As Fall nears this is a great time to contact your local fly fishing shop or community college and check out the availability of fly tying classes. It is a never ending journey when learning fly fishing. Adding fly tying and fishing with your own creations elevates the enjoyment of solving puzzles of fly fishing. ‘The moment’ when you hook and play a fish on one of your creations will put a big smile on your face.
Kell & Katie (SwittersB)
I have written here before re my own transgressions in teaching my sons how to fly fish. Just a friendly reminder to make it a relaxed, initially simple outing. Do not bring your own competitive, impatient style to the water. Be patient with the child’s own impatience and competitive streak. Teach them, mentor them with an eye toward the realities of the sport: things do not always go as planned or desired. Tangles, snags, collapsed casts are all to be expected and fixed. Like in life……..
If you are teaching your own acquaintances, then remember they will be watching your style and how you handle all manner of problems and successes. We do tend to be on our good behavior while teaching strangers, but less so around our own family.
Children will bring to the table all manner of emotions they have developed through sports or self -imposed assessments. Don’t add to their load with too much negativity or too much “here let me show you”. Keep it simple and fun.
Pick a quiet expanse of lawn at a park or school. Starting at the edge of a stream can be ok, but back casts, mending, roll casts etc. will require patience. At the end of a session, you will know if the child is relaxed, happy, excited or handing that rod to you like it is charged with bad ju ju.
Once you think they have a simple grasp of the basics, a casting class or beginner’s class may be in order, but make sure they are up to it and that you have a sense if the instructor is up to teaching kids. Watch for kid’s classes or introduction to fly fishing casting ponds at sportsmen’s shows /expositions.
Above everything, make it something they will want to still be doing for the rest of their life. Check out FlyFishingPhil for a casting technique drill to adapt to teaching young ones:
h/t to John Newbury from FB re this knot tying technique: The Hemostat Knot. This might be particularly helpful when the finger tips are frozen, or for general use.
For the beginning fly tier, you would be well served to practice your tying techniques while tying a limited scope of patterns. The temptation is to tie every pattern in that book and more that come to mind. Tie this and tie that. If you were limited to just tying as a past time with no opportunity to fish your creations, then tie hither and yon, but otherwise I would stay toward basic nymphs, dries, emergers, streamers and flymphs/wets (or, the basic patterns for the species you chase….it could be a variety of streamers only for a predatory species). This way there is a practical benefit to your targeted tying.
Flymphs: this style of ‘wet’ fly is worth a study on your part and worth a lot of tying. Selection of hackle and style of body are the two key considerations. Sparse patterns for almost dry fly presentations have/had their place. But, buggier dubbing and softer hackling offer a great deal of animation and life. A flymph can fish from the bottom up to the top with the correct presentations: Leisenring Lift.
A couple presentation considerations: study spey (two hander) casts and research their applicability to a single hander. Jean Paul from Roughfisher mentioned this the other day and it true. Line handling with bigger flies or more staged presentations can be easier by moving line, dumping it and then rolling it out into a zone. Research this. Also, for the stream fishing angler chasing primarily trout there is a tendency toward only using a floating line and rarely a sink tip. I use five lines for stillwater but severely limit myself on rivers when chasing trout. (I carry multiple spey line heads). But, a readers comment about using sinking lines and manipulating the fly up through pools and rapids reminded me of watching an old timer fish streamers with a clear, intermediate line to fish streamers on a river (something I would normally only use on a lake).
It is both. Depending upon your weather, seasonal closures/openings and freedom to fish. An example of late for me: I have recently spent more time researching patterns I had fleeting chances at last year and was not prepared with the right patterns and/or correct presentation (Yellow Sally Stonefly, Sculpin/Streamer Patterns).
You fish and see you need to figure out an insect for the next time (what was that large, yellow, fluttering fly popping out of mid-stream? (Mayfly, but it looked like a Stonefly?). Or, you are still cut off for the season (weather, closures, work, obligations). You plan for the time span you will have to fish and study the hatches you will experience on the bodies of river you will most likely visit (example: August-October for Crooked R., Deschutes R., Metolius R., McKenzie R., Tunkwa L., Leighton L. etc.).
This is part of the ongoing fun of tying and fishing (or, fishing and tying).
While checking FB, I noted April Vokey was a fan of Fishing With Rod. I decided to check it out and found an informative BC site from Rodney Hsu. Not all fly fishing but that is ok. Lots to learn and well presented. Any tip of the hat from April is worth a look.
Good Bye & Thank You~Tony Muncy
SwittersB~Christmas Is. 2007
I recently tried installing a mapping tool on my side bar and found even a few hours input fascinating. However, the widget skewed my right side and had to remove the mapping device. So, if you come across this baited post, would you mind dropping a comment to me so I can see where my visitors come from and one thing you are most interested in and would like to see more of…??
Here is a small two hour window of visitor employing the mapping tool and their locations I noted and enjoyed receiving… I would appreciate any feedback.
| Portland, OR, United States | |
| Miami, FL, United States | |
| Saginaw, MI, United States | |
| Lawrence, MA, United States | |
| San Ramon, CA, United States | |
| Smyrna, GA, United States | |
| Chevy Chase, MD, United States | |
| Ft Mitchell, KY, United States | |
| Bozeman, MT, United States | |
| Mount Ephraim, NJ, United States | |
| Adelaide, Australia | |
| Eatonton, GA, United States | |
| Spicewood, TX, United States | |
| Niagara Falls, ON, Canada | |
| , , United States | |
| Eugene, OR, United States | |
| Erie, CO, United States | |
| Portland, OR, United States | |
| Mobile, AL, United States | |
| Ardmore, PA, United States | |
| Glyndon, MN, United States | |
| Rockland, ME, United States | |
| Quebec, QC, Canada | |
| Athens, Greece | |
| Las Vegas, NV, United States | |
| Melbourne, Australia |
