Fly Fishing Primer for Boomers

Here are some pointers that will help you enjoy fly fishing on day one.

I find that the majority of people joining our club have always wanted to fly fish and finally have the time. Most of the novices are anxious to catch up in skill and experience to what they might have been if they never had to work all those dull, fishless years. How many of us would stare at a picture of a river or lake on the calendar hanging on the office wall and wish we were wading in that water holding a fly rod? Then a voice would get your attention, "Call on line one", and back to work we would go.

The good news is that if you wanted to do this sport for that long, then you are going to find a lot of enjoyment from now on until your body totally gives out. You are not likely to lose interest after a short time. Fly fishing has so many unexplored components that you will find a special niche that you really like. Some fly fishers Put their efforts into exotic species involving world travel. Some will make custom graphite fly rods or even bamboo rods. Fly tying, volunteer work or teaching are a few other areas. Being an officer in an association or doing conservation work interests others or even guiding or doing something with lodges. I have a friend who retired and went to a culinary college and now is chef at a lodge in the Rockies and he fly fishes every moment he is off work.

The bad news is that you have to be uncomfortable in the beginning until you know what you are doing. That's what I hope to cure with this article.

The best way to start is find a fly fishing club and start fishing with them at every opportunity. You might have a friend who can help you, but it would be better to learn from strangers at first so you don't wear out your friendship. Every club member can remember their first time and will have sympathy. Club members have more experience teaching newcomers the sport. The clubs have libraries full of books and DVDs that detail every aspect of the fly. They have special events just for beginners. Some of the clubs loan out items like rods, reels and float tubes. Fly tying, rod making and fly casting classes are common. In a year, you could be almost caught up to where you feel you should be. By the end of that year, you will probably start to specialize in one of these fly fishing niches.

Before your first trip with your teachers, you can do a few things to make the trip fun for everyone. You need to be low maintenance. This means that the fishers guiding you at the beginning aren't doing too many chores for you. If you show up the first time with just a few skills and a little knowledge, the veterans will be impressed and excited to take you again.

The main area where you can prepare is to learn some knots. There is no reason why you can't learn a few knots before you go fishing the first time. Most fishing supply stores have some cheap monofiliment fishing for sale. I recommend some eight or ten pound test so you can see it easy when you tie your knots. If the most knots you are willing to learn is one, then learn the Duncan loop also known as the uni knot. This knot is what I use to tie my flies to the tippet. I sometimes use it to splice two lines together instead of a blood knot or surgeon's knot. If you want to learn a second knot, then learn the surgeon's knot to splice your lines. It's a lot faster and it's even easier to learn than the Duncan loop. The third knot that you should learn is the nail knot. This is to attach the leader to the fly line, but that doesn't happen every trip, but when it does, it would be very nice to be able to take care of yourself. I would tie each knot 50 times. They are so clumsy to tie at first that if you are slow on the fishing trip, you will be out of the water 50% of the time. At best, you will catch half as many fish as everyone else since they are in the water all the time.

Casting, fishing tactics and fly presentation are very important, but most experienced fly fishers enjoy teaching these on the water, but not teaching knots. I guess you can learn casting in advance, but it takes many months to learn casting or more, so no one expects that from you. In fact, most good fly fishers don't cast very pretty themselves. That's one of those niche areas I mentioned earlier.

For etiquette, I recommend a simple rule, "If someone is fishing in a downstream direction, start upstream of them and visa versa". That means you are fishing cleanup. If you catch something while fishing cleanup, everyone will be impressed again. If you jump in front of someone, that's also called "cutting them off". That's a no-no.

Don't forget to learn those three knots and I hope you have a lot of fun out there like I am having. If you get skunked, remember that catching zero fish is like getting a triple bogey in golf and you can still enjoy the sport in spite of it.