Fly Fishing!!!

Mention fly fishing to the average angler who has never done it and he thinks such methods are only used to catch trout, salmonor maybe grayling. To those of us who have spent time in many other countries and have caught many different fish on the fly, we know just how deadly the method is for a whole variety of species.

I am not sure of how many different species I have caught on the fly, but it's plenty, maybe something like 45, including several from saltwater.And certainlysome very big UK freshwater fish have been taken recently, especially zander, pike and perch.

In manyother countries of the world, especially the USA, Australia and South Africa, you will see large numbers of anglers in persuit of fish other than members of the salmon family with fly rods in hand. And the numbers are growing.

But what of fly fishing for species other than the salmonids in the UK? Maybe a handful of anglers try their hand for pike, or zander. Certainly you will not see many after barbel or perch or chub or carp or bream or roach or rudd or even dace,But I have caught all these fish on fly in my time. Great anglers of the past such as Peter Stone caught some of his biggest coarse fish, including bream on the fly, and **** Walker loved catching roach, dace and rudd like this.

So have you ever thought what species of fish YOU could catch with the fly rod?Why not try the method, you might surprise yourself and all of us just as anglers fishing a few of the trout reservoirs have done lately.

Good post Ronald, I am waiting to be taught the art of chucking fluff.

Do what I did when I was in my teens. I taught myself.

Ron.......fly fishing is nice, especially when used to catch those spotted vermin trout thingies.......

BUT, give me the chance to use a live2lb rainbow trout on a trout res and i promise i will outfish your fly rods over a season!

Oh and by the way, the vast majority of flies are not made from fluff at all.

I have recently joined a small syndicate which controls the fishing on a 7 acre reservoir, which in addition to brown and rainbow trout, contains good roach and rudd. I caught a roach there the other day on a size 12 bloodworm pattern.

The next time I go I will take with me some smallbloodworm patterns tied on size 16 and 18 hooks which will be fished on 2 lb fluorocarbon over deep water using a4 weight outfit,and here I shall have no compunction in using a small bung to help detect the delicate bites.

I have no doubt that I shall connect with the odd trout of course, butI will have to put up with that.

Brummie - anyone could do that of course, and personallyI am not interested in such methods. I am convinced you can catch all you ever want to catch using fly fishing methods. It's a matter of doing it and learning.

<blockquote class=quoteheader>Ron 'The Hat' Clay (ACA) wrote (see)</blockquote><blockquote class=quote>Do what I did when I was in my teens. I taught myself.</blockquote>

Yes that's an option Ron, however I think that whenstarting a new branch of this or anysport, the right advice early on, call it coaching if you like, can cut out bad habit and poor technique from the outset.

<blockquote class=quoteheader>Ron 'The Hat' Clay (ACA) wrote (see)</blockquote><blockquote class=quote>

Brummie - anyone could do that of course, and personallyI am not interested in such methods. I am convinced you can catch all you ever want to catch using fly fishing methods. It's a matter of doing it and learning.</blockquote>


Oh well in that case you may as well give me all your other gear!.

Fly fishing is enjoyable as part of angling......but i tell you Ron, there are many times it would produce nothing, zilch, bodiddly!!!!

No, mate, it will NEVER catch all i want to catch.

Try trawling mate. Or do as the Americans and Australians do whenafter carp: bow and arrows!

Fly fishing is enjoyable, that's whyI go fishing.

Eddie, go out and buy a reasonably low cost fly outfit say a 9 foot 6/7 weight rod for about £85,reel for about £30, a bunch of Mullarkies Mill Ends and get out there andpractice.

Just keeptwo things in mind whilst leaning to cast.

1: You are casting the line, not the fly, the fly goes along for the ride.

2: There is no difference in casting a concentrated weight such as a lure or leger weight, to casting an elongated weight such as a fly line, PROVIDED you get the whole fly line moving.

I've got a few bits Ron and I'vecast a line before (in a car park in N.Ireland) I've just never put it into practice.

Go and do it on say you local canal which as sure as anything is bound to have pike in it.

Mind you you will need a hefty outfit to cast those very large wind resistant pike flies.

<blockquote class=quoteheader>Ron 'The Hat' Clay (ACA) wrote (see)</blockquote><blockquote class=quote>

Try trawling mate. Or do as the Americans and Australians do whenafter carp: bow and arrows!

