Green Fly Fisher

[MST SigEp]

Hello all! I have been fishing Bennett with my family for years and have always used a ultra light. Recently I have picked up a fly rod and doing the best I can to learn the ropes. Any tips on flies that work well and maybe some presentation tips? Anything would be a great help!

[NoLuck]

Just read thru some of these threads and you will find all you need. Its all here.

[TroutRinger]

Other people on hear now lifetimes more than me about fly fishing but I have always had success striping small green wooly buggers or similar style flies above the dam. Everyone always says to use sinking fly line (and they are probably right) but I always forget my real with sinking line so I usually just use flies with bead heads.

[ness]

Big question, but I'll take a stab:

1) Flies -- small (#18) nymphs. Folks will likely jump in with their latest and greatest, but a good ol' pheasant tail, hare's ear or copper John will catch fish, if you do it right;

2) Tippet/leader -- get a 10 foot 6x leader and some 4 and 6x tippet to replace the tip as you lose it;

3) Strike indicators -- foam footballs are fine. I tend to go as small as I can get away with. Adjust the depth often so the fly is ticking along the bottom;

4) Split shot -- leetle tiny ones about 12 inches up from the fly. You want to sink the fly as quick as you can, but still leave a little life in it;

5) Presentation -- it's imperative to get a natural drift. Flip your fly in well above your target area so the fly can sink down and you can get setup for the drift. Lay the line on the water if you must, or if you're close enough raise the tip to keep line off the water. Using your rod tip, flip or 'mend' the line so that it allows the fly and indicator to float along naturally with the current;

6) Location -- target the seam between fast and slow water. That can occur at the head or tail of a pool, inside a bend, or around any obstacle. These types of locations naturally present problems, because of the conflicting currents, so the mends (#5) are critical;

It's 90 percent presentation and 10 percent tackle. Get a fly that's approximately the size and color of other stuff he's seen float by recently, and you're in. Now all you've got to do is put a fly in the right place, drift it along naturally, and don't do anything to make the trout go: 'What the hell was that?'. Anything between the fly and your feet can mess it up: a crummy drift, splashing the line, flashing rod tip, shadows, clumsy footing.

Good luck.

[Casey Self]

Learn to roll cast and keep an eye out behind you at all times. Usually alot of people walking the banks, kids, family's, fisherman changing holes, etc. Nothing worse then walking along and dodging someones fly line zipping past your face. Its easy to get caught in the moment and not look behind you, so I think its very important to learn to roll cast when you need to.

For what to use, there are some great suggestions so far, One thing for starters i would start fishing somewhere that requires a short cast to get to the fish until you get skilled enough to do long cast, and start off with some smaller stuff you are confident with (maybe stuff you've used for years under a bobber with your spin real) and float it under a foam strike indecator. Small Glow balls, brassies, Thread jigs, Saun Jaun worms, etc. This way you build your confidence up and don't give up too quickly. 90% of your fly being successful is you believing it will catch fish.

Once you get the hang of it you can start switching off to some traditional flies or stick with what is working. For dries watch what bugs are coming off the water, color, etc and tie something on similar.

[MST SigEp]

Well I made it down to Bennett over Memorial weekend and got to fish 5 out of six whistles I was there for (had church Sunday morning plus I was dead tired). I took all of your advice and some I recieved from Weavers tackle and put it to good use. Seeing how the morning was shoulder to shoulder I decided to stick with my ultra light until it cleared out. Soon after everyone cleared out I began using my fly rod under the bridge in the first hole from the left facing upstream. I fished for about an hour with not a bite, I think I was using a copperjohn under a strike indicator and a small shot about a foot above the fly. I gentlemen slide out to the center hole and fished upstream and pulled in a mess of fish. I asked him what he had and he handed me a john deere jig he tied. That was the begining of an amazing weekend. Every day after I caught fish on every other cast and people were hating me for it, seemed like no one was having luck but me.

Also a guy came through next to me fishing pink brassies and had a lot of luck. It got slow on the john deere so I switched to the brassie and it heated up again.

All in all a very productive weekend. I even caught an almost lunker, 1lb 12oz, it barely would fit in the scale at the park store.

Thanks again to everyone who posted and sorry it took me so long to give some results!

[rcguy]

Sounds like you had a ball! I did OK myself that weekend.