fist time fishing today...not as easy as it looks...

[BigRedChevy11]

Okay so I ended up going to cabelas today just to check some stuff out and came home with my first fly rod. I originally was looking for a 7wt but for some reason I had better luck casting the 8. I narrowed it down to the st croix imperial and the sage vxp. ...I know, 2 way different rods. They felt to me about the same and to be honest the imperial felt a little smoother. I bought the imperial I couldn't see the 200 bucks extra for the sage. Although it does look allot more sexy with the green.

For reels I ended up buying sage 3280 and other than being made in Korea if feels pretty smooth. I like the way the drag is all enclosed within the housing.

RIO Perception WF8F line. I like how it is 3 colors it makes it easy knowing how much is out.

So hears the question.
Is it normal to be completely awful your first time fishing lol?

I can cast well in the yard but as soon as a tie a bug on it goes south.

I wacked myself 3x beat the fly off my rod a few times. Constantly short casting. And every 8 inches I know have a knot in my leader up until where my line starts.

With no fly on it I can cast well (or at least I think..)

Cabelas said I have 90 days to decide if what I bought is what I want. Im not entirely convinced its an equipment problem
Also I whipped off a nice leech fly into the big D if anyone happend to find one washed up lol

Any tips or tricks appreciated.

 

[FishInPhilly]

I did everything you described my first time out. lost flies by not pausing on the back cast, knotted the living hell out of my leader, casting half the distance i intended etc. I went out today for my second trip with the fly rod and was much better, but still need ALOT of work. Reading about it and applying it is half the work. muscle memory works into it I believe. if it was easy i think everyone would do it, the challenge is what makes it interesting to me.

In my yard, practice casting, im much more at east (and dont have to worry about trees and bushes haha) once you have the motions associated with muscle memories on the stream youll calm down a bit. my best casts are the ones that feel most fluid. Hang in there!!

 

[BigRedChevy11]

Yea I notice when I slow way down It goes much smoother. If I could keep the hook away from my face that would be a big improvement.

Did you find out why your leader was knotting up or did it just stop happening once you got the hang of it?

I think ill be using mono for a little until I can get the moves down right. Better than paying 10 bucks a trip in leader cost lol.

 

[FishInPhilly]

it knots up from wacky rod movement and not bringing the rod to a stop at the end of the back cast, and at the end of the forward cast. straight wrist. I believe they call it a tailing loop? if youre not using commercially made leaders, dont just use straight leader, the tapered leader helps for a straighter presentation. make your own tapered leaders i guess? a big help for me was this...

http://howtoflyfish.orvis.com/video-lessons/chapter-one-the-basics-of-fly-fishing/223-fly-fishing-basics-introduction

i watched alll of that. has alot of good info.

 

[troutbert]

BigRedChevy11 wrote:

So hears the question.
Is it normal to be completely awful your first time fishing lol?

Yes.

It's the same with shooting basketballs, skiing, golf, tennis...

There are some skills to be learned.

 

[Murph]

I practiced casting in the yard for weeks before taking my rod to water. Watch a few casting videos on YouTube then go in your yard and do exactly what you saw them do. I probably break a lot of rules but I can usually hit where I'm aiming and I haven't had knots recently. When you get to water there are a lot of obstacles to work around and it's nice to focus on those rather the actual mechanics of your cast.

 

[BigRedChevy11]

Yea. I know I plan to spend more time in the yard. I was just anxious to dip my worm I guess.

Does anybody know If the length of the leader makes a difference with casting? Mine are 9' taper down to 14 lb.

I think I am going to buy some small dry flies and work my way up to the 5" streamers. What are good patterns for bass in moving water? I went to the fly shop and holy cow there is 1000s of choices!

 

[afishinado]

BigRedChevy11 wrote:
Yea. I know I plan to spend more time in the yard. I was just anxious to dip my worm I guess.

Does anybody know If the length of the leader makes a difference with casting? Mine are 9' taper down to 14 lb.