Fly fishing is enjoyable, that's whyI go fishing.</blockquote>


Now now Ron....don't bite!

Of course fly fishing is enjoyable.......tell me what fishing aint!...........but the way to catch all we desire?

NO!...........Fishing is to enjoy, there is no one ultimate style.

Fishing is to enjoy - yes I fully agree mate and fly fishing is the best fun a man can have standing up!

/forum/smilies/big_smile_smiley.gif

Back to you Eddie.

Study and remember every single word this man says. He is the best fly fishing instructor the world has ever known:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NDewXIM_sAc&NR=1

Notice how all the top casters stand using what is termed an open stance, that is your left foot slightly in front of your right foot. This is the sort of stance you would take if you were serving at tennis or if you were to draw a bow. This also makes it possible for you to watch your back cast. You CANNOT achieve a good forward cast without making a good backcast.

The other aspect of casting that you might get taught by people who should know better is that all the action may be between certain positions positions on a clock face. Believe me, Lefty Kreh is absolutely correct when he says that clocks are for telling the time and have nothing to do with casting a fly.

A lot of fly casting instructors in the UK teach a "stiff wrist, elbow by the side" technique which quite frankly has been the cause of more tennis elbows and sore arms than I don't know what. I tell you now to forget this sort of b*****cks and RELAX!! What you don't want to do is cast in an arc which is caused by stiff arm and movement from the elbow. Casting in a circular arc will never get the line to straighten out behind you properly. You will also get tailing loops and wind knots. What you must concentrate on is UNROLLING the line and keeping your elbow in a level plane. Imagine that you have a filing cabinet with the handle at ear level in front of you. Your forward cast and back cast is like opening and closing that filing cabinet.

The youtube link was ace Ron; just watched a load of the clips on fly casting technique and made some real progress in understanding what causes some of the problems in my casting.

Bit surprised to see the fly casting rasta but he seemed really good and I found hislaidback style easy to listen to.

The old guy was a real showman; 83 years young and technique to die for!

Next lesson is about trying to cast too far or with too much vigour. Of course you can watch Steve Rajeff casting incredible distances, but that is tournament casting which demands explosive forward casting which is quite exhausting. Even Steve Rajeff cannot cast like that all day and in fact to catch fish you don't need to cast much further than 25 yards.

But if you can cast a comfortable 25 yards with no more thanTWO false casts and can present your fly delicately you are well on your way to catching loads of fish. Remember it is false casting that spooks lots of fish.

As regards the double haul, yes by all means learn the technique. I findI use a single, sometimes a double haul much of the time, especially if I want to keep false casting to a minimum.

The double haul comes as a natural reaction to casting. On the forward and back strokesof your cast you will feel the line in your left hand pull as it makes the rod work. What you do is pull back at the line. This increases the velocity of the line in the air by enabling more energy to be applied to the line. Notice I use the term velocity, and not speed. There is a whole load of rubbish spoken today about line speed. In fact they even have rods which they say create more line speed.

"B*****cks!!!

They even overdo line momentum, a product of mass x velocity.

The distance you can cast is a function more in your ability to throw what is termed a tight loop than actual line speed. Anyone can make the line travel fast. The ability to cast a very tight loop cuts down on frontal area and wind resistance. The casting of a tight loop where the line travels at a modest velocity will cause the cast to go a lot further than casting an open loop with a fast forward and back movement where the centre of the arc of the casting circle is your elbow!

The smooth unrolling of tight forward and back loops is what good fly casting is all about!

Oh and further. If you double the speed of something in a fluid, the resistance increases by 16 times!

Isn't a tight loop created by making sure the rod travels backward and forth in a straight line Ron? (I do believe I've learn't something/forum/smilies/disappointed_smiley.gif)

Yes Tony, Lefty Kreh is amongst the five greatest anglers of this world. He has spent his life analysing the mechanics of fly casting. He is now 85 and in my opinion he is America's "Walker".

And just like **** Walker he has come in for a hell of a lot of criticism from many other casting instructors, many of which describe his style as being "too relaxed".

As straight as possible Tony. Thats why I describe the forward and back casts like opening and closing of a filing cabinet at ear level.