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 !!