A
a23fish
Active member
- Joined
- Jan 9, 2021
- Messages
- 207
Today I got the opportunity to make my first fly fishing casts, with my first fly rod. I have a lot to learn, basically everything.
My wife bought me an Orvis Encounter combo setup as a Christmas present. I had been doing a bit of research for a friend of mine who hasn't fished in a while and said he was interested in fly fishing, so I cobbled together a list of 4 fly rod combos for beginners, based on extensive Internet research. Turns out, my wife thought I should have one too.
The rod is a 9' 5 wt, and came with the matched reel, backer line, 5 wt weight forward fly line, and 9' tapered 4x leader. After visiting my local Orvis dealer, I walked out with a very modest selection of nymphs, a couple Wooly Buggers, and a San Juan worm or two. I previously encountered a gentleman fishing a Tenkara style technique with his own tied nymphs at a local lake, and was intrigued by that, so that's how I started. With his tips and gentle suggestions, I in fact managed to get that little nymph thing out in the water, sometimes even where I intended it to go. I was using individual bubbles or clusters of foam from an inflow as my casting targets. I was happy if I got the fly within 1'-2' of my target.
I didn't catch any fish, but I was happy. My sole intent was to get the thing put together, begin making some short casts, and get some flies in the water. I was getting comfortable after about one hour of practice. Granted, I was basically casting a fixed length of line a short distance, but Hey, I was fly fishing. This is totally alien to me, since my only previous trout fishing experience has been with a spinning rod, and even that has been relatively limited. After 30 years or so of using spinning rods and baitcasters exclusively, mostly bass fishing, this fly rod thing is a challenge.
But, I'm looking forward to learning a new way of fishing. Without going off the deep end.
I'm sure I'll have more questions, and look forward to reading more on this forum.
My wife bought me an Orvis Encounter combo setup as a Christmas present. I had been doing a bit of research for a friend of mine who hasn't fished in a while and said he was interested in fly fishing, so I cobbled together a list of 4 fly rod combos for beginners, based on extensive Internet research. Turns out, my wife thought I should have one too.
The rod is a 9' 5 wt, and came with the matched reel, backer line, 5 wt weight forward fly line, and 9' tapered 4x leader. After visiting my local Orvis dealer, I walked out with a very modest selection of nymphs, a couple Wooly Buggers, and a San Juan worm or two. I previously encountered a gentleman fishing a Tenkara style technique with his own tied nymphs at a local lake, and was intrigued by that, so that's how I started. With his tips and gentle suggestions, I in fact managed to get that little nymph thing out in the water, sometimes even where I intended it to go. I was using individual bubbles or clusters of foam from an inflow as my casting targets. I was happy if I got the fly within 1'-2' of my target.
I didn't catch any fish, but I was happy. My sole intent was to get the thing put together, begin making some short casts, and get some flies in the water. I was getting comfortable after about one hour of practice. Granted, I was basically casting a fixed length of line a short distance, but Hey, I was fly fishing. This is totally alien to me, since my only previous trout fishing experience has been with a spinning rod, and even that has been relatively limited. After 30 years or so of using spinning rods and baitcasters exclusively, mostly bass fishing, this fly rod thing is a challenge.
But, I'm looking forward to learning a new way of fishing. Without going off the deep end.
I'm sure I'll have more questions, and look forward to reading more on this forum.