The Complete Guide to Fly Fishing

By Stephen Taylor

Introduction

It’s a beautiful day in early spring. You are standing beside a beautiful river flowing through the mountains of Colorado. In your hands you hold your gear. You are brimming with excitement as you imagine what you will catch today. You are getting ready to fly fish and you can’t wait to get started!

People have been fly fishing for years. In its beginnings, people would use flies to fish with for food, but then it turned into a sport and now anglers fly fish for both food and sport.

Fly fishing is a traditional angling method that uses artificial flies for lures that are made of materials like fur and feathers. The flies are fastened onto a hook and are meant to imitate a fish’s natural food source. The rods are light, but the lines are heavy providing the weight and momentum for casting.

Fly fishermen use a series of casting moves meant to imitate the bug on water. The techniques are wide and varied. When casting much of the rod’s movement comes from the angler’s wrist.

Fly fishing as a sport is something many people find amazingly enjoyable. Most fly fishing is done in certain places like Colorado, Montana, and Wisconsin. The fish most often caught are trout and salmon, although anglers can catch a variety of fish with their flies.

In this book, we’ll explore a variety of topics with regards to fly fishing. Some of the information will be geared towards beginning fishermen, but experienced fly fishers can benefit from this information as well. A refresher course is always good in any sport!

We’ll look at the gear you’ll need, ways to tie flies, and the best places to find an excellent fishing spot. You’ll learn about places to buy your gear from and what to look for when you are buying that gear.

This author is an equal opportunity person and no disrespect is meant to women who like to fly fish when I use the term fisherman. Because most of the time we say the word “fisherman”, don’t fret gals, I’m talking about you too!

New and experienced anglers can both benefit from this great book. So, let’s explore the joys of fly fishing!

Fly Fishing Terms

Just as with any sport, there are some terms that are synonymous with the sport itself. While most people think of flies as pesky insects, fly fishermen know that flies are something else altogether. Flies to a fisherman are what is most important to make their hobby enjoyable and challenging.

To a beginner, fly fishing terminology might be confusing, so in this section, we’ll present you with some new terms and what those terms mean so that when we use them later in this book, you’ll know what we’re talking about.

Back cast – The portion of any fly cast that extends beyond the person doing the casting.

Bass Bug - Name used to describe a large number of surface bass flies usually tied with hollow hair (such as deer hair).

Bass Bug Taper - A special weight forward floating fly line with a short front taper so that the generally wind-resistant bass bugs can turn over.

Blood Knot - The most widely used knot for tying two pieces of monofilament with similar diameters together; the best knot for construction of a knotted tapered leader; also called the barrel knot.

Breaking Strength - Amount of effort required to break a single strand of unknotted monofilament or braided line, usually stated in pounds (example: 6 lb. test).

Caddis - One of the three most important aquatic insects imitated by fly fishermen; found world wide in all freshwater habitats; adult resembles a moth when in flight; at rest the wings are folded in a tent shape down the back; the most important aquatic state of the caddis is the pupa, which is its emerging stage.

Casting Arc - The path that the fly rod follows during a complete cast, usually related to the face of a clock.

Clinch Knot - Universally used knot for attaching a hook, lure, swivel, or fly to the leader or line; a slight variation results in the improved clinch knot, which is an even stronger knot for the above uses.

Co-Polymers – These are mixtures of various nylons and plastics along with anti-UV chemicals that have resulted in the exceptionally high breaking strength of modern tippet material. This is certainly one of the biggest advancements in fly fishing in the last 50 years. It allows you to use very fine tippets with breaking strengths two to four times as strong as regular nylon monofilament. Co-polymers are not as abrasion resistant as regular nylon monofilament.

Damping - Reducing excess vibrations in the rod blank when unloading the rod during a cast. This causes fewer waves in your fly line resulting in more power & distance for less effort.

Dead Drift - A perfect float meaning the fly is traveling at the same pace as the current; used in both dry fly and nymph fishing.

Double Taper (DT) - A standard fly line design in which both ends of the line are tapered, while the greater portion or "belly" of the line is level; excellent line for short to moderate length casts, and for roll casting; not as well suited for distance casts; commonly available in floating, or sinking styles.

Drag - (1) Term used to describe an unnatural motion of the fly caused by the effect of the current on line and leader. Drag is usually detrimental, though at times useful such as when imitating the actions of the adult caddis. (2) Resistance applied to the reel spool to prevent it from turning faster than the line leaving the spool which is used in playing larger fish.

Dry Fly - Any fly fished upon the surface of the water; usually constructed of non-water-absorbent materials; most commonly used to imitate the adult stage of aquatic insects.

