TROUT Trout are cold-water gamefish that inhabit streams, lakes and rivers. Anglers target both native populations and hatchery-reared fish that are released by fisheries managers ... Read More View All Trout Tips

 

Simply put, fly fishing is fun: like a three-dimensional chess game, you can go as far as you want intellectually with the sport. Or, you can enjoy it for what it is, a great excuse to be on the water, testing your skills and besting a fish once in a while.

I’ll start by dispelling some of the misconceptions about the sport’s complexity, expense, technicality, and the people who love it. If you’re up for it, here are the first of many tips I’ll offer to get you started, most of which aren’t found in any book:

1. Start with a book. I know, it’s bad form to suggest you go elsewhere for more help, but a good idea. The book I recommend is a comic book: “Curtis Creek Manifesto,” by Sheridan Anderson, published by Frank Amato Publications. The basics are laid out in graphic form. I hand them out like business cards.

2. Take a lesson. Don’t do what I did; reading tons of esoteric instruction material purporting to explain the physics of casting, entomology, and hydrology, then spend your first year fishless. Find a local expert or class and suck up the expertise like a dry sponge.

3. Keep it simple, part one: All you really need is a rod, line, leader, reel and a few flies. And you can get most of that in a decent package for under $200. I still use my “entry-level” gear quite often, and it should last a lifetime.

4. Keep it simple, part two: Learn the roll cast first, and well. Then learn to cast a short, tight-looped line by watching it unfurl behind you. Wear out the first twenty feet of line, and you’ll catch more fish than those who want to look like Brad Pitt in “A River Runs Through It.”

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