New To Fly Fishing

[Solominotaur]

Just got a fly rod and was looking for tips from this awesome community. Not sure what flies are must haves in my tackle for rainbow trout. Also is there any difference between fly leaders and the many rolls of monofilament line I use on my spinner reels? And whatever tips and tricks anyone would care to share. Hoping to knock a few fish off my bucket list. Never caught pike,arctic grayling(don't want to keep I know the regs), perch, and would love to catch a mountain or lake whitefish.

Appreciate any help anyone can give even if it's just a direction to head to start fishing.

I use a 9' #6 rod

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[millsboy79]

The biggest fountain of information I found is YouTube... take some time and have a look.

Typical fly leaders are tapered which make a novice fly cast slightly easier.

Flies ... guess it depends on location but usually can't go wrong with a San Juan worn, some pheasant tails and Prince nymphs. Colours will vary depending on your location.

Best of luck

[Larry.S]

I'm not an avid lake fisherman and there are people on this forum that can better help you with that aspect, but if you want to fish rivers in this province:

Stimulators, foam hoppers/beetles/ants, elk hair caddis, BWOs, Adams, green/brown drakes, prince nymphs, pheasant tails, an assortment of stone fly nymphs, wooly buggers, cone headed zuddlers. These flies catch 99% of all the fish I get. I carry a bunch of different patterns as well, but don't use nearly as much as I use these.

Buy an assortment of sizes in them all. Buy parachute versions of the smaller dries. If you are going to fish down south, buy small cripple/emerged variants of the dries (lots of pressure but you can out fish most by avoiding the typical overused big patterns). Buy some split shot and yarn strike indicators for nymphing. I'm all for supporting the local shops, but if your starting from nothing, check out an online place like Icky or Reelflies. You'll save a ton of money.

Have fun trying to figure it out...even when you're not catching anything, it's still nice being out in the woods and casting a fly rod has a certain calming aspect to it.

[Solominotaur]

Originally Posted by Larry.S

I'm not an avid lake fisherman and there are people on this forum that can better help you with that aspect, but if you want to fish rivers in this province:

Stimulators, foam hoppers/beetles/ants, elk hair caddis, BWOs, Adams, green/brown drakes, prince nymphs, pheasant tails, an assortment of stone fly nymphs, wooly buggers, cone headed zuddlers. These flies catch 99% of all the fish I get. I carry a bunch of different patterns as well, but don't use nearly as much as I use these.

Buy an assortment of sizes in them all. Buy parachute versions of the smaller dries. If you are going to fish down south, buy small cripple/emerged variants of the dries (lots of pressure but you can out fish most by avoiding the typical overused big patterns). Buy some split shot and yarn strike indicators for nymphing. I'm all for supporting the local shops, but if your starting from nothing, check out an online place like Icky or Reelflies. You'll save a ton of money.

Have fun trying to figure it out...even when you're not catching anything, it's still nice being out in the woods and casting a fly rod has a certain calming aspect to it.

Thanks for the advice, I was hoping to get some experience under my belt and then try for mountain fishing or even just the McLeod river try and catch some grayling

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[professori]

Originally Posted by Solominotaur

Also is there any difference between fly leaders and the many rolls of monofilament line I use on my spinner reels?
Appreciate any help anyone can give even if it's just a direction to head to start fishing.

I use a 9' #6 rod

Sent from my SM-G928W8 using Tapatalk

A fly line is much to large in diameter to pass through the eye of hook, so a leader, a piece of monofilament or fluorocarbon is attached to the end of the fly line. In its simplest form, it is just one piece of level line. However, if the leader is longer than than a couple of feet, it will not turn over and will deposit the fly very close to the end of the fly line (not a good placement). This is not a problem if you are fishing, say chironomids on a floating line, or a subsurface fly on a sinking or sink tip line, but generally you want the fly to land as far from the tip of your fly line as possible. In that case, you will want a tapered leader, thicker and heavier at the butt end and gradually tapering to a finer, lighter material at the far end (tippet end). This gradation allows the energy to travel down the line to the fly and turns over the leader and fly.
A nine foot commercially produced, knotless, tapered leader is a great place for a novice caster to start and can be purchased at any tackle shop. You can also find directions to build your own tapered leaders, knotting together different thicknesses of material to achieve a taper. In general, you should be using mono or fluoro designed for leaders as it is usually a more supple material than the mono you are spooling up your spinning reels with. My favourite material for building leaders is Maxima Ultragreen, supple and strong and priced reasonably.
Finally, a leader, tapered or not, will not make it any easier or more difficult for a novice (or anyone else) to cast better. A leader will not add enough mass to affect the travel and castability of any fly line. The possible exception would be a leader in the 20-35 foot category. Casting a rig with a very long leader (most often when fishing chironomids in deep water) does require altering your casting stroke, but only to accommodate the extra length, nothing to to with the mass of the leader.
I hope this is of some assistance.

[professori]

If you want to build your own leaders, there is a great site that allows you to get formulas for almost any leader type you can imagine. There is a very good discussion and a link to download the program.
http://globalflyfisher.com/fish-better/leadercalc2007
I recommend you look at this version first and get an idea of what it can do. You do need MS Excel to fully utilize it. Once you get the idea, the following link is much simpler to navigate.
http://globalflyfisher.com/fish-better/leadercalc-2016
Have fun.

[Solominotaur]

Originally Posted by professori

If you want to build your own leaders, there is a great site that allows you to get formulas for almost any leader type you can imagine. There is a very good discussion and a link to download the program.
http://globalflyfisher.com/fish-better/leadercalc2007
I recommend you look at this version first and get an idea of what it can do. You do need MS Excel to fully utilize it. Once you get the idea, the following link is much simpler to navigate.
http://globalflyfisher.com/fish-better/leadercalc-2016
Have fun.

Thank you, might explain some of my catching woes

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