Fly Fishing For Beginners

I was on the lake today, and the fishing was a bit slow. I found myself thinking back to when I first started fly fishing and how there were days when I thought I would never be able to cast my fly anywhere near as far as my experienced fishing buddy Mike was able to.

Glancing to my left where Mike was fishing I realised that I now have no difficulty reaching the same distance he does and except in really challenging wind conditions I don't even really think about the cast any more.

I started to think about when this changed, and thought I'd share my experiences in case you're still struggling to sort out your cast and get a reasonable distance.

When I first started fly fishing I took a casting lesson to learn the basics. From that I knew that timing was really important and that if I started the back cast or a subsequent forward cast too early or too late I'd get in a mess - I frequently did.

I also knew that if I dropped the rod too far I'd either lose the power of the forward cast or end up catching the grass behind me on the back cast, so I concentrated on keeping the rod fairly high on both, and tried to 'feel' for the pull of the line against the rod on the back cast so I'd know when to start the forward cast.

The problem was that however correctly I thought I was doing all this, I still didn't seem to get much distance. For a while I watched Mike casting, and realised that when he threw his last forward cast, extra line shot out of the rings and sometimes even pulled at the line on the reel. It was then that I realised there wasn't enough power in my casting I thought about how I could do something about that.

The first thing I realised was that Mike was 'hauling', just a technical term for putting some more acceleration into the back cast by pulling the fly line back towards yourself when you start the back cast. It can be tricky to get the timing right, but once I started to do that I began to feel the line pulling against the rod more, and that helped me to get my timing better. If you're not doing this now and relying on the rod to turn the line on its own,  try it, it makes a lot of difference and should help you to get some sense of what's happening when you cast.

The next thing I realised was that even when I thought I'd done everything right, I still wasn't feeling the line pulling that much and I started to think about how I would have solved a distance problem if I was coarse fishing. I used to do a lot of coarse fishing, and if I needed to cast further I just put on a heavier float or weight. Putting on a heavier fly would just make things worse because of wind resistance, but what about a heavier line?

As you know, fly rods are rated for the lines they can cast - if you've got a rod rated for a 6wt or 7wt line, you can't just put on an 8wt line as the rod can't handle it. You're probably already fishing with a weight forward line so you understand the principle that putting more of the weight at the front of the fly line should help you get more distance, but what if you can't get enough line out in the first place?

It occurred to me that if even more of the weight was at the front of the line, casting would be easier as the heavier the line at the from was, the more pull it would exert on the line behind it which would then be pulled out on the cast. This prompted me to do some research on fly line tapers, and I realised that no two weight forward lines are the same, some having much more of the weight at the front of the line than others.

I wont bore you with all of the technical aspects of this - there are lots of websites you can find in Google if you want to, but this one realisation made a huge difference to me and I'm now very fussy about the tapers of the lines I buy.

Something else that helped me was to buy a rod rated for an 8wt line - they're a bit beefier and stiffer than a 6/7wt so presentation is less delicate, but with an 8wt line with most of the weight concentrated nearer the tip, I could really feel the line pulling on the forward and back cast and this helped a lot when I was trying to get a reasonable technique.

If you're struggling with distance like I was, you may find that a different fly line with more of the weight concentrated nearer the tip would help you too. The lines I use are not the cheapest, but a fly line will last a long time so its worth spending a little more if its helps with the learning curve and gets more fish on the bank.

Of the lines I've tried, the Airflo 40+ and Rio Outbound are designed with a heavy weight forward tip and helped me a lot when I was trying to get everything to work. I also use a Wulff line designed for the US market where they cast heavy flies for freshwater Bass. These are called 'Bass Taper' lines and have a shorter heavier tip than standard weight forward lines. I haven't been able to find them for sale in the UK, but they're easy enough to buy direct from the US on eBay.

Here are some eBay links:

Airflo 40+
Rio Outbound
Wulff Bass Taper

With the awful weather we've been having I haven't been able to get out fishing for a while and I haven't been to Blakewell for several months, so when Mike suggested we have a go on Saturday, and the Met office promised a dry day without too much wind and good temperatures for the time of year, I jumped at the chance.

We arrived about 8am and had the pick of the swims apart from the popular point swim that was already occupied by the only other angler on the bank.

The weed of the summer months has all but gone, and the lake is carrying extra water following recent rain, which has added a lot of colour to the water.  I've learned from past experience that in these conditions a white fly works best, presumably because the fish can see it better in the murky water, so I started with a size 10 goldhead white and yellow Cats Whisker on a floating line with 3ft of 6lb fluorocarbon tippet attached to a 9ft floating leader.

I've been using fluorocarbon tippets exclusively for a while now and I do seem to get more takes. Apparently fluorocarbon is harder for the fish to see that mono and I'll take any advantage I can get!

By varying the amount of time I gave the fly to sink before starting the retrieve, I was able to fish at different depths, and after about half an hour I started to get takes on a steady retrieve with the fly fishing from just sub-surface to a couple of feet down. I missed a few pulls before I got the first one on the bank - a rainbow of about 2lbs.

After some trial and error, I found that a slow retrieve worked best and I had to look for the takes - these showed as a slight tightening of the leader and it was one of those days when you had to avoid striking until you got a definite pull, which was usually after the fish had followed the lure and 'had a go at it' 3 or 4 times before committing itself. On a few occasions I struck too soon, realising I should have waited almost before the strike, but after a couple of hours or so I had 4 of my 6 fish on the bank, and a very ragged Cats Whisker on the hook!

Time to change the fly as there wasn't much left of it, so this time I tied on a white goldhead nomad for a change and soon had another rainbow in the net. the best of the day at about 3lb. I finished by bag of 6 fish with another 2lb+ fish about half an hour later for a total of just over 13lbs in about 3 hours of fishing.

Mike took a little longer to get his 6, and included a fish of 4lb plus in his bag on a day that saw everyone catching fish, including a nice rainbow of about 9lb to the angler on the point.

I'm told that there are a lot of Browns in the lake now - legally catchable all year following the recent change in byelaws, but I didn't catch any or see any caught on the day. Maybe next time.

If you live in the area Blakewell is definitely worth a visit at the moment - the fish are in good condition with a good average size and some monsters among them. The fishing is challenging enough without being too hard, and although the locals definitely have their favourite swims, its possible to catch all round the lake so even on busy days you can get among the fish.

Here are some eBay links:

Cats Whisker Flies
Nomad Flies
Fluorocarbon tippet material