Fly Fishing for Beginners: What Fly do I use

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Fly Fishing for Beginners
Fly Fishing Guide Book
Fly Fishing From Scratch

Selecting flies can be a difficult task. With the thousands of different patterns in existence, and the dozens of different patterns that may be in your fly box now it can be overwhelming. When your on the river and your first and second choice flies just aren’t working there may be a few things to consider.

Are you matching the hatch

Fish like to eat food that their used to. If they see something that is even remotely close to the food that they eat on a regular basis, then chances are you’ll get a bite or two. However, the more realistic it is, the more bites you’ll get. I’m not telling you to go out and buy a fly that is the exact replica, but you need to match color, size, and general shape (wings, body, tail) in order to bring more bites.

To match these food sources you’ll need something to match.

• If you already know what they are feeding on then great, but if not…
• try looking around and under rocks for food sources.
• Think of the bait fish that are in the water, and try to match a general size.
• Look for flies that are buzzing the top of the water and try to match one.
• If you see a fly on the top of the water and a fish takes it, then use this fly over all others. This will get you results because your sure that at least some fish are eating these flies.

If matching doesn’t work improvise

Try looking for bugs and insects that are around the water match them. If this doesn’t work, then it comes time to improvise. Try thinking of what the fish you’re trying to catch eats on a regular basis. This is a list of some of the more common aspects in flies that bass, trout and pike eat.

Bass

• Like bright colors in the spring time when the water is murky or on cloudy days, and darker colors on the brighter days.
• Worm and fish imitating lures work great for these fish if you’re wanting to fish a wet fly. Flashy, fish-like lures work great at all times of the season.
• Poppers and oter top water lures that make a lot of disturbance also work great for these fish.

Trout

• Trout love flying insects and their nymphs. They also like worm like insects. Some of the wet flies I like to use are prince nymphs, wooly buggers, san juan worms, copper johns, muddler minnows, and caddis fly imitators.
• When it comes to dry flies places vary greatly for trout. Some of the flies I like to use are wolfs, humpys, hoppers, addams, and mosquitoes.
• In most cases nymphs and dry flies with a small amount of flashy colors will attract fish more. Don’t shy away from using pinks, purples, oranges, reds, and flashy tinsels or flashy bead heads just because thry aren’t the right color. These flies work great in my experience because they stand out.

Pike

• Pike love large flies that imitate fish, frogs and even mice. These flies make a lot of noise on the surface and the fish are usually brightly colored.
• Using large, flashy flies under the surface will increase your odds, but on bright days I find large, dark colored flies work the best.
• If you’re fishing top water use large flies that make a lot of ripples and make some noise. Pike are attracted to movement and noise, so these flies should work well.
• Some of the flies I like to use for pike are perch, sun fish and white colored fish-like streamers, frog and mice top water flies, and large poppers of any color with long tails coming off the back.
  Fly Fishing for Beginners
  Fly Fishing Guide Book
  Fly Fishing From Scratch

Fly fishing for Beginners: Presenting the Fly on slow moving water bodies

A long name for this post, but a fairly short post today. Today I will be dealing with the presentation of a fly on the slower moving bodies of water, and the tips and tricks you can use to catch more fish with this method.

If this article isn’t quite what your looking for you can always go the the available links below and learn a whole lot more about fly fishing. These sites contain a whole lot of information on how to fly fish… And yes, some are E-books and cost money, but I assure you they are worth the money.

Fly Fishing for Beginners
Fly Fishing Guide Book
Fly Fishing From Scratch

Anyways… When it comes to fishing the slower waters on well established, slow moving rivers and lakes there are only a couple of tips that I can offer you, simply because these waters differ from one another so greatly.

The first tip I have is finding out croppings and vegetation were the fish will most likely be. Most fish will hold to some type of cover, weather it be a rocky point, or thick vegetation. They will do this for several reasons, to hide, to hunt, etc., but they also will venture out of that comfort zone for food. They never move to far away from these covers though, so find them and fish them.

Once you find these areas you need to get your fly placement at the level in which the fish are feeding. This can vary greatly, and the only way to figure it out is by testing with the different levels. The easiest way to discover were their feeding is if you see them jumping. That would be top water, and fish accordingly. However, if their not rising, then you need to go down with a wet fly. Experiment with different depths by moving your indicator up and down if you are using one, or if you are stripping line, let your fly sit for different periods of time before stripping it in.

If you are using an indicator, let the fly sit. No movement is necessary when fishing this way on slow moving waters. The small, choppy waves will bounce your fly up and down, and attract fish far better than any other method.

