New Member Needing Some Pointers

[Steve-o]

Hello all,

I've lurked the forum for a while and finally decided to register. I will give a little back story on my experience and then I will get to my questions. I have been trout fishing in our parks since as long as I can remember and I mean that quite literally I only have a few fleeting memories earlier than the first time I was casting some sort of fly/lure/bait into Bennett Springs. Now I've always been a spin caster and not fly fisherman and honestly I seemed to always do well enough on things like maribou jigs,and wooly buggers that I never really expanded my selection past that. So here I am at 32 years old with a nearly all my life as a trout fisherman and I feel like I am completely missing something. Not that the park experience is bad, I just want to take it a step further and do some fly fishing and in more natural settings as well as the park fishing. About a year ago I went down to wally world picked myself up one of their fly rod combos, which I'm sure isn't great but it's low cost and should get me started, put a Cabelas prestige WF line on there and have been practicing my casting when time allows. I have only taken my fly rod out to a park once so far on a rather crowded day and I didn't feel comfortable enough using it for more than 30 minutes before I went back to my spin cast. I am starting to feel more confident in my abilities now so I am going to give it another shot pretty soon.

First question:.

As my technique progresses what are the signs i need to pay attention to that will let me know that I need to upgrade past my current setup? The rod and reel feel quite alien to me still at this point so I don't know what feedback i should or should not be getting through the rod. Maybe I am just over thinking it at this point and time and it will come to me with more experience but I would like to have some sort of clue.

Second question:

What flies? Holy information overload Batman! I don't even know where to begin on this one. I have some grey and olive scuds that I picked up before I took the fly rod out the last time and a never ending supply of wooly buggers thanks to the fly tying kit I bought my dad for Christmas a few years ago. What are say, a dozen flies that I should have in my box? I will certainly expand from there, but I need to establish some sort of foothold. I may borrow that kit and give making them myself a whirl(I can already feel an addiction coming) and I can look up youtube videos on how to make them I just don't have any idea on where to start from. In another thread I saw someone suggest the book "Fly Fishing for Trout in Missouri" I will be ordering that off of Amazon ASAP!

Sorry for the long winded post! I'm looking forward to many good conversations with what looks to be a pretty good online community here.

[Lancer09]

Look around and you'll see the flies everyone suggests.

The biggest thing is just to use it, go fishing ssometime but don't take your spin rods. You'll be forced to learn better when you don't have that crutch sitting back in the truck.

[Al Agnew]

See if you can find the book, "Fly Fishing for Trout in Missouri", by the late Chuck Tryon. It will give you a basic selection of flies for Missouri, along with a whole lot of other information that will be imminently useful for the beginning fly fisherman. I'd give you Chuck's suggestions, but I don't have my copy of the book with me right now.

[Steve-o]

Lancer, I will take that suggestion next time I head out. I do OK when I "yard fish" but something about being out in the water turns my fly casting technique into a bumbling "oh look I'm tangled again" disaster. I just need to suck it up and fight through the tangles and frustration and I'll get it.

Al, I ordered a copy of that book the other day(I saw you make that suggestion in another thread so I had it on my radar already) I should have it any time now and I am looking forward to reading through it.

Thanks for the suggestions guys.

[DaddyO]

Steve-o, welcome to the addiction! Al and Lancer gave good advice. On top of what they said, don't limit your fly fishing to trout. Techniques for casting and stripping woolly buggers or streamers in a pond for Bass can be applied to trout, also. Same with throwing and indicator rig at Perch.

Definitely start tying your own flies. You'll be surprised at how good it makes you feel to catch fish on flies that you tied yourself. Good luck and have fun with it.

[dennis boatman]

Get in the river, and just let a Wooly Bugger swing in the current. Lift and let it drift back. Minimal casting and a great way to catch fish and get the feel of the rod...

[JCWolfe]

I pretty much learned everything from either watching others, books, videos and the internet. I didnt have a mentor. I didn't even know anyone who even flyfished. If you can't get out on the water go practice casting in the yard. Don't worry about distance right now, get your technique correct. Youtube is your friend. You will get better if you really dedicate yourself. As for flies, you have midges, mayfly, caddis, stonefly, scuds, sowbugs streamers, worms, egg and attractors, that's what I have. You dont need a million flies. Once you fish a certain place for awhile you learn they're a certain few that will work. Fly shops, fishing reports and other friendly fisherman are always a big help on what flies to use. Im not a purist when it comes to fly selection, I use what they want. My home water would be the Lower Illinois. I've learned certain microjigs/ micro buggers work really well there. I use those first and usually don't have to use anything else. Midges are next, sometimes they are a trailer and sometimes they are by themselves. Situation dictates your methods. Bottom line is just go when you can and keep going to get better.

[Wayne SW/MO]

First question. It's much easier today to learn casting then in decades past. Use the internet, especially YouTube. Critique yourself and make use of the grass pond. Eventually you will know how well your outfit serves you and whether or not you need to upgrade. You will also be able to better evaluate whether a rod that interest you is right for you.

Tying is fun and certainly expands the interest. My advice beyond tying is to not discard anything because it isn't perfect and don't be afraid to experiment.

[dennis boatman]

...tying your own can is fun and can be as expensive or inexpensive as you want...think roadkill...

[podum]

First, take a day and leave the spin stuff at home. You wont get confidence until you catch a few and you wont catch em until you leave the fly in the water. Second, get some wooly buggers in black and olive (multiple sizes). Third, learn how to mend your line. The natural drift is a key with most flies, but you can practice it with a bugger, which will catch fish on the swing, with a twitch, with a strip or drifting naturally. While you're learning to mend, the bugger will get more bites than other flies. Good luck.