Friday, September 11, 2009

Fly Fishing: How to Start

By Michael Adams

The idea behind this piece is to assist the beginner fly fishing. The terminology and the basic methods used in fly fishing may be unfamiliar to the beginner at fly fishing, so we will commence from the very beginning. So, if you are a beginner fly fishing person, please read on in order to become acquainted with fly fishing.

The things needed for fly fishing are usually called tackle, but if you want to be more accurate about the type of things you need, you can tack on the words "fly fishing". So, you get the phrase: "fly fishing tackle". Fly fishing tackle, or gear, fundamentally comprises artificial flies, a fly rod, a fly reel and fly line. The set-up is: the fly is affixed to the line, which is wound around the reel, which is attached to the rod or pole, which is used to cast the fly or other bait.

To make it easier to cast the fly as far as required from the angler, the line needs to be a bit weightier than the other kinds of fishing line, since a weight is used in other kinds of fishing to get the same result. Also, the artificial flies are made in all sorts of shapes, sizes and colours to look like real, live flies, depending on the sort of fish the angler wants to catch.

Generally speaking, an artificial fly is made of hair, plastic, feathers, fabric, fur and many other kinds of material in order to make the flies resemble, as closely as possible, the insect or fly most commonly taken by the particular sort of fish in that particular month or at that time of the day. This means that each fishing spot requires that you select a certain kind of artificial fly that will look like the insects living in the area where your desired type of fish swim. Therefore, a kind of fly employed in one area of the country may not work as well as you'd expect in another.

There are classifications of flies too, although they fall into two basic super categories, which are referred to as 'attractive' and 'imitative'. The imitative artificial lures look like real insects, whereas the attractive ones only rely on colour or the twinkling of sunlight in order to lure fish without necessarily resembling|looking like] the fish's normal diet.

Further sub-classifications are then used to sub-divide artificial fly fishing lures into: a] dry (imitating grasshoppers, dragonflies, etc. which float on or near the surface of the water); b] sub-surface (imitating larvae, pupae) and c] wet (imitating leeches and minnows and other small fish or fry).

The biggest distinguishing feature between fly fishing and non-fly fishing is that fly fishing relies to a great extent on the weight of the line to get the artificial fly to that section of the water where the fish are schooling, probably at a distance from the angler. The line is often green and hollow, so that it will float.

However, non-fly fishing relies instead on the added weight, usually made of lead previously, to pull the line off the reel and carry it on to the right spot, where the weight or even split shot will also take the bait or lure down in the water to the feeding fish.

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