I hope this post was helpful to you, but if you still need something more try these sites. They offer free information, and if you decide to go for the e-books, they offer a far more extensive breakdown of the things I’m talking about here, with a lot more tips for catching big fish.

Fly Fishing for Beginners
Fly Fishing Guide Book
Fly Fishing From Scratch

Fly fishing for Beginners: Presenting the Fly on rivers and streams

If this article isn’t quite what your looking for find more extensive information on these web sites.

Fly Fishing for Beginners
Fly Fishing Guide Book
Fly Fishing From Scratch

With the casting out of the way we will move on in this five part beginners fly fishing post. This Post will be dealing with, you guessed it, presenting your fly to potential clients on your bragging board…. Or just presenting your fly to fish, whichever you prefer.

When Presenting a fly there are many different methods. Some think that this is one of the easier parts to learn when fly fishing, after all “all you got to do is get the fly in the water” right. That is true to a point, and you will catch fish by doing this. However, if you want to increase your odds in this sport and become a true fly fishing master, or if you just want to catch more fish, then there’s a lot to learn when it comes to presenting your fly.

Presenting a fly in basic terms means to mimic a form of food that these fish eat close enough so that they think they are eating that insect when they take your fly. This can be done in many ways, and works best when your mimicking what is happening in the water around you. Selection of a particular fly these fish are eating at the time, or would be most interested in eating is key to bringing the most fish to your net.

The first thing that should be known when presenting bait is to know what level of water the fish are biting at, weather it be top, mid water, or bottom feeding. Keep in mind that fish, especially trout feed at all levels, however some of the larger fish prefer feeding under the surface unless you find a top water fly they just can’t resist. You must be able to act accordingly to were these fish are feeding by fishing, dry flies, shallow wet flies, sinker wet flies that sink to the bottom of water bodies, or some were in between.

When it comes to wet fly fishing there are several things you must act on in order to have the best day fishing.

1. Find out the level at which the fish are feeding and move your fly to that level by means of a small sinker, or applying fly sink to your wet fly. You can also use sinking line for this.
2. Use the correct size, color, and species of insect the fish are feeding on.
3. Use the correct movement for that fly. If it should be swimming in the water then strip it. If your fly should not be moving and should be drifting with the current, then you must use proper line control by casting up river and taking up slack while keeping the line closest to you out of the current, or using a bounce cast to create slack in your line. Keep in mind that too much slack may keep you from hooking fish.
4. And finally, use the eddies, lines and breaks in the water. Casting in these strategic locations will allow you to catch more fish, and always fish the canges in water closest to you first so you don’t scare potential bites.

When fishing a hatch there are a few things to consider.

1. Using a dry fly is not always the best way to catch fish during a hatch. Sometimes a foam emerger with a nymph below it works great during these hatches. During a hatch I almost always use two flies when I’m allowed, just make sure your fishing regulations allow it. Fishing two different variations of the hatch, like a dry and nymph, dry and emerger, etc., will almost always get you honed in on the fish faster.
2. Try to stick with the same size of those flies in the hatch. If your fly is too small, the fish will not notice it as much because they are going after bigger flies, and if it’s too big the fish might notice something’s not right and shy away from your fly. If you don’t have a close size, it’s almost always better to go a little bigger than a little smaller.\
3. Use the same color as the hatch. half of the flies tied today are just sugestors, and don’t actually imitate an exact replica of any particular fly. This makes them useful for a variety of different hatches. Fish don’t seem to worry as much about exact shape as they do with size, texture, and color. However, if you don’t match the color, you won’t catch nearly as many fish, so this is more important than the shape of a fly.

When fishing a dry fly some of the key points are;

1. Keeping your fly floating. If your dry fly isn’t floating in an area that is calmer it will look a little odd here, but I have seen people bring in fish off a sunken dry before, just not as much. Use proper fly float, and if your fly does go under, make a sharp circular motion, with the tip of your rod, away from the fly while keeping the line tight. This will usually bring the fly back to top water, and also makes the fly look life it’s skimming the water which looks natural and may attract a fish.
2. Keep the fly from drifting against the current. Proper line control is key when fishing a dry fly. Create slack in your line with a bounce cast when casting straight across river, but keep your slack to a minimum so you can get a good hook set.
3. Fishing in areas where the water slows is the best way to catch fish off a dry fly. Fish pockets and lines were fish are feeding.