Dry Fly Floatant – This is a chemical preparation that is applied to a dry fly before use to waterproof it; may be a paste, liquid, or aerosol.

False Cast - Standard fly fishing cast; used to lengthen and shorten line, to change direction, and to dry off the fly; frequently overused. In false casting, the line is kept moving backwards and forwards without being allowed to touch the surface of the water or the ground

Floating Fly Line - a fly line where the entire line floats; best all round fly line.

Fly Casting - standard method of presenting a fly to a target using a fly rod and fly line; involves many different casts.

Fly Line - key ingredient to fly fishing; made of a tapered plastic coating over a braided Dacron or nylon core; available in several tapers and in floating, sinking, and sink-tip styles.

Fly Reel - fishing reel used in fly fishing to hold the fly line. There are three basic types: single action, multiplier, and automatic. 1.) Single action is the most common and the most popular. Single action means that one turn of the handle equals one turn of the spool. 2.) Multiplying reels use a gear system to increase this ratio (usually, 2-to-1). With a 2-to-1 ratio, each turn of the handle equals 2 revolutions of the spool. 3.) Automatic fly reels are the least practical for most people; they operate by a manually wound spring which is activated by a lever; automatic reels are heavy and tend to malfunction.

Fly Rod - a type of fishing rod especially designed to cast a fly line. Fly rods differ from other types of rods in that the reel attaches at the butt of the rod with the rod handle always above the reel; fly rods usually have more line guides than other types of rods of the same length. Fly rod lengths vary, with common lengths being between 7 and 9 feet. Materials used in fly rod construction are bamboo, fiberglass, and graphite.

Forceps - hand operated medical instrument widely used in fly-fishing to remove flies from the jaws of a hooked fish. Have pliers-like jaws with locking clips so that once they are clamped to the hook, they stay there until you release them.

Forward Cast - the front portion of the false cast or pick-up and lay-down, and a mirror image of the back cast.

Freestone – this is a type of river or stream with a significant gradient resulting in medium to fast-moving water. Although the upper reaches of a freestone stream may be spring-fed, the vast majority of its flow comes from run-off or tributaries. The fast moving water inhibits the growth of weeds or other rooted vegetation resulting in a "Free Stone" bottom. Freestone streams are less fertile than spring creeks resulting in a smaller and less diverse aquatic insect population. Fewer bugs in faster water usually results in fewer but more opportunistic trout.

Gel-spun polyethylene – This is a synthetic fiber that is extremely thin, supple, slippery, very abrasion resistant, and strong. It is stronger than steel for its size. It is often used as a braided fly line backing where large amounts of backing are needed and space on the reel is limited.

Graphite - the most popular rod-building material in use today; offers the best weight, strength, and flex ratio of any rod building material currently available.

Hackle - a feather, usually from the neck area of a chicken; can be any color (dyed or natural); hackle quality, such as the stiffness of the individual fibers and amount of web, determines the type of fly tied with the hackle; many hackles are grown specifically for fly tying.

Headwaters - upstream section of the river before the main tributaries join it. This section is typically much smaller in width and flow than the main section of the river.

Hollow Hair - hair from some animals is mostly hollow, thus holding air and making these hairs float. Hollow hair is ideal for tying dry flies and bass bugs. Antelope, deer, and elk all have hollow hair.

Hook – a hook is the object upon which the fly is tied; can be any size from tiny to huge; made from steel wire, and either bronzed, cadmium coated, or stainless. Hook designs are variable; style used depends upon the type of fly being tied.

Imitative Flies- flies tied to more closely match specific insects. Imitative flies are most effective in slow-moving, clear water, with finicky trout in fertile streams with large populations of aquatic insects.

Impressionistic Flies - flies tied to loosely suggest a variety of insects or insect families. For instance, a Hare's Ear nymph in sizes 12-16 can be used as both a mayfly and a caddis fly imitation and in larger sizes as a stonefly imitation. Impressionistic flies are usually most effective in medium to fast water, in streams with sparser populations of aquatic insects.

Indicator - floating object placed on the leader or end of the fly line to "indicate" the take of the fly by a fish or to indicate the path of the drift of the fly; used when nymph fishing with a slack line; very effective.

Knotless Tapered Leader - a fly fishing leader entirely constructed from a single piece of monofilament. Extrusion or acid immersion is most commonly

Impressum

Verlag: BookRix GmbH & Co. KG

Texte: Serapis
Bildmaterialien: Serapis
Tag der Veröffentlichung: 30.11.2014
ISBN: 978-3-7368-6019-3

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