Fly fishing advice

Phoenix9898 · #1 07-13-2012, 03:22 PM

Hi, my lovely wife bought me one of those fish cat 4 inflatable things....which is awesome! Before I got this, I always fished from shore. Now that I have this unit, I have tried learning how to fly fish. I landed a 19 inch rainbow at goldeye lake a few weeks back, but I think it was beginners luck!

My question is when you cast out a dry fly how long do you leave it on the water before you cast again? And how far from my tube should I ideally be casting?
Any other tips you guys can provide? Thanks!

pikergolf · #2 07-13-2012, 03:47 PM

In a lake I would not use a dry fly unless the fish were already rising, and even then a nymph will usually out produce a dry. If you do use a dry just an occational twitch is good. Generally the further away from the tube you can get the better.Depending on what line you have I would troll around the outside of the weeds. If all you have is a floating line I would get some weighted nymphs and weighted leeches and start there. Cast out and let the fly sink the full leader and then slowly kick about 20 ft to cause the fly or leech to rise in the water column. Keep repeating bearing in mind that most feeding fish will be fairly close to weeds. If you have a sinking line that opens up a lot of different options, but again trolling slowly until you locate fish is the ticket. If you locate fish you can stop and cast, or continue trolling, the biggest plus of the sinking line is that it doesn't take as long for the fly to get down and when you retrieve it stays in the deeper zone. Having said that sometimes the fish prefer the rising action of the dry line. Hope that helps you get started.

Darren N · #3 07-13-2012, 03:50 PM

I like to keep my dries slightly moving so a slight strip in to the point you dont drown your fly. I have had them bite within 10' of my pontoon but generally cast out as far as you can slowly strip in and recast again. When your fly is dry from your box putting on a floatant helps it stay up longer but only put it on dry flies.

Phoenix9898 · #4 07-13-2012, 04:05 PM

So then it a good idea to have two fly fishing rods (or at least reels) one for floating line and one for sinking line? Thanks for the input!

pikergolf · #5 07-13-2012, 04:24 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Phoenix9898

So then it a good idea to have two fly fishing rods (or at least reels) one for floating line and one for sinking line? Thanks for the input!

Yes that would be ideal, some people prefer a sink tip line to a sinking, something to look into, maybe someone can weigh in. I really like a slow sink line, sink rate one.

kylecott · #6 07-13-2012, 04:56 PM

welcome to the art of fly fishing. i have been fly fishing for 23 years now. it can still be frusterating at times. i have two seperate reels, one with a full float and the other a full sink. fly fishing in general is exciting when a fish is on your line. for me i prefer the dry fly, nothing is as entertaining as watching your fly get taken from the surface. all the techniques the guys are sayin will work, one i will add is when using a weighted fly attach a strike indicator on your leader near the fly line. it will act simmilar to a bobber for seeing a strike.

hopefully you will enjoy many years in this sport, hobby and lifestyle.

cheers