I think I am going to buy some small dry flies and work my way up to the 5" streamers. What are good patterns for bass in moving water? I went to the fly shop and holy cow there is 1000s of choices!

A shorter leader is easier to cast most times. Keep the leader as long as or a little shorter than the length of the rod.

That 8wt should serve you well in the D River. Keep at it and keep practicing.

 

[BigRedChevy11]

Thanks. Is there any advantage to using tipit after a leader other than being harder to see? I use it on my spinning rods sometimes to make my lures seem more natural but is it something that will make it more difficult to cast while I am learning? Right now catching a fish would be a big bonus I would rather just spend my time learning the way of the land before actually pursue fish.

 

[sarce]

Not sure if the D has a white fly hatch but if so, a big White Wulff is a good dry fly for bass. That hatch occurs later in the summer. They will also take caddis flies when those are hatching. Large Stonefly nymphs are another good bass fly that are smaller than the streamers- however you may find nymphing a big river like that to be difficult to pick up.

If you're having the fly come back at face level, that sounds like a "tailing loop" as fishinphilly mentioned. I would guess it is being caused by not pausing long enough to let the line unfurl between casting strokes. Also if you hear a sound like a whip cracking behind you when you go from your back cast to your forward cast- that is also caused by not pausing long enough.

And don't worry, it is completely normal to be "awful" at first. Your instinct will be to just whip the rod back and forth harder to try and cast better. You have to break this instinct and focus on mechanics, also it takes a while to get a feel for how much effort you need to do and how to let the rod do a lot of work for you. It takes time but is extremely rewarding!

Coming here to ask questions is one of the best things to do. Pretty soon the motion will just "click" and you'll be on your way to catching some monster Delaware river bass!

EDIT: another possibility is that your timing is fine but you are stopping the rod tip too low either behind or in front of you, possibly by way of using your wrist too much. With lighter gear that you would typically use on smaller water where you dont have to cast as far, sometimes you can get away with this and catch a fish or two. Not with an 8 wt though. This is a common mistake, just think of the rod as an extension of your forearm.

Hope this helps and if you focus on correcting one small problem at a time, you'll improve really fast.

 

[BigRedChevy11]

Thanks sarce. all good advise. I did hear allot if the whips when I first started. After I slowed down and focused on loading the rod it seemed to help.

Ill look into those flies you mentioned. My 8wt has no problem pickin bugs out of the water. So far that seems to be the one thing I dont have trouble with.

Practice is all I need. A bad day fishin is still better than a good day at work.

 

[sarce]

I did hear allot if the whips when I first started. After I slowed down and focused on loading the rod it seemed to help.

If you were able to make that adjustment already on your own, that's a huge step forward already! Loading the rod and understanding how that works is critical.

A bad day fishin is still better than a good day at work.

Damn right it is

 

[pcray1231]

A long or light tippet hurts your casting, but helps with fish catching (to the extent that you can cast it).

Remember that a store bought tapered leader comes with a tippet on it. So if you bought a 5x leader, do not add 5x tippet to it, it's already got it. But every time you break off a fish, tie on a new fly, etc., you lose a little tippet. After you lose "too much", then you replace it with the tippet you bought. Or if you want to change tippet size, snip back a foot or 3 and replace.

Yes, you need a tippet. But as a beginner, I'd keep it on the thick and short side of optimal until you're comfortable with what you're doing. With streamers it don't much matter. With nymphs and dries, the advantage of a tippet is helping with drag free drifts. So when you get to the point where you're consistently putting the fly where you want it, but having drag problems, that's when you know you're ready to go longer and lighter on the tippet.

As a rule of thumb, "optimal" tippet size is fly size/4 + 1. So a size 8 fly would be 3x, a size 12 would be 4x, 16 would be 5x, etc. Tweener sizes you can go either way. As a beginner, again, go larger than optimal for easier casting.

And yeah, you're doing fine. I was a bait guy all my life. I caught 1 fish (and missed about 50) on my first outing with a fly. After that, I didn't catch another until my 10th outing. I now catch more with a fly rod than I could do with a spinning rod and bait. It's a steep learning curve but the ceiling is higher.

