My 14 year old son and I would like to try fly fishing. The nearest
fly fishing club is about 50 miles away so there isn't a local place to
go for help (I live in downstate Illinois). There isn't a fly fishing
store near here either. I've picked up a couple of beginner books and
read them, "The Orvis Fly Fishing Guide" and "Fly Fishing for
Beginners" (The Freshwater Angler). And a DVD "Successful Fly Fishing
Strategies" (Gary Lafontaine and Dick Sharon). I've also spent a week
browsing this group.

Are there any other sources that you would recommend we check out to
get started?

It looks like my son and I will need to "learn on our own" how to fly
fish. Can a person learn this from books/DVD's or are we fooling
ourselves? We just want to fish for panfish (Crappie and Bluegill) and
if we can get the hang of it then maybe try for Bass.

From our reading we feel like we now understand what equipment we need
to catch the fish we're targeting. But we need advice on where to get
a decent deal on affordable equipment (like a lot of people we're on a
limited budget). I've read in this group about Cabella's, TFO, Bass
Pro and Orvis being places to check out starter equipment -- and we've
done that. But we were wondering about "used" equipment. Is that a
way to go? I've checked out Ebay, but it looks like a lot of the items
there are selling for top dollar. Is there another (better priced)
place to go for used fly fishing equipment? Or is that pretty much
what we're going to pay regardless?

Thanks in advance for helping us out.