The Basics of Fly Fishing by Gerald L. Smith

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Part I

Fly fishing is a very old and practical way of fishing, but it is made far too technical and snobby. If you want to take it up, you should be willing to fish slowly and quietly, and you should be prepared to spend as much time looking at the river as in catching fish. Fly fishing is the most over-interpreted of all angling sports and my best advice is to avoid reading the magazines and books that specialize in it--at least at first. Learn the basics, learn to fish in your own way, then read if you need to.

You need very little equipment. Resist the temptation to establish an image by buying a lot of gear. Fly fishing is about fishing with flies--tiny artificial lures that imitate stream insects--and this is where your emphasis should be. Knowledge of fish and streams is far more important than any thing else. All the rest is secondary to getting the fly to the fish. For centuries, fly fishing was basically cane-pole fishing. The rod was viewed as a very minor and insignificant element. Reels weren't used at all, and there was very little other gear. Maximum enjoyment comes in this sport with minimum equipment!

Here is my short list of what you need: flies, tippet [terminal leader] & line, rod, reel, waders, and a pair of nail clippers. At a discount or chain store you could start with a Martin or South Bend reel, $12-20; South Bend or similar rod 8 1/2' [for 6 weight line] $15-50; weight-forward, 6 weight floating fly line, $20-30; tippet material, $10; and flies, $25-35. Hippers add $25-60, or waders, $50-150. $2 will give you a twelve-compartment box to put the flies in. If you are careful, you could put together a minimal outfit with hip boots for under $150. Last fall as the stores began to discount fishing equipment for the hunting season, I put together a fly rod kit--reel, rod, line, flies--for under $50.

Instead of shopping for the components separately, my best advice is to get a starter outfit with balanced components already selected. It would be hard to go wrong with a Courtland beginner's kit with 6 weight line or an Orvis Green Mountain kit. The Courtland will run you a bit over $100; the Orvis will push you toward $200. I recommend 6-weight rod and line as the basic, most general purpose weight. It can be used for trout, bass, or pan fish.

There is a lot you don't need. You don't need a $600 rod and $400 reel. If you need to splurge, put your money into your fly line--and the best will still be under $50. You don't need a fancy vest with dozens of pockets. For years I fished out of an old hunting vest. Now although I have a big, fully loaded vest, I fish as light as possible and the vest stays in my truck. I put one fly box in my shirt pocket along with two spools of tippet. Somedays I just fish using a dozen flies stuck in a patch on the back of my hat.

Don't buy or be seen on stream with a wicker creel: those belong to a different era. Learn to fish with out a net--if you fish carefully, you won't need one--even for 4# and 5# trout. You also don't have to buy stuff that has a fly fishing label on it. Stren's new 8# Lo-Vis green monofilament makes a perfectly good butt section for attaching tippet to the fly line. In fact, if you take a bit of time to tie a few knots, you can make your own tippet from various weights of monofilament instead of buying a "fly fishing tippet."

The most important things are the flies. Here is my "fundamental four": a floating--dry fly: Adams; a sinking--wet--fly: Hare's Ear; a streamer--minnow imitation--fly: Olive and Black Wooly Bugger; and a terrestrial--"bug"--fly: Joe's Hopper. I could fish the rest of my life with these four flies. I fish most days with two of them. If you really need a few more try my second four: dry--Elk Hair Caddis [tan]; wet/nymph--StoneFly or Caddis Pupa; streamer/minnow--Muddler Minnow; and terrestrial/bug--cricket or beetle. You don't need more than these. If you buy more than these, buy different sizes rather than more kinds. I always buy my nymphs or wet flies as "weighted" because I want them to sink rather than float.

Buy the first four flies and if you must extend the list, buy the second group. But don't buy any more flies until you have caught two dozen fish. Avoid tiny flies and very large flies. The range of sizes should be #12 to #16--the flies are grouped by size in the fly shops or you can order by size from the catalog. I have caught fish on nearly every kind of fly in the catalog and on some given day any fly will take a fish--even a bare hook or a piece of aluminum foil wrapped around a bare hook. But of the hundreds of fish I have caught, more than half have been caught on a single fly and most of the rest on two or three others.

