There’s this saying that goes…
“When you learn a little, you feel you know a lot. But when you learn a lot you realise you know very little”
This post was inspired by an article I read about how to get started in fly fishing, written by a beginner! I thought, how misleading can that be?
Steps to starting fly fishing in brief:
- Getting some initial questions answered
- Finding out how much we need to spend on gear to get started
- Where to start?
- Learning fly casting
- What gear to buy
I can understand the excitement of learning something new and sharing the journey – but it’s just not quite right learning from a beginner.
Maybe I did that myself when I just started – (writing about fly casting and fly fishing), looking back and from what I know now that I am still learning, it’d be quite bad to teach when we are just starting out. We could very well be teaching bad habits.
Fly fishing is quite unlike most other forms of fishing, it can be rather technical and will take anyone thousands and thousands of hours casting and fishing to even begin to understand some things. It can make other form of fishing appear rather straightforward.
Some years later, after countless hours of teaching casting and fishing, thousands of hours on the water, many fish later… (you get the picture) – I discovered something disturbing about fly fishing, and that is the more I do it the more I discover I’m still learning new things!
What Advice Do I Have For a Beginner?
So you are thinking about maybe picking up fly fishing? Maybe try and see what it is about? Perhaps you are not sure if you’ll actually enjoy fly fishing.
That is probably how many of us feel at the early stage. Especially so if we have already been fishing, but not fly fishing.
Very few would actually be diving straight into it and say to themselves “this is the shit I want to do!”.
I want to write this and hopefully share some REAL tips as a professional full-time fishing guide and fly casting instructor.
Why is Fly fishing So Expensive?
That’s a myth.
Fly fishing is expensive only if you choose to make it expensive. It can be affordable if you choose to make it affordable
For those of you looking to get started, you should start establishing a budget.
How Much Does It Cost To Start Fly Fishing?
As with any hobby or sports, fly fishing can cost little or a lot depending on your affordability or fancy. An estimate cost will accompanying each of the sections below to give you a rough idea.
Where to Start?
There is nothing wrong with learning from friends or anyone who is already into fly fishing but if possible, get proper advice and lessons. Some of which can be free.
Get professional advice. Hint: be nice, advice is free. A fly shop owner or a professional fly fisher will be a good start.
The word professional means that person makes a living from fly fishing, full time usually and gets paid doing what they do.
They tend to do this thing day-in day-out as their lives (survival) literally depends on it so they REALLY know what they are talking about.
If possible, take tips from a hobbyist, pretender, so-called influencer, or any fake-it-to-make-it practitioner with some caution.
What does it cost? Most if not all fly fishing professionals will be happy to offer free advice and guidance. Just ask.
You should not need to even buy any gear if you start the right way. Your instructor should have gear for you to use during lessons and provide you proper understanding of fly fishing gear.
That should help you tremendously to spend on the right gear that suits you.
For a beginner, my advice is not to learn how to fly cast through reading literature. That will not make any sense to a beginner. They sometimes don’t make any sense to an advanced caster!
D.I.Y learning to cast by watching video can be confusing, too.
Best to get proper guidance.
Practice alone or with friends.
And go back to your instructor/mentor to fix flaws. Then maybe start reading and watch some videos.
What Is Next?
Learn proper fly casting from an experienced qualified instructor.
Caveat: an experienced fly fisher DO NOT necessarily make a good qualified teacher. They may appear to have been casting and catching fish since the beginning of time, many actually do not know the proper methods of teaching and have developed their own style which is not always beneficial to a beginner.
You want to get the basics right. After that you can let fly and do whatever style of casting according to your fancy.
Get the wrong advice and you may have difficulty breaking bad habits, suffer injuries, develop the wrong muscle memories, suffer from the can’t-teach-old-dogs-new-tricks syndrome, and ultimately NOT enjoy fly fishing that much or even give up the sport down the road.
What does it cost? Ask around, you may even find someone to teach you basic fly casting for free. A professional qualified instructor may charge anything from a low $10 USD an hour and upwards depending on who they are and whether it’s a group or individual lesson.
What Gear To Buy?
Any fly rod/reel setup from 4-weight to 7-weight that SUITS YOUR BUDGET and suits your physics and caters to your needs.
At this stage don’t listen to the more-expensive-is-better mumbo jumbo. You won’t be able to tell the difference, yet. Pay what you are comfortable spending.
