Starting Flyfishing

Whenever possible I choose to fly fish rather than regular pole and line methods. I find it to be more rewarding and challenging. So what are fly's anyway? Fly's imitate natural insects both aquatic and airborne. Almost all insects live underwater for some time. When the reach adulthood they rise to the surface to emerge. They open there wings and fly off to mate and repeat the cycle. Mayflies usually live underwater for a year. Once they emerge, they only have approx. 24 hours to live. When you see fish jumping out of the water they are eating these insects. If you never been trout fishing, a mayfly hatch is quite a wonder to behold. Tons of insects everywhere and fish eating them like no tomorrow. For a picture of this click here.

Many people think it is too difficult. It's relatively easy. I learned all I know from an instructional video titled 'Lessons with Lefty' and lots of fishing. If you want personal instruction, many local fly fishing stores will train you for free.

You don't have to have an expensive rod or reel to start with. I began with a $30.00 reel and $30.00 rod. One thing you need is many fly's. In the beginning you loose quite a few till you get a handle on casting. Also, I don't recommend one of those automatic retrieve reels. You will get more pleasure using a regular reel. Plan on investing about $120 to get started.

Some think that fly fishing is for trout only. You can catch almost any fish. Fly fishing is great for bluegill or bass on lakes.

Some might think that small hooks(around 1/2" long) will not attract a large fish. I've caught some very large bass on this small of a hook. You don't need a hook the size of some of those large spinner baits to catch the big ones. However, if your fishing strictly for large bass such a small hook will attract unwanted smaller fish.

If you really want to learn how to get started go to this web site Fly Fishing-Beginners Guide. This is where I picked most of my info on starting this great method of catching fish.

The other thing you'll need a lot of is patience!

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