fly fishing

pikingrin

what is this?
I think there was a post on here a while back but I'm too lazy to bother exhuming the old one if there was...

I got a fly rod late last year in a trade and had the opportunity to attempt to fly fish (again) with my own gear on my last trip out to Colorado. Caught a few fish (2) but spent more time untangling my leader than I did casting.

Anyone else here have any experience with fly fishing? I'm trying to downgrade my 9' setup with a shorter beginner package and I'm really curious about line weights and reel sizes. Does any of that really make a huge difference?

I'm looking for a kayak and going to try to fly fish the lake around the corner with some poppers (next spring when I figure the cast out) but I want to get a good "all purpose" rig if there is such a thing. Thoughts?
 
I've been a pretty avid fisherman my whole life, but I've never tried fly fishing. I'm a saltwater guy. Some guys fly fish the flats around here, but I prefer conventional rod and reel.

I do a lot of kayak fishing though.
 
Fish as regularly as I can. I (somewhat) recently bought kayaks(sit on top), loads of fun, should have done it years ago.

I'll fish fresh or saltwater, but mostly salt right now. Fall and spring i'll hit fresh more when fish are more active.

Fly fishing i've yet to try. It'll be an added challenge for you in a kayak, I would think, as your shoulders are only a few feet off the water surface. If you get a kayak I would suggest an anchor mod if your boat doesn't already come equipped with an anchor trolley. The trolley system will allow you to place the anchor point to the front or rear of the kayak, rather than tying off on the side leaving you broadside to the current and subject to drift. Freshwater for the most part isn't subject to heavier current and tidal changes, but anchoring will allow you to target better.

Greg......thanks for all of the good advice on kayaking. Having a ball! Winds are out of the north today, approx 18 mph. I'm going to hit the inlet, N wind = good fishing here. Lately the reds inside the inlet have been too big to keep, in the 31 inch range! I still occasionally hit the beach, but there's nothing like pulling them up beside and into the kayak rather than dragging them up onto the sand. Still haven't ventured out into the bay yet. But i'll get there, with an upgrade to at least a 12' and more experience, next year. Have you been out lately?
 
No prob.

I haven't been out in about a month. It's soooo unbelievably hot right now. Even the water is hot - like bath water. Lol. For real. The water is actually hot. Nothing is biting right now. Well, crap like hardheads are in full force, but nothing good.

The Bull Reds will start running in about two or three weeks down here. Usually the first full moon of Sept signals the start of the Reds.
 
Yeah, hardheads (croaker?) are hitting pretty heavily right now here also. They're fun if nothing else comes along, though. A NorEaster came through a couple of weeks ago and pushed some nice ones in, some in the 16" range. I had to check some of them for spots, as they resembled there more favored cousin, the red.

Well I better get going while the tide is still pushing in, ride 'er in, ride 'er out.
 
Yeah, hardheads (croaker?) are hitting pretty heavily right now here also. They're fun if nothing else comes along, though. A NorEaster came through a couple of weeks ago and pushed some nice ones in, some in the 16" range. I had to check some of them for spots, as they resembled there more favored cousin, the red.

Well I better get going while the tide is still pushing in, ride 'er in, ride 'er out.

No, croaker are croaker. Croaker are great for bait or for eating. They're part of the drum/speckled trout family. Good fish.

By "hardheads" I mean saltwater catfish. Useless trolls of the sea.
 
Ah, I see. Different locale, different terminology. Here, east coast, Croaker are sometimes referred to as hardheads. Big enough, good eating, but most often good for cut bait.....it's a start for potential. I'm not familiar with saltwater cats.
 
Ah, I see. Different locale, different terminology. Here, east coast, Croaker are sometimes referred to as hardheads. Big enough, good eating, but most often good for cut bait.....it's a start for potential. I'm not familiar with saltwater cats.

Maybe yall don't have them over there. Down here, if you're using small cut bait or shrimp on the bottom, you will catch a bunch of goddamned hardheads. It's unavoidable. I don't use small baits often, so I generally get left alone by the hardheads. Gafftop are another story though. They're a much larger saltwater catfish, and they can eat the big baits I leave out for Reds or Black Drum. They're a real pain in my ass. I wade out a hundred yards, cast a huge bait out past the last sandbar, and as soon as I get back to the sand, I've got a fucking Gafftop fucking up my carefully placed bait. They don't fight well, so they're not even fun to reel in. I can tell when it's a Gafftop that's gotten himself hooked on my line. They're usually not strong enough to dislodge a spider weight. Sometimes I'll just leave his ass out there hooked up and hope a shark swims by and eats his ass whole. It hasn't worked yet, but I've reeled in a few Gafftop heads after a shark has taken the rest of him.
 