I know many people recommend a 5-weight. Sure, that will work too. But it can also be a 4wt, 6wt, 7wt. Get something that you will fish with and the answer to that will come from asking yourself what fish do you may be targeting the most?
The fly line is often the most important component before the rod and reel. So try not to stinge on that
If you live in the tropics and fish mostly in warm/hot climate, read this.
The point is, you want to also fish with that setup. Not just go casting on the lawn because in reality the only way your interest in fly fishing will flourish is by catching fish.
If you feel really unsure and fear spending hard earned cash on wrong gear, borrow. Whoever you are learning how to fly fish from should have gear for you to cast with during lessons and that will give you some good ideas.
Bonus Pro Tip
If you start with a 5-weight, make your next rod a 3wt or a 7wt.
If you go with a 4wt weight, make your next purchase a 6 or 8wt.
Do you see the pattern here? Either odd or even numbers. This will make sense to you in the long term (and possibly save you a lot of money).
What does it cost? A set of fly fishing gear including rod, reel and line can cost from as little as $50 to $100 USD for a basic budget set, to as much as $2,000 USD or more.
It all depends on what you can afford or how much you want to spend. Remember, the objective here is to get started, so set a budget you’re comfortable with and go with it.
Fly Casting Tips for Beginners
All beginners will have the same problems when they just start out.
Why won’t the line go far when I cast?
I’ll try casting harder by adding more power!
Why am I getting only a little farther even though I’m casting much harder? Maybe I should false cast more!
Why do I sometime “get it” but most other times don’t?
Proficient fly casting is not about power or how hard you cast. Rather it is about making the right adjustments. The only way you’ll know how to make the right adjustments is by getting the understanding the basics and practice.
And then?
Practice what you have learned and most importantly, go fly fishing often.
The more fishing you do the more questions you will have and the learning continues. There is absolutely no other way. Actually spending time on the water is very different from casting on the lawn.
Understanding Some Fly fishing Jargon
Like many things in life, fly fishing has its own language. To those unfamiliar, here are some often used vocabs.
What Is A Fly and Why Is It Called a Fly?
The fly refers to the lure used. Traditionally it imitates small flying insects and bugs that land on the water.
Since then fly fishing flies have evolved to all kind of shapes and sizes imitating anything your imagination wants.
Why is the Fly Line So Thick?
Understanding this is one of the fundamentals of understanding fly casting. The fly line is thick because that is what we are casting. It has some weight for us to throw and density to carry the (often very light) fly through the air.
What is Backing Line?
Backing line are the line connecting your fly line to the reel.
Fly lines are usually around 100 feet. When you hook a stronger fish that runs more that a 100 feet the backing line comes into play.
What is a Tapered Leader?
A leader is the stretch of line before the fly. One end of it is connected to the fly line. For fly fishing the leader is often tapered (thicker on one end and gradually gets thinner to the other end), this can help the leader to unfurl and straighten better at the end of each cast.
Un-tapered or also referred to as ‘straight leaders’ can also be used for some applications.
We can tie the fly to one end of the leader or, connect the leader to a short length of tippet before the fly is tied on.
What is a Tippet?
Tippet are not a necessary component. It can be perfectly okay to tie your fly to the leader.
The tippet is the section of line between the leader and fly.
A tippet is often anything between 1 to 4 feet long although this is not a rule and varies according to the anglers requirements.
Tippet are often nylon or monofilament but can also be fluorocarbon material.
What is Tippet For?
Tippets may be used for the following reasons:
- To extend the usage life of a tapered leader (which can be expensive)
- To extend the overall length of the leader. Example; purchased tapered leader is 9 feet. Tie on a 3 foot length of tippet to make total length 12 feet to make rig more stealthy or drift better in a river.
- Small enough diameter for the hook eye
- More supple material to get better fly presentation
- When you are fishing with multiple flies
Fly Tying
Fly tying is often an integral part of fly fishing. However, you do not need to start tying flies when you start fly fishing.
You will likely get some free flies from fly shops such as Tacklebox Adventures (in Malaysia) when you buy your first gear to get you started.
Tying flies often comes naturally sooner or later depending on individuals. Some will get into it early and some later.
Conclusion
I hope you find the above useful. If you have any questions or feel I missed out some things, please leave a comment below.
Thanks for reading.
Keep going,
JW
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