totaly new to game fishing

hi, i've just started to look at this section on game fishing as i am thinking of giving ita go could you suggest a basic all round kit ( if there is such a thing) will be trying on pools and possibly boat have about ?200 to spend and i am going to the fishing show at the nec so hope to get some good deals (if I know what to get) thanks in advance

Read the thread 'Starter Kits'

Sorry should have been
'Starter Packs'--are they any good ?

I sent for the one Ron recommended last Friday and got it on Tuesday --It seems really good
Rod
2 reels
1 floating line
1 sinking line
2 spools of backing
1x3lb 1x4lb leader material
3x leader attachments
50 flies

And all for ? 125 post free

If anyone is doing it at the NEC try and blag yourself a casting lesson. Failing that I would advise a lesson with a professional casting tutor because the cast really is half the game.

Good luck.

Hey Chef...you following me round this forum ???

I agree with Mr Draper, casting is half the battle. I was lucky enough to be taught the art by the late John Darling...I'd been thrashing away for nothing when JD spotted me. An hour or so with him and I had the basic idea...I was told to practise, practise, practise, and one day it would all click. It did, and now it's like riding a bike, I can do it in my sleep.
If you have to pay a few quid, it will be money well spent mate...believe me.

I'm not sure on these package deals of fly tackle...I firmly believe that you should choose the tackle to suit the water you are fishing on, and the fish that are in it.
I reckon you'd be better off spending a day on few trout waters without fishing...go watching how everybody fishes that particular water...ask a few questions...then go to another water and repeat the exercise, then make your mind up on what sort of fishing you are going to do and buy your tackle to suit.

Don't get sucked into the trap of buying super fast actioned rods thinking you will cast 40 yards straight away. You won't mate, and you will have spent a fortune on something unusable to you.
Take a look at tackle by companies like Shakespeare, Leeda, ABU, etc...they all make some bloody good fly rods for well under ?100. A good reel will cost you less than ?40, ?20 will buy you a decent floating fly line, a few spools of mono to make up your leaders, and few flies and away you go. Tie your own flies Chef...it's relaxing to spend an evening in front of the vice with a few feathers and bit of wool...and it all adds to the thrill of catching your first trout on a fly that you tied.

Shame you're not closer to me Chef...we could have a day on the water somewhere. I'm not all that good nowadays, got this bloody rheumatoid arthritis which makes casting a fly bloody difficult. I have to have a few casts, have a cuppa and a smoke, then a few more casts, and so on. Still, it makes the day last longer !!

I agree with richard to get a few lessons,As for rod look at the greys range they are great rods & carry an unconditional lifetime warranty.Reels you get what you pay for but most people now are using LA reels as they have a quicker line recovery & puts less memory in the line also go for a reel which has a disc drag i helps if you play a large fish off the reel.Fly line have a look at Snowbee or the Worcestershire fly lines they are made in redditch.
Flies--Each time you go to the fishery ask what flies are catching & buy a few of each,if you do this by the end of your first season you will have a collection of flies which catch fish & not fishermen.I have over a 800 & will never use half of them.

If you want to upset a fly fisherman, criticise his casting. Many who have been at it for years think they can cast.

I watched a guy the other day struggling with an 8 weight outfit and a shooting head. he took up to 8 false casts before he let go, and even then he only got out about twenty yards. After several hours at this the poor bloke's arm and wrist were knackered. Sure he caught a few fish, but he would have had a far more enjoyable day if he wasn't committing one of the cardinal faults in casting.

You could see the fault a mile away.

At the extremity of his back cast the front plate of his reel was pointing to the sky. At the extermity of his forward cast the front plate of the reel was pointing to the left.

In other words he was twisting his wrist and causing th forward and back strokes of his cast to go out of plane. This causes the line to follow a side loop, thus cancelling out the energy that is being put into the line.

He was thus compensating my using more force. A recipe for disaster and tennis elbow.

Many years ago I asked the great Jack (not JW) Martin for a few tips on my casting. He spotted me twisting my wrist slightly. I corrected the twist and was able to put 15 yards on the distance I could cast immediatly!

