A Complete Guide to Fly Fishing for Beginners

In order to be good in fly fishing you need training, some knowledge and a lot of patience. Fly fishing is much more than casting and catching with a rod. To master it you will need a dose of patience, a lot of practice and some basic knowledge. In this guide of fly fishing for beginners we have covered the tools you need and some tips and tricks.

Fly Fishing for Beginners Guide:

Before getting into this guide you need to know that we are not going to fish taking advantage of the weight of our lure, but with the whip effect of our line. This means that we can launch with very little weight. On the other hand, we can also launch heavier flies or streamers.

Put all your attention, stealth, precision, knowledge and your acquired skills. Fly fishing is like this, a bad cast, one more step, a bad presentation will make you lose the precious fish. And that's why if you try it, you will never drop a fly rod. Of course, without the right knowledge and good advice, it can get little annoying.

Knowing the casting technique, parts of our team and how each one of them works will be essential in the beginning.

Necessary Gears for Fly Fishing:

This material is very different from conventional fishing equipment. As I have already told you that we will not fish with the weight of the lure, but with the whip effect. This means that our rods will be softer and the lines are much thicker.

The Rod

They range between 6 and 11 feet, that is, between 1.80 and 3.30. Depending on the place we want to fish, we will prefer more contained or longer rods. In narrow channels a long rod will make it difficult for us to cast, while a short one we will handle much better. We find them in one section or up to 5 sections for better transportation.

The new fly-fishing rods are made of fiberglass. This material gives them the elastic factor that we need to be able to launch.

We find 3 types of rods:

Fast or pointed action: These are the rods for fishing in windy conditions and over long distances, on the other hand they do not help a delicate presentation.

Rods media or semi - parabolic action: We advise you to start with this, since they have a balance between distance and fairly balanced presentation.

Parabolic or slow action: Finally, they are rods in which the distance is more limited and in windy conditions the cast is more complicated, its best virtue is the presentation, delicate and subtle for those suspicious fish and with fishing pressure. Check our detailed guide on types of fishing rod here. 

Fly Fishing Reels

Here the types of fish that we want to fish will depend a lot, if we are looking for fly catfish, we will need the reel with the greatest possible brake. If what we want is to fish trout, we will look for small reels without the need for a brake.

In the market there are countless models, prices and tastes. Machined aluminum reels are the most expensive and I recommend the most. But you don't need to start with reels of that caliber. There are more basic models that also fulfill their function. Here you can check our guide on fly fishing reels.

How to Fly Fish

DRY FLY

Dry fly fishing is an art worth framing, if you manage to master it will catch you for life. The cast has to be perfect, subtle and as accurate as possible, then comes the dive ... And what a mince ... the fish emerges and takes the fly delicately. An emotion difficult to express in words.

This modality consists of fishing with floating flies or semi-drowned flies, imitating small insects that fall on the surface of the water.

Dry fly fishing has always been related to trout fishing although, in my opinion, carps and barbels are species that bite really well with dry ones. That is why choosing an equipment for this technique will not be an easy task since it is not the same to look for one type of fish or another.

Trout require a very subtle deception drop and this is why we will be using # 4-line equipment at most. With barbels and carps, things get more interesting, in this case we must take into account the size of fish we want to look for. I usually use equipment of # 9 to fish in places like the Ebro river, where there are very large carps and barbels and equipment of # 6 when I consider that such large specimens do not inhabit.

This technique requires going much deeper into it, so we will write about it in another post later.

Fishing with Streamers

One of my favorites since very close to home I have several reservoirs with a lot of pike, and pikes love streamers.

Streamers are larger imitations (usually) than previous ones imitating all kinds of creatures. Widely used for fly fishing in the sea, large trout in lakes, pike and black bass.

My experience tells me that in highly exploited scenarios, fish are much less reluctant to this type of lure. I do not know if it is due to being little noisy, its slow and fluid fall or its natural movement but the fish bite much better.

When and Where?

This is a fundamental aspect ... we can do everything well, but if we don't do it at the right time and / or place, we will get terrible results. As in any form of fishing, in this more if possible due to the limitation of the amount of water to cover, one of the most important aspects is to locate where and when the fish are feeding.

When?

If we talk about sea bass from shore, but also other predatory species, such as pollock, serranids or triggerfish, the months of spring and summer should be our priority objective to try, coinciding with the approach of their prey to land, the rise of the water temperature and increased activity derived.

want to have a very good opportunity to catch fly bass very close to the shore, especially in summer, the first light of day they are decisive. It is at this moment when, with luck, you will be able to see entire schools of minnows jump on the same shore while groups of 4 or 5 sea bass corner them and attack them repeatedly, even taking their back out of the water. Last summer I had the opportunity to experience one of these days and it is something incredible.

Where?

The sea is such a large body of water that it is normal to wonder where to start. The easy answer would be: "Start in all those places where you are sure you can have bass less than 30m from your position. " It seems logical to think that the more water we can cover with our fly, the more opportunities we will have to achieve a catch. Taking it to the next level, it makes perfect sense to conclude that the more water, containing bass, we can cover, the more successful we will be.

Final Words:

If you have endured and are reading this point, it is clear that the subject interests you. Try it ... go ahead, investigate, ask. If you have never fished with a heavy line, I assure you that doing so will connect you with nature in a way that no other technique can. Happy Fishing!