Ok, now for some serious outdoor stuff!
A good friend of mine (let’s say his name is Mark) loves fly fishing. In fact, I suspect that if Mark had his way about it he wouldn’t do much of anything else. Mark loves his family too, and eating, and golf and other sports, and a few other things too … but fly fishing is pretty high on his list.
Awhile ago, when I was visiting Mark and Robin, his wife (both are good friends of mine), Mark and I were talking about some of the details of fly fishing. His enthusiasm is infectious. And, of course, I love to learn. Over several visits with these friends, I learned more and more about fly fishing.
There are different types of fly fishing, different types of rods, different types of line (two types come to mind, floating lines and sinking lines). A fly fishing line is usually too thick to tie directly to the fly, so a tapered leader is attached, and then even another line, a tippet line (very important), is added between the leader and the fly. And don’t get me started on flies … it boggles my mind how many there are!
One day, a nice sunny day, Mark and I walked across the street from their home to a large empty lot where he gave me a beginning lesson on how to cast. He said, “if you do it right, it’s easy … if you do it most other ways, your shoulder and your elbow, your neck and your back will hurt like heck after just a short time.” So I listened for sure. And tried my best to copy his actions, and listen to his words, and learn the lesson.
The very first thing to learn is that you do not cast over your head as if you are chopping wood. Casting is delicate and, for the most part, it’s a simple body turn with a little wrist motion thrown in too. When I watched Mark cast, it was so smooth and suave and lovely, it was such an artistic, natural movement. Done correctly, it took very little effort.
The photo below was taken off the internet. The woman in the photo is not me. She appears to be casting similarly to the way Mark teaches. In the photo below, she is at the end of the back cast (she’ll start the rod moving forward to cast the line forward in just a nano-second). Notice that her elbow is tucked into her waist and that her hand, wrist, and forearm are parallel with her waist, not up over her head. Notice that she is watching the line and the tip of the rod. She’s not watching where she eventually wants the line to go to catch a fish. Her whole upper body has turned to follow the tip of the rod. In a moment, she will turn to her left, her arm and the rod rotating in that same plane/line with her body, and then at the end of the forward cast, she’ll be facing to the left in the photo, forward, simply by turning her body and using only a very little natural wrist movement.
That’s the basic idea. I think the rod in the photo above is a bit too far back than what Mark teaches, and the rod tip a bit lower than desired, but hey I’m still learning. And, there is a bit more to all of this than that … there is also the speed and acceleration of the back cast, the stop, then the forward speed/acceleration, then another stop, etc., and you may want to cast back and forward, back and forward, back and forward, a few times until you get just the right speed with the line in perfect position … but, I think you get the basic idea.
There are lots of variations on casting techniques depending on the equipment you’re using, the fish you want to catch, and on your environment (you may have thick woods right behind you so you can’t cast behind you). But Mark’s advice is to learn this basic casting technique first, then branch out to other options later.
After that excellent lesson on casting, Mark and I talked about when and how to get out on the water … time of day, water temperature, water depth (depending on what you’re fishing for), and rivers vs lakes … and of course we talked about the physical equipment you need.
I always thought you had to have a full-body wading suit on and be standing in freezing cold water to fly fish. But that is not so. You can do it that way, if you want, but you can also fly fish while standing in shallow water like the woman in the photo above, or in even much shallower water, with or without waders on. You can fish on cold days, or warm days. You can fly fish from dry land, or from an open boat, or from a canoe, or a kayak, or a float/belly boat (one style is in the photo below). There are light-weight waders and heavy insulated waders and everything in between.
In other words, the options are practically endless. And the amount of money you can spend can be endless too. But you really don’t need to spend much money at all just to get started in order to find out if fly fishing is for you.
If you would like to try fly fishing … what do you do now?
As with other hobbies and activities, there is a plethora of information available about fly fishing online and in books and magazines. There may be local folks near you who teach fly fishing. But beware. As with other hobbies and activities, not all of the information available might be the best.
One thing you can do is visit a store that has fly fishing equipment. Make sure the fishing equipment you’re looking at is specifically fly fishing gear, or you’ll be looking at the wrong stuff.
Some large outdoor sporting goods stores that have fly fishing equipment are: Cabela’s, Bass Pro Shops, Dicks Sporting Goods, and Orvis. REI doesn’t have fishing rods, reels, flies, etc, but they do have clothing and other gear you might want.
Some of the local fly fishing stores here in the State of Washington are: The Fly Fisher (a few blocks from my home in Lacey, WA), Puget Sound Fly Company, Pacific Fly Fishers, Red’s Fly Shop, Fit to be Tied, Troutwater Fly Shop, Silver Bow Fly Shop, All About the Fly, and many more! Here’s a link to a webpage that lists most of the shops in Washington State … https://www.washingtonflyfishing.com/shops.htm.
Along with a visit to a fly fishing shop, check out these free online fly fishing lessons … https://howtoflyfish.orvis.com/video-lessons. Mark says this is the best series online.
As mentioned above, there are all manner of different ways to cast, to tie flies, to work the reel, etc. What I know is that Mark is an excellent fly fisherman. He has been doing this most all his life. He knows what works and what doesn’t. So I’m sticking with his advice.
I’m going to have to be careful though. As much as I love being on the water, and as much as I feel so relaxed when I’m on the water, I may have all the good fly-fishing intentions in the universe, but I may just end up like this fellow below.
Ahhhh, this is the life. 🙂