I've never forgotten that little tip.

Yet the most common fault of most self taught casters is this twisting of the wrist and going out of plane.

Imagine the front edge of your reel is a knife and you are slicing meat.

You may not want to cast long distances. In fact on most small lakes you don't need too. However if you can chuck a long line, you can also chuck a short one, a heck of a lot easier and without getting tired.

Richard not following honest LOL i have just booked my first lesson on a local fishery so i will get to see if i like it or not ,wouldn't mind tying my own flies as i make all my own pike traces usually the night before a trip adds so much to the experince espeacialy when asked what or who's traces you use and you can say your own is great

Ron, the only thing worrying me about twisting my wrist is i broke it very very badly when i was younger (motorbikes are still cool )and was thinking if i could use some sort of leather or neoprene support it may help any ideas?

Well said Ron, my boy. Having learnt to cast a fly line from JD I had a long break from fly fishing{women,beer,street rods,women,beer..}and when I returned I had to have a few lessons from a local trout man who I had known all my life. He spotted exactly the same thing that you mention Ron, the times he used to swear at me for doing the wrist twist!! Poor old fellow has made his last cast now, but I remember him standing behind me at Brick Farm every time I cock up a cast. He could put out a full line with two false casts, every time...I was expected to do the same. Not many times did I manage it, I normally don't ever need to cast a full line, but if I need to I can now.

Like you Ron, I smile to myself at some of the 'experts' I see thrashing away...by the time they've finished false casting, the line has lost momentum completely, and just collapses at their feet, normally followed by them blaming 'that useless bloody line'.

I know exactly what JD and my late mate would have said to these so called 'experts', and useless fly lines wouldn't have come into it!!


PS...the definition of the word 'expert' is as follows: 'ex' meaning past it, 'spert' meaning a drip under pressure'.
Don't you just love it, eh ??

Hello Chef{bugger,I've forgotten your first name again}...as regards your wrist problems, I suffer from serious rheumatoid arthtitis in my casting arm, hand and shoulder, and it does hurt bad sometimes. BUT...I was taught that if it hurts, I'm doing it wrong, so I do it right!! Yes, you can wear a support mate..I use those stretchy elasticated bandages in a size smaller than my wrist size, that way they support the limb well. Don't put too much effort into your casting{see Rons posting above}and let the friction of the line on the water and the action of the rod do the work for you. Another reason not to use a fast actioned rod! A nice slow casting action, keeping everything nice and straight and working the rod will give you all the distance you need, mate.
It's nice to be able to cast 50 yards, but do you really need to? Remember the margins mate...it's not only carp that frequent the edges. I've caught all my better trout by casting less than ten yards out....what say you Ron ??

Chef you can buy a wrist lock which fits around your wrist that has a small loop for the rod butt to fit into,Thus preventing wrist break when casting,
http://www.sportfish.co.uk/scripts/ver1cc.dll/shop?jump=C10740 this is what i am on about.Hope it helps.

If you do get into flyfishing theres nothing better than playing big trout on a fly reel in my opinion.Before today i used to play fish using the line and it started to get boring so give it a go.

My biggest UK rainbow, A fish of 131/2 lbs was taken by lowering a dry fly onto the water and keeping the leader off the water.

The biggest rainbow I ever hooked, a fish of about 20 lbs I would guess, I shook off in the margins because it was in dreadful condition. I hooked that fish about 3 yards out.

Where you do often need to cast distances is on large reservoirs like Rutland and Grafham. Also when fishing at depth from an anchored boat.

Chef and Richard, I don't know what sort of rods you are using, but if they are those horrid "reservoir rods" that feel like barbel blanks and are 10 feet and over long, get rid of them. The longest rod I have any use for whilst bank fishing is a 91/2 footer.

Such a rod will not weigh more than 31/2 oz and will put far less strain on your wrist than some of the heavy ressie rods.

