How to Fly Fish: A Beginner’s Guide

Rocks or fallen tree branches can create eddies that fish like to sit behind waiting for insects and smaller fish to drift past. Fast moving water will naturally slow down as it moves to fill deeper sections of a river or lake and fish will wait there for the food. If you’re just starting out, if you recently began to have an interest in the sport of fly fishing, or even if you’ve never heard of what fly fishing is, then hopefully this article will help you.

He was the first to describe salmon fishing in Scotland, and both in that and trout-fishing with artificial fly he was a practical angler. He was the first angler to name the burbot, and commended the salmon of the River Thames. Artificial flies are made by fastening hair, fur, feathers, or other materials, both natural and synthetic, onto a hook. The first flies were tied with natural materials, but synthetic materials are now popular and prevalent. Flies are tied in sizes, colors and patterns to match local terrestrial and aquatic insects, bait-fish, or other prey attractive to the target fish species. A right-handed tier will mount the hook in the vise with the eye to the right and the bent hook to the left.

Fishing in cold water

The book was mostly about the aquatic insects—mayflies, caddisflies and stoneflies—that trout and grayling feed on and their counterpart artificial imitations. About half the book is devoted to observations of trout, their behaviour, and the methods and techniques used to catch them. Most of this information, although enhanced by Ronalds’ experiences and observations, was merely an enhancement of Charles Bowlker’s Art of Angling . British fly-fishing continued to develop in the 19th Century, with the emergence of fly fishing clubs, along with the appearance of several books on the subject of fly tying and fly fishing techniques. Other than a few fragmented references little was written on fly fishing until The Treatyse on Fysshynge with an Angle was published within The Boke of Saint Albans attributed to Dame Juliana Berners.

Go out into empty parking lots and fields to practice your cast. It’s really hard to learn to cast with trees and bushes surrounding you . So go somewhere open where you can mess up and your line can drop without having to worry about losing a fly. Redington Classic Trout 4-Piece Fly Rod – This rod is reasonably priced and remains a lovely, nice-casting model for beginners and veterans alike.

fly fishing

However, each of these anglers has put their mark on the sport, either historically or by being at the top of the ranks today. By that same token while Colorado’s Animas River brown trout are an anglers bucket list item, a beginner can score their trophy panfish in a local pond. Sunfish, especially during their spawn, are easy to spot on their beds and make excellent targets for distance casting. Fly fishing is as much an art as it is a science and watching a good fly angler go to it is mesmerising – just as watching a bad one can be quite hilarious.