Think about this: I know of a man who has fished from Tennessee to Montana, Siberia to Alaska, Nova Scotia to Argentina. He is a master angler--and he fishes a single fly pattern world wide. One fly, an old Tennessee pattern, and he fishes this one pattern the world over. It is not a super fly--that is not the point; he is a very careful fisherman--that is the point. New anglers: note carefully!--what counts is not the fly but how you fish it.

Part II

Let's assume that you went out and bought a new fly fishing kit. Now we need to put it together and learn how to use it. If you purchased a complete package kit you will have--along with a dozen or so flies--a two-section rod, an empty reel, a coil of flyline, and a coil of leader/tippet. Let's start with the flyline. If you undo it from its package and slide your fingers along it, you will find that the line is tapered and one end is very slightly larger than the other. This is the weight forward end which makes this kind of line easier to cast. This weighted end usually has a loop on the end for attaching your leader. You want that end out front and you want to attach the other end, the narrow end, to the reel.

You can do this in two ways. You can loop the line around the reel and tie a knot. Since most flyline is 20 to 25 yards long, this would leave you plenty of line--50'to 60'-- for casting which is enough for most conditions. A second way to attach the line is to put a hundred yards of "backing"-- thin braided nylon fishing line on the reel and then attach the line. Backing costs $2-3 per spool. Backing is what you rely on if a large fish runs on you and the 20 yards of flyline is not enough. I have needed my backing only a very few times. Mostly you don't need it. If you decide to use backing, tie it on to the reel first, then tie the loose end of the backing to the small end of the fly line. When you have finished reeling the flyline onto the reel, your weighted end will be the free end.

A word or two about knots. You actually need very few. For tying on the fly, I use a simple clinch knot. The tippet end goes through the hook eye, is wrapped around itself for 5 or 6 turns and the loose end is passed back through the little gap behind the eye of the hook. Then holding this loose end, you pull on the tippet until the whole thing tightens and constricts. For making a loop I double the end of the line and tie an overhand knot which makes a simple strong loop. To attach the backing to the end of the flyline, double the end of the flyline for about 2" and then tie a hangman's noose around this end of the flyline. This knot has a technical name, but all you need is the result. To attach the backing to the reel, use a simple slip knot and make a couple of overhand knots with the loose end.

Now you need to add a section of leader to the flyline. The purpose of the leader is to reduce the weight of the line and to increase the distance between the fly and the very visible flyline. If your package contained a leader, it probably is a 9-12' "tapered" leader which begins with loop knot in 20-30# monofilament which tapers down to a very thin 4# section. If the leader did not have the loop knot, tie an overhand loop knot in the large end of this leader. To use a loop knot, place the loop over the loop of the previous section [the flyline] and then pull the opposite end of the loose line through the loop of the previous section. This will lock the two loops together. With a tapered leader you are now ready to mount the reel, thread the leader through the rod guides, and tie on a fly. It is best to do the next step outdoors.

Take the end of the leader/tippet section, thread it down the rod, and after you get to the top guide, continue to pull 15' or 20' of flyline throught the guides. Take one of your flies--one of the Hare's Ears--and crimp the hook closed or cut the point off. What you want to learn to do is to wave the line backwards and forward without the line touching the ground. Forget for now pictures you have seen, rules about rod "angles", and neat form. You want to discover how to make the rod move the line. You need to go out in the yard and PLAY with your flyrod. Do it. Everybody looks like a fool for the first couple of hours. Line will fall back through the guides, wrap around shrubs, fall in coils around your shoulders. That is ok. Keep at it, and gradually lengthen the amount of line you are waving around. Try each time to let the line smoothly straighten out behind you or ahead of you on each stroke.