Use a line no more than a weight 7. For real distance a shooting head can be very useful. For shooting heads I use double tapers cut into two with some of the special shooting line you can buy these days. Years ago I used to use flattened nylon backing about 25 lbs bs. Those Polyfuse 40 plus lines by Airflow look pretty good. You can get two for the price of one these days. I intend to get a couple of these lines shortly, a floater and a DI7 sinker.

I you are fishing small waters, take a little stool and sit quietly, watching for fish movement. Don't under any circumstances wade.

Big fish often swim close to the bank and if you keep low and out of sight you may even be able to drop a fly on their noses without casting.

Learn to cast a decent line sitting down, or evn laying on your stomach. If the water is very clear, you might try dyeing your floating line a dark colour using Dylon dyes. The fish will not see it so easily.

If your rod is shiny, rub it down with toothpast to get rid of the flash.

Ron, i have not yet purchased any fly gear as i am going to have a lesson first to see if i like it then i amm going to the fishing show at the nec sunday to hopefully buy the gear i need, i was looking at that kit you suggested in the other thread from Yorkshire game anglers(?) or if you could recomend anything different i have about ?200 to spend but would need lines etc

There are so many companies offering good deals these days it would be arrogant of me to suggest one supplier.

Have a good look at what is on offer. If I were to recommend one particular rod, it would be a 91/2 foot 7 weight. Avoid fast action rods, get something with what is called a middle to tip action. You should get something nice for about ?100 or a bit less.

A light large arbour reel with disc drag and two spools would be something to look for. Greys do a very nice reel for less than ?50.00

All you need now are lines. Get good ones yet don't pay more than ?30 for them each. A floater and a clear sinker will get you going for sure.

thanks everyone by the way Richard it's Tim

Ron, I use the new SKP Expedition 4 piece 6/7 lines and the SKP XPS 4 piece, again 6/7 lines. Both rods weigh virtually nothing, a must for me with this bloody RA which I have. I favour the Expedition with a WF6F and the XPS with a WF7 clear intermediate...both rods are quite capable of dropping a fly a leader's length out or casting extreme distance if it's needed. The Expedition is a special favourite of mine for reasons I can't disclose here, it's a superb rod for all small water fishing, such as Chalk Springs etc...it has a lovely smooth middle/tip action and balances perfectly in the hand. Ideal for us poor old buggers!

Not too sure about the sitting on a little stool Ron...I learnt my craft on the clear waters of the South, I tend to apply carp stalking tecniques to my margin trout fishing. I like to be on the water before first light if possible, creeping about in the marginal cover at least a rods length back from the waters edge, and flicking a small nymph in the edges. It's a fantastic way of catching trout, and it teaches you a lot about trout behaviour. It also taught me a lot about accurate short range fly casting, dropping a nymph less than a rods length out and doing it spot on first time. You don't get too many chances with close range stuff, I find.

Tim, I wish you well mate, with your fly fishing. It's a great way of catching fish, you don't need a Pickfords lorry to carry your tackle, and most times the trout taste great!

Keep us informed as to your progress mate, I for one would like to know how you get on, and I'm pretty sure that Ron would too.

Greys have some reasonably priced rods,reels arent that important,I would stay away from airflow floating lines and consider snowbee line or a slightly more up market brand such as cortland.

I also learnt trout fishing by stalking, on both rivers and small lakes. These days, maybe because I am getting old, I like to sit quietly and let the trout come to me.

And buy the way, when you buy your new rod, if it has a plastic cover to the handle, cut it off and dump it. The whole idea behind cork is that you are meant to hold it. There will never be anything as good for a rod handle, especially a fly rod handle, as natural cork.

The next bit of advice is perhaps not necessary because most fly rods these days are built correctly.

Avoid like the plague any fly rod that has the reel fitting at the extremity of the handle, in other words what is called a down locking reel seat. It isn't very long ago that the majority of fly rods built in Britain had these awful handles. **** Walker and several others pointed out why a down locking reel seat is very bad, yet manufacturers still continued making them.

Eventually manufacturers saw the light and you will have to look hard today to find an incorrectly designed reel seat thank goodness.