newbe questions

I plan on learing to fly fish this spring and I don't know anyone in this
area that does fly fishes. I ordered some videos and have been buying
magazines. I picked up a 7ft. 4w fly rod at Walmart and plan on learning
fishing for bluegills and I don't know anywhere close that even stock trout.
I (I'm in southern ILL) What kind of flies etc would you recomend??? From
what I've read WF line would be easier to learn to cast. Any tips &
suggestions would be greatly appreceated.
Thanks, Mike

--

JESUS IS LORD!

"Mike" wrote in message
. net...

I plan on learing to fly fish this spring and I don't know anyone in this
area that does fly fishes. I ordered some videos and have been buying
magazines. I picked up a 7ft. 4w fly rod at Walmart and plan on learning
fishing for bluegills and I don't know anywhere close that even stock
trout.
I (I'm in southern ILL) What kind of flies etc would you recomend??? From
what I've read WF line would be easier to learn to cast. Any tips &
suggestions would be greatly appreceated.

Your library probably has one of Joe Brooks'
excellent all-round guides. You may find casting
easier with a longer rod, say 8 ft., and size 4 wt.
is best only for very small flies. Panfish and bass
take flies in the range 2 to 14, best cast on a 7wt.
outfit.

--
Don Phillipson
Carlsbad Springs
(Ottawa, Canada)

On Tue, 13 Feb 2007 20:20:11 -0500, "Don Phillipson"
wrote:

"Mike" wrote in message
.net...

I plan on learing to fly fish this spring and I don't know anyone in this
area that does fly fishes. I ordered some videos and have been buying
magazines. I picked up a 7ft. 4w fly rod at Walmart and plan on learning
fishing for bluegills and I don't know anywhere close that even stock
trout.
I (I'm in southern ILL) What kind of flies etc would you recomend??? From
what I've read WF line would be easier to learn to cast. Any tips &
suggestions would be greatly appreceated.

Your library probably has one of Joe Brooks'
excellent all-round guides. You may find casting
easier with a longer rod, say 8 ft., and size 4 wt.
is best only for very small flies. Panfish and bass
take flies in the range 2 to 14, best cast on a 7wt.
outfit.

Whoa, hang on here...assuming the OP is legit, a 7 ft. 4 wt. is just
fine for bluegill. And the Walmart rod is probably OK, too (no mention
of a reel, but a Walmart reel is fine at this point), BUT get a decent
line. A Cortland 333 would be a decent, inexpensive choice for a
novice. Get some tippet material - many Walmarts carry a selection, and
leaders. Learn to connect everything together. As to bass, a 4 is
pretty light for all but the smallest bass, but get what is often sold
as a 6/7 at Walmart and the like, and it'll make a decent bass rod for
average bass (not Florida-strain monsters).

As to flies, don't get any yet. What you want at this point is
"whiffs," practice flies, etc. - NO HOOKS, NOT EVEN HOOKS CUT OFF
MID-BEND. And wear glasses. If you can't find them, an easy way to
make them is to take some thin, single-strand wire (copper is easiest)
about 2.5" long and fold it in half over something like a wire nail (to
form an eye), grab the ends with a pair of pliers, and twist. Take any
kind of fur - some cat fur, old jacket-hood trim, anything - and wrap a
bunch to the eyed shaft with sewing thread. All you want is, basically,
a ball of fluff with an eye. A couple of drops of Superglue or clear
fingernail polish will do for head cement. When dry, snip any wire not
covered. Look at any flytying website, book, etc. for the general idea
of how a fly is tied. If you decide to use real flies, snip as much
hook as possible and put a drop of Superglue at the stub to help hold
things together. When you're ready for real flies and fishing, when it
comes to bluegill, bream/brim, etc., try red first - any small fly with
red.

As to learning to cast, if lessons from a professional instructor (or a
very knowledgeable amateur) are out, then videos and books are a better
overall tool, IMO, then just books. It helps to see what casting looks
like. Pay attention to the rod and the hands of the caster. If you
have a video camera, tape yourself and compare yourself with the video,
but don't "judge" yourself by it. Flyfishing isn't difficult,
especially for bluegills, but getting into bad habits can cause
frustration as your interest grows. Take it slow, practice, practice,
practice, and don't force it. Flyfishing isn't a particularly effective
fishing method, as (legal) fishing methods go, and even more so for
novices, and if you don't like it, there's nothing wrong with simply
returning to other methods that you do enjoy.