Fly casting is nothing but the adaptation of this waving line to stream conditions. When you have a sense that you can control the backward and forward motion of the line, you can gently bring the fly to water by lowering the rod on the forward stroke. What you have learned here is the basic "forward" cast. There are other casts, but for now this will do. Keep practising this casting. Do it in front of the picture window so you can see yourself. As you relax and gain confidence, your style will become smooth. I have probably made hundreds of thousands of casts. I still sometimes coil line around my shoulders. Don't worry about perfect style. Enjoy what you do and do it as gently as you can.

Part III

Over the last month or so, you purchased your fly fishing kit, you practice casting out in the yard, and you are learning all you can from catalogs, magazines and Saturday morning fishing shows. I watch the TV shows too. The one I especially like and recommend is Jimmy Houston Outdoors. Jimmy knows that there is only one point to fishing: having fun. Fly fishermen should model their attitude on Jimmy Houston, not on the somber guides on most fly fishing shows.

The most important thing in any fishing but especially fly fishing, then, is attitude. You are going fishing to have fun. You don't have to be an expert. You don't have to catch trophy trout. You don't have to know all the Latin names. You don't have to impress the people. Be very careful here! The most difficult place for the fly fisherman is not the stream but the parking lot at the tail water. In the parking lot, the power of images and tradition will be almost overwhelming. You may feel like running away. Don't.

Put on your waders, stick your fly box in your shirt pocket, take your rod--unassembled!--and reel and walk down the stream for a few hundred yards. Get away from the people you think know more than you. As you walk along, look at the water. Watch for fish. Watch for birds zooming above the water. Instead of fussing about spider webs, check them for bugs. Once you are a comfortable way down the stream, sit down and put your rod together. Attach the reel and pull the leader and line through the guides. Tie on the Hare's Ear nymph.

Wade out into the water and begin to flick the fly line so that you work out 30' or 40' of line. That is all you need to work with. Remember your practice at home. Lift the rod tip, wait for the line to straighten out behind you, bring the rod forward. Wait for the line to roll out in front of you. As the line levels out, lower the rod tip slightly and let the line fall to the water. The tippet should carry the fly forward and plop it down gently.

Now comes the only serious part. You have to watch the fly and the water. Fly fishing success is in reading the water, not in casting, not in fly selection, certainly not in equipment. You must look for "trouty" places and cast to them: the bends in the current, the shadows, the darker pools under logs, the tiny eddies behind rocks, the slow current just against the bank. Trout are lazy. They like to lie in slow water that is near slightly faster water that carries their food. You need to learn to find these meeting places of fast and slow water.

All the time you cast, keep watching the water. Watch the reflection of light. Watch the way leaves and twigs float. Watch for the thin swirls as the water turns on itself. Cast to the edge of those swirls. When you see snags in the water, cast near them. If there is grass, cast to the edge of it. At first, the water will seem all swirls and reflections, but with time you will be able to tell exactly what the bottom is like, where the current slows, and often where the fish will be.

Watching the water tells you where the fish are. Watching the fly--or the tip of the floating line if you can't see the fly--tells you what's happening. Watch the fly or the line tip! If it pauses or hesitates in its drift even for a second, lift the rod tip. Sometimes trout will strike like bass and lunge out of the water. Most of the time they just close their mouth on the fly and do nothing else. Your only clue is that the drifting line will pause just for a second. Lift the rod. If you feel a bump or pull, it is a fish. Lift the rod tip some more and get ready for fun. You are onto your first rainbow.

Let the fish run, don't try to power it. Don't try to force it. Use the line to steer the fish so that it has to keep swimming against the current and gets tired. Take up the slack by using your free hand to pull line back through the guides. Don't try to reel the slack line in. If the fish runs on you, just let some of the slack slide back through your fingers. Always keep your free hand on the fly line to take up or release slack.

As the fish tires, bring it to you. Keep it or release it. It is your first trout and it is up to you. Look at it very carefully. It doesn't matter what size it is. What matters is that you caught it honestly. And you had fun. Remember the colors. The smell on your fingers. Feel the cold water on your hands. Gaze around at the river bank. Listen to the water. Look at the sky and the clouds. This is why you are here. The fish are just bonuses.