Fly Fishing For Beginners

The purpose of this article is to assist the beginner fly fishing. The terminology and the basic methods employed in fly fishing may be unknown 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 instruments required for fly fishing are usually known as tackle, but if you want to be more specific about the sort of tools you need, you can add the words "fly fishing". Therefore, we use the phrase: "fly fishing tackle". Fly fishing tackle, or gear, basically comprises artificial flies, a fly rod, a fly reel and fly line. The way it works is: the fly is attached 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.

In order to be able to cast the fly as far as possible, the line needs to be a little heavier than other types of line, since a weight is used in other forms of fishing to achieve the same effect. Furthermore, the artificial flies come in all sorts of shapes, sizes and colours to reflect real, live flies, depending on the species of fish the angler wants to catch.

In general, the artificial fly is made of hair, plastic, feathers, fabric, fur and other materials in order to make the lure as closely resemble as possible the insect or fly most commonly eaten by the particular species of fish at that particular month or time of the day. This means that each fishing spot requires that you choose a certain kind of artificial fly that will look like the insects living in the area where your desired type of fish frequent. Therefore, a kind of fly used in one area of the region may not work as well as you'd think elsewhere.

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 flies look like real flies, whereas the attractive flies just rely on colour or the twinkling of sunlight in order to lure fish without necessarily resembling the fish's usual diet.

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

The main 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 carry the artificial fly to that section of the water where the fish are schooling, probably at some distance from the bank. The line is often camouflaged and hollow like electrical wire coating, so that it will float.

However, non-fly fishing relies instead on the added weight, usually made of lead previously, to draw the line off the reel and carry it forward to the correct pool, where the weight will also take the bait or lure down to the feeding fish.

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