Good luck and enjoy,
R

Mr Dean has some good points, but I would say you could save yourself
a lot time in messing around with the practice fly he mentioned. The
one i used I got from the LL Bean book was just about a half dozen 1-
inch long pieces of yarn, tied to the tippet with a clinch knot. Ten
seconds and you are ready to cast, and it is painless if it hits you
in the noggin.
-Ethan

On 13 Feb 2007 18:46:02 -0800, "Ethan" wrote:

Mr Dean has some good points, but I would say you could save yourself
a lot time in messing around with the practice fly he mentioned. The
one i used I got from the LL Bean book was just about a half dozen 1-
inch long pieces of yarn, tied to the tippet with a clinch knot. Ten
seconds and you are ready to cast, and it is painless if it hits you
in the noggin.
-Ethan

Yarn will work fine, but IMO, going through the motions of tying on a
fly, as well as the slight difference in characteristics, make the whiff
the practice "fly" of choice.

TC,
R
....and it most assuredly isn't "Mr." to anyone, of any age, unless their
parents insist...

Ethan wrote:

Mr Dean has some good points, .....

Well, *there's* somethin' you don't see every day on roff.

"JR" wrote in message
...
Ethan wrote:

Mr Dean has some good points, .....

Well, *there's* somethin' you don't see every day on roff.



yeah, wassup with calling him Mr.?
Tom

Don Phillipson wrote:

Your library probably has one of Joe Brooks'
excellent all-round guides. You may find casting
easier with a longer rod, say 8 ft., and size 4 wt.
is best only for very small flies. Panfish and bass
take flies in the range 2 to 14, best cast on a 7wt.
outfit.

I agree that a beginner would be better served by a longer
fly rod, but a 7ft 4wt is a better choice for bluegill than
an 8ft 7wt. My favorite bluegill rods are 3wt and they'll
toss small poppers just fine even with a 3DT fly line. A
7wt fly rod is way too much fly rod to have fun with bluegill.

--
Ken Fortenberry

Thanks for all the input, I printed it out to save. I bought the rod from
Wal-Mart figuring if for some reason I didn't enjoy it I could always us it
jigging. There is a hunting/fishing store in town that has more selection of
rods and reels. March is only a few weeks away, I am so ready to go wet a
hook. We haven't had much snow here in so. ILL but Feb. sure has been a cold
month. Right now it's 25 with a 10 deg. wind chill. Next few days suposed to
be colder.
Again thanks for all the input.

Mike

I live in SW Missouri and have access to a number of
ponds loaded with bluegill, crappie, bass and channel
cat, all of which I catch with an inexpensive 6 wt.,8.5 ft.
Bass Pro White River Classic (my first rod) and a
cheap Medalist reel. I agree with a prev. poster on
getting a good WF line. I rarely use a tapered leader
but instead use plain mono (4 or 6 lb.) and sometimes
tie my own tapered leader for better 'turn over' when
casting.

WalMart has a pre-made fly that looks like a black
spider....black chenille body, white rubber band legs
and a little tuft of grey squirrel tail hair at the head.
It works great for all the species mentioned above.
I now tie the same fly in various sizes for warm water
fishing everywhere. This is an easy fly to tie, especially
as a 'first fly'. I sometimes (in fact often) weight the
fly with a little lead wire and put a small dot of red
paint on the head to indicate amount of weight...one dot,
two dots, etc.

I suspect we are not far off in latitude so I would expect
the bluegill and other fish to really start turning-on in
about mid April and from then on until mid to late June.
The absolute best time for bluegill is when they are
nesting, indicated by dinner plate sized depressions on
the bottom near the shoreline starting at about 1 ft. of
water...on out and you can usually see the bluegill hanging
out around the nest.

As far as casting goes, certainly follow the suggestions
made by the previous posters. I would only add that
if you have any snow at all it makes a pretty good surface
on which to practice as the snow will not abrade your
line, will not catch your practice fly on grass, etc., and
will give at least a little drag on your line as you pick it
up thus allowing your rod to 'load' for the next cast.
If you can beg, borrow or rent a video on basic fly
casting it will help a lot.

Buff




"Mike" wrote in message
. net...
Thanks for all the input, I printed it out to save. I bought the rod
from
Wal-Mart figuring if for some reason I didn't enjoy it I could always
us it
jigging. There is a hunting/fishing store in town that has more
selection of
rods and reels. March is only a few weeks away, I am so ready to go
wet a
hook. We haven't had much snow here in so. ILL but Feb. sure has been
a cold
month. Right now it's 25 with a 10 deg. wind chill. Next few days
suposed to
be colder.
Again thanks for all the input.

Mike