We have a stream about 5 miles north of me in the foothills of the San Gabriel mountains.

When I was a teen I got myself set up for fly fishing...I'd jump in the Goat and kill fish..( actually most often catch and release ) I loved it but rock n roll got in the way and that fly rod and reel has been hanging in my garage for 40+years...(I'm sure it is in stellar condition) Done a shit load of ocean fishing since but just haven't gone back and done the fresh water thing for ages.....Fly fishing a stream and getting a trout to jump out of the water taking a fly is a very cool sight to be seen.
 
I did some fly fishing when I lived in Alaska. I've also used a fly rod to fish a floating popper, for bass, early in the morning and late in the evening when they are hitting top of the water.
I don't know much about reels or line weight. I used as light a test line as possible as a leader....depending on what kind of fish I was targeting. The reel is not really functional like a traditional spinning reel. You basically pull the line in by hand when fighting a fish and all the reel does is keep the slack wound up and out of the way.
You have to practice and develope a casting technique. A fly fisherman with good technique rolls his line across the water with the fly getting no more than a foot higher than the waterline during the roll. I've seen guys that can roll a fly in places you would say "no fuckin way". A fly fisherman with poor technique stays tangled up all the time.

It's like leaning to play a musical instrument....It takes many hours of practice to develop proficiency. If you just fish occasionally it will take years. That may not be the what you wanted to hear but I'm just being honest.
 
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I did some fly fishing when I lived in Alaska. I've also used a fly rod to fish a floating popper, for bass, early in the morning and late in the evening when they are hitting top of the water.
I don't know much about reels or line weight. I used as light a test line as possible as a leader....depending on what kind of fish I was targeting. The reel is not really functional like a traditional spinning reel. You basically pull the line in by hand when fighting a fish and all the reel does is keep the slack wound up and out of the way.
You have to practice and develope a casting technique. A fly fisherman with good technique rolls his line across the water with the fly getting no more than a foot higher than the waterline during the roll. I've seen guys that can roll a fly in places you would say "no fuckin way". A fly fisherman with poor technique stays tangled up all the time.

It's like leaning to play a musical instrument....It takes many hours of practice to develop proficiency. If you just fish occasionally it will take years. That may not be the what you wanted to hear but I'm just being honest.
Yeah, I'm still a rookie. Since I had to leave one of my setups in Colorado (my cousin's drunk ass busted my rod tube), I went ahead and got a shorter setup to practice with here in Indiana. My rig in Colorado is a 9.5' 8 weight with a large arbor reel, strung up with 7 weight line and a 6lb leader. Too big for my novice technique to do anything with. We just had a Cabela's open up on the north side of town last week so I went and got a 7.5' 4 weight rod, a medium arbor reel and the appropriate 5 weight line and #4 leader, etc. Been working on my casting in the yard, looking like an idiot in front of the neighbors, and it's already getting a little better. I don't tangle nearly as much, even with the persistent wind, and every now and then I'll get a cast that rolls instead of snapping out. I'm used to fishing with a spinning reel so it's hard to remember not to break my wrist when using the fly rig.
 
Yeah, I'm still a rookie. Since I had to leave one of my setups in Colorado (my cousin's drunk ass busted my rod tube), I went ahead and got a shorter setup to practice with here in Indiana. My rig in Colorado is a 9.5' 8 weight with a large arbor reel, strung up with 7 weight line and a 6lb leader. Too big for my novice technique to do anything with. We just had a Cabela's open up on the north side of town last week so I went and got a 7.5' 4 weight rod, a medium arbor reel and the appropriate 5 weight line and #4 leader, etc. Been working on my casting in the yard, looking like an idiot in front of the neighbors, and it's already getting a little better. I don't tangle nearly as much, even with the persistent wind, and every now and then I'll get a cast that rolls instead of snapping out. I'm used to fishing with a spinning reel so it's hard to remember not to break my wrist when using the fly rig.

doing a lot of casting is the key. it takes a lot of work to get the knack if it, but it's a blast once you do.
 
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