With these methods, your experience will be greater on the creeks and rivers. I hope that these tips were helpful and if you like these you should really check out these web sites.
Fly Fishing for Beginners
Fly Fishing Guide Book
Fly Fishing From Scratch

Fly Fishing For Beginners: Casting The Fly

If you are reading this post I’m guessing you’re new or inexperienced at the spot of fly fishing. I will try to be as descriptive as possibly when it comes to this post. If your still seeking help, or don’t understand what’s being said thy these inks…

Fly Fishing for Beginners
Fly Fishing Guide Book
Fly Fishing From Scratch

The first thing when it comes to casting a fly rod is being able to keep your form. During the cast you should be able to:

• Keep a proper stance for good balance… Keep yourself from falling in the water while your casting. Avoid standing on overly slanted rocks, or banks that are steep and will give way easily.
• Keep a good grip in the fly rod with your usual casting hand, or your strong hand. Your opposite hand should be free for stripping or feeding line unless your using the two hand fly casting technique.
• keep an eye on your line as it goes back and forth during a cast as a beginner. Keeping an eye on your line will prevent you from dipping it to low on the back cast (when your bringing the fly line back). As You learn to control your fly line better the use of your eyes will be less important during the cast.
• Keep your wrist bent and forearm lined up with the rod during your cast. This will keep you from dipping the fly rod to much while you cast, which will in turn keep you from snagging up on most terrain during the back cast (when the fly line comes back toward and goes behind you). It will also keep the fly line from dipping to low and hitting the water early when you bring it in front of you.
• Use shorter, quicker casting strokes between ten O’clock and tow O’clock. By keeping the majority of your fly pole between a forty five and negative forty five degree angle, or ten O’clock and tow O’clock on a standard clock, you’ll also avoid the over dropping or your line which snags on brush and pops the water while trying to cast. This greatly slows down your cast, keeping you from making farther casts, and discouraging most from trying the sport of fly fishing.
• Practice, Practice, Practice!! Practice is the best way to accelerate at any sport. And just like any sport, you don’t need to be in competition (actually fishing) to practice you fly casting. By cutting the point off of one of your fly hooks, or using an indicator for a little extra weight on the end of your fly leader, you can use your fly rod in your yard, or anywhere else that seems fit. This way you don’t have to waste your time running to the lake or river just to practice. And in your yard you can set up obstacles and targets that will help you better your casting.
  During your casts you must remember to maintain proper form.
  

On to the casting

There are several different forms of casting. The most common for of casting, the standard cast if you will, is used in the ideal settings, were there are no obstructions behind or above you to hinder your cast. This is done at a ten O’clock and two O’clock cast back and forth over your head until the line is accelerated enough to get out to were you want to lay your fly. Some tips to keep in mind, Keep your fly line in a looping pattern, with a small loop at the end of the cast until your ready to lay it on the water, except with a nymph pattern or double fly’s, in which you will want a smaller loop or no loop at all to keep from tangling up. If your line is making a snapping noise, then your loop is to wide and you must pause a little longer to keep your leader or tippet from snapping your fly off or knotting up.

In a lot of cases, the standard cast is too hard to use, and will get tangled on the brush behind you. This is were the specialized casts are used.

• For casts were the bank behind you is high a good cast to counter the inevitable tangles on the brush to your back is the steeple cast. A steeple cast ,in its simplest form, is were you bring your fly rod up as high as you can on the back cast allowing your arm to straighten out above your head. When bringing the cast forward you can relax your arm and bend it to bring the line back to the water. This will create enough of an angle that your fly line should be able to clear most brush and banks your height.
• For casts were the brush of bank is over your head a side arm cast is the best to use, as it’s easy to learn and can give you the greatest distance. This is done by tilting your rod out to a forty five degree angle over the river, lake, of stream, and casting across your body, or up and down stream, while keeping your fly rod at that same or lower angle on the river. For casting further forward when you go to lay the fly out on the water, you must stop your fly rod earlier when you release. Stopping the rod when it’s directly in front of you is the best way th get a fly in a forty five degree angle to your left or right.
• The Roll cast or barrel cast is another widely used form of casting when it comes to tight spaces. It is used in rivers and streams mostly because you use the current as your back cast. All you need to do to perform this cast is let you fly line drift down stream until the line is straight, straighten your arm, and cast the line up river in one smooth, quick motion. This can take a while to perfect, but a good tip is to stop your rod in front of you so the fly travels out into the stream more.
  
  I you'r sill looking for some good tips on how to fly fish here are some good web sites and e-books to get you started.

Fly Fishing for Beginners
Fly Fishing Guide Book
Fly Fishing From Scratch

My Fist Blog

This is my first blog on my new fishing strategy blog site. Here I will be shareing with you some of the strategies I have used for years to bring in some very nice trout, bass, and pike with a fly rod and other forms of fishing. I will start posting some of those at a later date, but for now I am just going to set up this blog site... Will get back soon.