just bought my first flyrod setup as a birthday present. am starting from scratch. figure if i chronicle it, the lessen in humility will be good for me. started w a lower middle end set up from what i have been told. tied a fly on and tried to throw it in the lake behind my house. I mimicked what ive seen on tv. didnt work so well. keep hitting myself w fly.
also i am left handed and my reel is set up to be reeled w left hand. i am planning on throwing w my left and using my right on the line. i guess when i catch something i can switch and reel w left.
any comments, suggestions…i am all ears.
What setup did you get? Most reels are able to be converted between LH and RH retrieve.
As far as suggestions, just practice. Watch some YouTube videos. Practice some more. Read some books. Practice more. I taught myself without taking a fly fishing class, but I’ve heard good things about those, too. Just keep at it and don’t get frustrated. Remember, when it’s all said and done, you’re still fishing - smile and enjoy it.
Your reel should be reversible. check the instructions. sometimes it’s as simple as flipping the clutch pack, sometimes it involves flipping a bearing.
Start small on your casting. take the fly off and tie on a piece of foam or yarn to simulate a fly. (These don’t hurt and won’t stick you when they slap you in back of the head)
strip off about 20-30 feet of line plus the leader and “fly” and lay them out straight in front of you on the grass. practice doing pick up and lay downs on your lawn.
two key points
- give the line time to unroll on the back cast. Starting the forward cast too soon cracks the whip. This is the biggest mistake people make
- Don’t flex your wrist too much. The rod tip needs to travel in a straight line to transfer energy effectively. Newbies swing the rod through a long arc.
One trick to help control wrist flex is to extend your index finger straight up the handle.
There is nothing - absolutely nothing- half so much worth doing as simply messing about in boats. Kenneth Grahame
Lefty Kreh advocates using your strong hand for both casting and reeling. He says you can’t keep up with a charging fish with your weak hand reeling.
I cast left handed and reel with my right on every kind of reel; spinning, baitcasting, and fly. I’ve never found it to be a problem and it just seems more natural to me. Switching hands to reel seems awkward to me. I never understood why baitcasting reels are backwards from spinning reels for most righties.
Get a good book and get some instruction before you develop bad habits that you’ll have to break. I find Lefty’s stuff easy to read and understand.
Try practicing with a small piece of cloth as a fly so you don’t hook yourself or damage your rod. I good smack to the rod with a clouser can be the beginning of damage that will lead to a break.
Yeah, go figure…why is it that righties complain about a spinning setup with a RH retrieve but are OK with a trolling/baitcast with RH retrieve?
Another tip: I whip a short 1 1/2" section of thread on my fly line at the thirty foot mark (not counting leader). That is usually about the right amount of line out the tip to load a rod well and is about as much line as you can comfortably pick up off the water to make the next cast. I’ve tried simply coloring the line with a marker but that bleeds and the thread has the added benefit of letting you feel it without looking when it comes through the guides. Don’t use bright colored thread if you plan to fish for barracudas or Spanish because they will sometimes hit it.
LOTS of good suggestions here. You could probably take the reel to one of the fishing stores and they could show you how to flip it from RH to LH or tell you if it doesn’t flip.
Watch the YouTube videos. I’ve been casting for many years and watch as many as I can find. If you can video yourself, it would help. I would love to see your early efforts! I bet they are GREAT! I would love to see early video of myself. I did learn not to use lead-eyed flies after not to many conks in the back of my head.
One thing that helped me was to use the top two thirds of a three piece rod to practice with. Not sure why it works but, it worked great for me.
Welcome to the world of fly fishing. I think you have already seen that we are friendly/helpful people, for the most part. Ty
if u switch the retrieve, ur gonna have to strip it all off. if u do it your self wrap around an old spool or a 5gal bucket and rewind 2 make it easier. casting: be slow and deliberate on the backcast and it will al work out like gravy. ya think golfers hit par there 1st round? practice!!! leave the spinner in the garage and devote yourself like “high religion” to the fly and it will all fall into place, i swear! welcome to the best addiction ever…and THIS is the only support group, lord we n trouble!
Following up on scotty d’s good advise:
I know there’s a lot of fly stuff and gadgets that you can spend or waste money on but one item I got a long time ago that I use frequently is a line winder. I have the one that has four aluminum scissor-looking spokes that can be collapsed and has the crank handle on one end and a table clamp on the other. It makes swapping fly lines a snap. It also lets me more easily remove the backing once a year to keep the arbors from corroding.
thanks for all the friendly advice. looking forward to it. at this point it feels like when i started shooting a bow instead of a rifle. it is more the “art” of it that has to stimulate you. the only difference is archery wasnt too hard because I feel like a pretty sound hunter and woodsman. But w fishing…well other than gigging, I havent done much since I was a kid. part of me thinks I should get back into fishing first…then try the flyrod. but it will just make the challenge a little tougher and the reward a little sweeter this way.
i learned a few knots on the interweb so im on the course.
“Let us never forget, the best is only found by the better.” Victor Hugo