by Gerry Frederick for Anglers Club Magazine, June 30, 2016

Now that fly-fishing has become fairly mainstream it is enjoying a rather large influx of beginners each season. These newcomers are getting younger and the percentage of ladies increases every year. It is believed by some in the fly fishing world that ladies compile the largest group of newcomers to the sport.

I guess it’s not just your father’s sport anymore. I started fly fishing in the early 70’s because it seemed to me that the fly fisherman were catching more fish than I was and they packed around a lot less stuff to do it. The flies cost a whole lot less than some of the lures and other setups required for bait fishing. When I lose a fly while fishing it costs me about $1.50 if I bought it and about 11 cents if I tied it.





Like any other outdoor activity we get involved in, you can get started fly fishing and can go nuts when it comes to buying gear. The sport of fly fishing can get right out of hand, trust me, I know. I have two rooms in my house set aside for fly-fishing stuff. Plus I have four boats that have now taken over what used to be the garden. Even if I wasn’t guiding I could find a reason to justify just about everything.

I don’t guide as a pro anymore but I do feel the need to stay on top of the industry. A lot has changed over the last forty years. But the basics have not. You should own the gear that best suits you and that could take some time to figure out. I still find myself cruising the web for fishing gear more often than I care to admit. The truth is you can never finish race you only stay in it.

It may be a cliché but it’s generally true in the fly-fishing world. You do get what you pay for. Fly rods can cost as little as $25 or as much as $5000. The more practical rod for most of us is in the $150 to $250 range. Fly reels are much the same. The bottom line is, if you don’t know how to cast a fly rod it doesn’t matter how much you paid for it, unless of coarse you are showing it to your friends.

That brings me back to where I started, what do you really need to get started fly fishing? The truth is, not very much at all. Scientific Angler puts out a starter kit that comes complete with everything you need, even a video. The quality of the rod, reel and line is above average and that makes getting off the ground a little easier.



To put together your own starter outfit ask the store clerk give you a hand. Let them know how much money you want to spend. I think you should keep it under $250. The reason for is simple. When you get a little better at using the equipment you may want to expand your gear or move to something different. For example: a rod with a different grip or different size. If you spend a lot more than $250 on a fly-fishing outfit alone you’re kinda stuck with it.

It’s important that you get a rod that feels comfortable in your hand. Worry about the looks or the name next year. My suggestion for most beginners has stayed the same over the years. Get a rod that costs about $100, a reel that costs about $50 and the line about should be floating, about $40. The size should be a 5 or 6 wieght. There are other items that you need too. Like backing and leaders. Oh, don’t forget the flies. That stuff will cost about $60. Basically your ready to go for under $250.

I suggest a cheaper rod to start for several reasons. Most beginners will want a stiffer casting rod after they master the casting or at least understand it well enough to know the difference. Another reason is breaking it. When you’re new to the sport and find yourself flailing away with a nine foot fishing pole, it feels less stressful if you’re only into it for 100 bucks. The same is true for the line. Beginners and particularly young people are very hard on fly line.

The reel is the one thing you will use for years, or until you meet one you like better. Be sure that the reel you choose has the ability to hold the line you have picked and that it will take extra spools when your ready for them. After you get started fly fishing and you’re a little more confident and then think you have it all dialed in, pop for the $250 rod and the $95 line. Then you have something to show them to the neighbors.

Okay, now we’re on the water with all the stuff we need. And probably a bunch of stuff we don’t need. The fly box is bursting at the seams. The location has been agonizingly researched. We’re ready, a little poorer but a lot smarter. Now what’s the most important thing we need to know? Fly presentation - the seams. The location has been agonizingly researched. We’re ready, a little poorer but a lot smarter. Now what’s the most important thing we need to know?



Fly presentation – it’s far and away the most important aspect of fly-fishing. We can go to great lengths in choosing our fly, but if we don’t present it to the fish the way they want it, they just won’t take it. Correct fly presentation involves a number of things. Where to cast, how far to cast, the location of the cast and the action of the fly can contribute more to success than any other factor. It takes a great deal of effort and concentration from the start of the cast until the fly hits the water.

The fly fisher will never know how many fish pick the fly presentation over the fly. But after 29 years of fly fishing, I’m not so sure that the fish care nearly as much about your fly selection. I know how important the right fly can be, but if I don’t present it the way they want it, the fly selection becomes meaningless. A lot of the time fly fishers will change flies before they address the presentation.

Think of it this way. If Friday is pizza night and you always order your pepperoni pizza delivered at the front door, that’s how you’ll expect your pizza to be presented. If the pizza guy crashes through your front yard then gets out and throws your dinner upside down at your face when you get to the door, you’re probably not going to take it. You may even run away and hide behind a rock.

Now imagine that you get back from washing the tomato sauce off your face, only to find the Chinese food delivery guy has showed up unexpectedly. He warmly greets you at the front door you’re now hiding behind, and offers you a reasonable alternative. But do you think he stands a better chance of getting you to bite? Or has your appetite been spoiled by now?

A badly presented fly will alarm them just as much as a pizza man crashing through the yard alarmed you. Trout spend most of the day looking for food. Some of the time it can be fairly easy to find, like when there is a hatch of defenseless insects slowly wiggling up from the mud on their way to the surface, or when insects are stuck on the surface after landing there. They remember the situations where has been plentiful, and the food they eat every day always acts the same as it has over the last million years or so. Our job as fly fishers is to try to imitate trout food as close as we can with the flies that we have. Once you pick the fly and the location to fish, it’s up to your presentation.

Observing the natural movement of flies can help a lot. May flies for example tend to sit on the surface rather still with the odd twitch thrown in. Caddis flies almost never sit still on the water. Some even skate across the surface pretty fast.

Under the surface trout food such as leeches wiggle like snakes while others crawl slowly on the bottom. Some insects drift in the current motionless hoping all the while to go unnoticed. If the fly you’re fishing doesn’t do what the natural does, good luck. Sometimes the currents in rivers allow only a few feet of “natural drift”. That’s fine. Just start a new cast when the natural drift expires.



The moral of the story is pretty simple. Change the presentation before changing the fly. Observe the how flies and other food behave and watch how they maneuver in and on the water. Spend more time on presentation than finding the hot spots. Fish the fly you choose the way it should be fished. Remember the fish doesn’t care what kind of equipment you have. He’s only interested in lunch. It either looks good to him when you present it, or it doesn’t. Correct presentation will tame the trout long before the fly will.