All about fly-fishing
GETTING STARTED IN FLY-FISHING
Fly-fishing is a true art form and it is the true art of angling, no brute strength, no heavy equipment. Win Free Fishing Tackle Click here
Fly fishing is not unlike golf, once you start you cannot stop, it is a passion, a calling, even a spiritual experience.
I was hooked the first time I started delving into entomology and the beautiful art
of fly tying, and you realise how complicated it all can get when some outlets say they have some 35,000 flies in stock, and more than a thousand patterns. This reinforces the need
to understand nature and truly "hunt" the species you are fishing for, what is really great is so many beautiful fish are released. Every thing from the rods and the reels, the lines, the various knots, all contribute to the finesse required. Cabela's Holiday '04 GIFTS UNDER $50
Fly fishermen also get to visit the most beautiful wilderness areas and isolated areas, and to truly communicate with nature. Every fly fisherman has that special river, stream or lake somewhere.
Getting the right gear to suit you is important, and you must look for a balanced fly-fishing outfit. This means that the rod, the reel and the line are compatible
This is started with the right line for the intended fishing, then you match it up with the right rod and lastly the right reel.
What makes fly fishing different? Well no smelly baits such as worms and maggots for a start. A fly is used, and the fly is a hand crafted imitation of a bug that is
made from feathers, fur, cloth, foam, leather etc to imitate the real thing and like its cousins lures the fish.
The fly has to be real enough to mimic it's live double in nature and fool the fish into eating it. The fly has many appearances ranging the
complete culinary range of fish, from grasshopper to crayfish, from mayfly to midge or whatever the fish local delicacy happens to be. The
serious fly fisherman studies entomology and fish feeding behaviours. The fly is very light weight so casting it to the fish is one of the true arts of
fly fishing. The trick is to make it settle on the water so lightly as to be like the real thing
I buy some fly fishing magazines just to look at the pictures (hold the jokes) of the carefully crafted flies tied to hooks. They are truly works of artistic beauty.
Now where to start your fly-fishing journey. Click on the various fly-fishing links below for pages of useful information
THE FLY-FISHING LINE
First you start with the fly-fishing line and build everything else around it.
CLICK HERE FOR GOOD INFORMATION ON FLY FISHING LINES. ALL YOU NEED TO KNOW
THE FLY-FISHING ROD
Then you look for a fly-fishing rod
CONFIDENCE IN FLY-FISHING Author: Cameron Larsen
For those of you who, like me, have memories of fishing that pre-date memories of school, think back to as many fishing partners and trips as you can. Even those people you only went fishing with once. Then try to recall times where the success or failure of a fly fisherman seemed to lie strictly on the fly
fisherman’s confidence. If you think about it in these terms, I bet you can remember numerous times, when an angler’s, confidence or lack thereof, either doomed them or buoyed then until they started catching fish. At times the success of a confident fly fishing angler can be attributed to persistence. An angler, confident in their abilities is just going to fish longer when things don’t start hopping right away. But other days when all things are equal, the fisherman with the most confidence often catches the most fish. Cabela's Holiday '04 GIFTS UNDER $50
Three quick stories come to mind illustrate this. First off let me say there have been plenty of times when I have been on both
sides of the confidence equation. A few years ago, I was steelheading with a couple of fly fishing buddies. Unlike me, though there guys weren’t purists. And we were using terminal gear. Although were just dead-drifting jigs, very similar to fly fishing, I felt about as coordinated as a monkey performing brain surgery. As the day wore on more and more steelies were caught. Huge steelies, the biggest I had ever seen! None by me. I could feel my confidence shrinking. And I mean my confidence
in all kinds of things, like being able to read the river, being able to detect a strike. Things that had no connection to me
using unfamiliar gear. The pressure inside my head built, until I HAD to catch a fish. I didn’t catch one fish that day,
although I finally had a strike, and set the hook so hard I jerked it right out of the fish’s mouth. And I fished longer and
harder than anyone else on the trip.
Another story is almost reverse. Here in Maupin, the Deschutes River fills with fly fisherman every May and early June for the
Giant Salmonfly hatch. It is a carnival of fly fishing. One year I was drifting with a couple of accomplished angler’s, who were
nevertheless apprehensive about fishing such a well-known hatch, A hatch documented throughout fly fishing literature. With
crowds of angler’s as spectators to one another. Despite all the drift boats and bank angler’s I know a spot or two constantly
overlooked and are rarely fished. I set both guys up with the exact rigging I use. Put them in the best two spots and made
lunch, while they flogged the water to no avail. Despite their long fishing experience they were unaccustomed to the big water
and the feeling of being in a spotlight, and seemed to do every action with uncertainty. After lunch I nailed numerous trout
with virtually no effort. Pointed out fish lying behind rocks and caught them. It was a display they still talk about some
years later.
Another day I was fishing alone, in water I know like the palm of my hand. And was getting skunked. Fishing all my usual water,
using all my usual techniques I couldn’t even get a strike. Yet I knew I could and did catch fish in this spot, lots of fish. I
kept at it, until I heard a fish jump behind me, in a riffle I hadn’t fished in years. I turned around and cast right at the head of the riffle, and nailed what was to be the first of many beautiful trout I caught that day.
If I hadn’t been confident in my abilities, and in the water holding fish, I would have stopped long before. That was an instance where confidence led to perseverance. But the other two days, it seemed to be confidence only, that led to more fish
being landed. Maybe there was something subtle in the presentation of the confident angler, something that can’t be
taught. Like the way some quarterbacks always seem to win. Or maybe like in other endeavors confident people just seem to do
better. At any rate the only way I know of to develop confidence is through repeated success. And in fishing the only way to
catch fish is to do more fishing.
If you are thinking this is all a stretch, I bet you can come up with very similar stories that have happened to you. Especially
if like me, you have been fishing since you had a Leave it to Beaver lunch box. Give yourself the possibility that confidence
in your fishing ability does play a role, in your catch rate. And the end result will be you spend more time fishing. And if
that is the end result of you reading this article, then it was time well spent. Now let’s go out there and build up our fly
fishing confidence!
About the author:
Cameron Larsen has been a life long fly fisherman and has worked in several capacities in the fly fishing industry. Now he operates The Big Y Fly Company. www.bigyflyco.com
CLICK HERE FOR GOOD FLY-FISHING INFORMATION ON FLY FISHING RODS. ALL YOU NEED TO KNOW
THE FLY-FISHING REEL
Then you select a fly-fishing reel
CLICK HERE FOR GOOD INFORMATION ON FLY FISHING REEL. ALL YOU NEED TO KNOW
Are you thinking about using a kayak to go fly-fishing. If so then this site is for you. The Kayaking Journal Your online source for kayaking tips and information, places to paddle, equipment reviews, fishing, outfitting, and a whole lot more!
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