 

[BigRedChevy11]

I did some more yard casting today after work. Im getting better I found my sweet spot is around 40 feet. I have a stump about that far away I can aim at in my yard. Longer or shorter than 40 my aim is off to one side or another but I was watching my rod tip during the casts and I notice my tip wobbles when I pause between forward and backward casts. If I watch folks on youtube it looks like they have an even flow back and forth without the wobble...

If I shorten my pause I get the whip crack and when I lengthen it my line falls lower than it should and its hard to bring it back the other way.

Any ideas?

 

[goodfortune]

BigRedChevy11 wrote:
I think I am going to buy some small dry flies and work my way up to the 5" streamers. What are good patterns for bass in moving water? I went to the fly shop and holy cow there is 1000s of choices!

Welcome to the PAFF boards and to the wonderful world of fly-fishing!

Keep your fly selection simple...remember most flies are designed to catch fishermen instead of fish. For smallmouth, I’d recommend:

- Whooly Buggers #6, black, or black tail/olive body
- Popper – Any color; Black or Chartreuse are good
- “Dry-dropper” using a grasshopper dry fly (i.e. – “hopper”) #8, and a #12 hares ear nymph.

I liked to swing my Buggers, sometimes adding short strips after long pauses-enough to keep the fly from hanging bottom. Try the poppers either early morning, or in the evening. You don’t usually have to do much to them; most of my popper smallies came on dead drifts. Finally, if the first two aren’t working, and if the water is low and clear, try the dry dropper set-up.

Have fun! There’s definitely a learning curve for fly fishing, but keep at it. Ask around to see if there are any PAFF members in your area. Spending time with and around them will help lots. Good luck!

 

[pcray1231]

First, on shorter casts the pause is shorter. On longer casts, its longer.

Second, don't be afraid to add power. A lot of beginners I think are hesitant, and translate that into too soft a back and forward cast. The adage is to " accelerate to a stop". But try it with different power levels. Adjust timing as needed. You should be doing the forward stroke as you feel the backstroke pulling at its hardest.

 

[troutbert]

Get someone to show you how to cast.

It can make such a big difference in how fast and how well you learn to cast.

 

[sarce]

What TB said. The internet can only help so much.

I've spent a fair amount of time trying to teach casting, and learned that I'm not a natural teacher. I can ID the problem, but can't always explain the solution in a way that makes sense to others. So hopefully, I am not confusing you more! But I'll take a stab at it.

What pcray said is important- you have to try casting with force in order to feel the rod loading.

The line falling back too far when you try a longer pause could be from dropping the rod tip too low behind you. Or you could just waiting too long, in which case you just have to practice and find that sweet spot.

The "wobblyness" sounds like too much wrist action. Pretend the butt of the rod is zip-tied firmly against your wrist and try casting that way- you should feel a lot more power. I should note that your wrist will naturally want to roll/flex as you cast- that's fine, but if there is too much flex you will lose both power and accuracy.

40 feet is a good distance. If you practice accuracy and presentation up to that distance, you will catch PLENTY of fish! Once you get really comfortable at that distance, that's when it's time to work on longer casts.

 

[bigslackwater]

I'm not sure how you are casting exactly but I notice a lot of beginners want to overhead cast too much. The problem is that here in PA most of our creeks have trees and obstructions. I use an overhead cast about 5% of the time (when I get an opening). the other 95% of the time I'm doing a sidearm cast, at a 45 degee angle or lower. Practice this at home in the grass. You'll have to learn to keep it from dragging... grass is real good at letting you know if your fly is grazing the ground! Good luck!

 

[BigRedChevy11]

I typically do a 45' cast as well. Most of where I plan to fish for now it wouldnt matter but it feels better anyway. Currently I dont tie anything on my leader when im in the yard. (For safety reasons lol) I do watch my loops and try to keep them as far up as I can.