even if you have a rod with you).

Welcome aboard.

 

[hunter1]

Welcome from Maryland. It's a great forum. You will love it. :-D

 

[JasonC]

Again, a sincere thank you for the warm welcome! The casting and tying I know will come with practice. I have a long driveway out back of my house that I can even stand and practice casting in so no worries there. I guess my biggest question is how long did it take all of you to learn which type of fly and fly patterns to use? I know to watch the water and flip some rocks to see what’s hatching, and there’s certain times of the year which certain hatches emerge on certain streams. But the sheer amount of colors and patterns and types of flies are overwhelming! For example, say a stream is running higher than usual and is off-color, would your go-to still be the emerging hatch at the time or would you try something terrestrial first?

 

[jifigz]

Depends how high and off color the water is. If it was pretty stained up I'd throw a dark colored streamer. And I wouldn't worry too much about patterns. Get generic nymphs like pheasant tails and hares ears and fish them with confidence. If you don't draw a strike then switch nymphs/flies and fish those for a while. Yes, when a hatch is coming off obviously you may want to match it and have the appropriate dries/nymphs/emergers. 99% of the time just being a great fisherman is what it all comes down to. It is really no different than the bass pros who seem to catch the fish when no one else can and many of them have differing opinions on tactics, lures, etc. A lot of it has to do with presentation and finding the right style of water on a stream given the conditions.

 

[RLeep2]

If you can arrange to practice casting on your (or somebody's..) lawn as opposed to a hardtop, gravel or even dirt driveway, I'd do that. Less wear and tear on your fly line.

I wouldn't worry too much about bugs and aquatic entomology, although that is a part of the entire thing you'll want to experience. Get a selection of generic, vaguely imitative mayfly and caddis imitiations and learn to put a fly where you want to on the water and how to control it to get the most natural drift. Good flies for this are the Adams and Hare's Ear Parachutes, March Brown, Sulfur and Light Cahill dries (mayflies) and Elk Hair Caddis in a variety of colors for caddis imitations. Throw in a few deerhair or foam ant and beetle imitations in sizes #10-18. With this handful of flies, you can fish topwater almost anywhere with some confidence. Unless you want to become one of those fellas who sits on the bank and waits for the hatch, you're going to find that the majority of your time will be spent fishing in non-hatch situations and what is on the bottom side of the nearest rock doesn't matter near as much as what some of the books, etc. tell us.

But I'd prioritize being able to put a fly over a fish with out scaring him. You should probably be able to do that before you concern yourself with whether you are using the exact right fly.

 

[afishinado]

RLeep2 wrote:
If you can arrange to practice casting on your (or somebody's..) lawn as opposed to a hardtop, gravel or even dirt driveway, I'd do that. Less wear and tear on your fly line.

I wouldn't worry too much about bugs and aquatic entomology, although that is a part of the entire thing you'll want to experience. Get a selection of generic, vaguely imitative mayfly and caddis imitiations and learn to put a fly where you want to on the water and how to control it to get the most natural drift. Good flies for this are the Adams and Hare's Ear Parachutes, March Brown, Sulfur and Light Cahill dries (mayflies) and Elk Hair Caddis in a variety of colors for caddis imitations. Throw in a few deerhair or foam ant and beetle imitations in sizes #10-18. With this handful of flies, you can fish topwater almost anywhere with some confidence. Unless you want to become one of those fellas who sits on the bank and waits for the hatch, you're going to find that the majority of your time will be spent fishing in non-hatch situations and what is on the bottom side of the nearest rock doesn't matter near as much as what some of the books, etc. tell us.

But I'd prioritize being able to put a fly over a fish with out scaring him. You should probably be able to do that before you concern yourself with whether you are using the exact right fly.

^+1!! > All good advice. (Saves me a bunch of writing)

 

[poopdeck]

how's your Latin? First myth. You don't need a lunch pail full of every fly out there in three different colors and sizes. What leep said pretty much covers everything. They are also some of the easiest flys to tie. 90% of my fly fishing for trout is hares ears, PT nymphs and prince nymphs in size 16. My trout flies I can fit in a couple altoid tins carried in my pocket. Keep it simple and don't sweat the small stuff. "matching the hatch," a term I despise, is a distant second to presentation.