Fly Fishing Vest vs. Chest Pack or Back Pack, Too Many Choices! As many of you are learning to fly fish for the first time, by now you are starting to show signs and symptoms of accumulation sickness. This is where you start to buy things in an effort to get that next great thing, or “if I just get this _______” I will be complete. There is a lot of choices Fly fishing is an activity that offers a huge choice of options when it comes to gear. Different situations require the

Wading boots for Fly Fishing, a quick Gear Review Many of you who are kindly reading my Blogs, have hopefully been able to glean at least a few morsels of useful information from my ramblings, but today I’m going to do a gear review for you, and “talk about wading boots for Fly Fishing”. If you are new to fly fishing or learning to cast, you have no doubt by now seen pictures of the modern Fly Fisherman either in person or in adds, all decked out in all of their elaborate an

Waders for Fly Fishing, Is It Time to buy your First pair, a Few thoughts Whether you are an experienced fly guy or a new fly fisherman/woman and are learning the sport for the very first time, eventually you will come to the monent when it's time to buy your first pair of "Waders for Fly Fishing". You will have to decide as to whether you are going to cross this bridge, or just wait a little longer. I’m going to share with you a few pointers to help when you finally decide

Casting a Fly Rod, Why can’t I get better? I recently read a social media post the other day and the comment was “casting a fly rod, why can’t I get better”. I really felt sorry for this person because the amount of people who were just blasting him and telling him that “he just needed a different rod, or different fly line, etc. etc.”, was truly sad. Not once did anybody ask what his casting skills looked like, or what resources were available to him. Tools cannot take the

Keeping a Journal, a way to make for great fly fishing As you begin learning to fly fish, or you are just learning to cast a fly rod, I wanted to share something with you, that I feel will pay you dividends in the future, and that is "keeping a Journal". A quick story from back in the mid 80’s when I spent almost all my free time in the Eastern Sierras fishing. I had the distinct pleasure to make acquittance and later friendship with a great gentleman named Bob Thornberg. Bob

Women Fly Fishing, and Learning to cast a fly rod. Women learning to fly fish is a growing trend that embodies empowerment, skill-building, and a connection to nature. Through patient guidance and perseverance, more women than ever are delving into the world of fly fishing, mastering the art of casting, reading water, and understanding insect patterns. With each cast, they discover the meditative rhythm of the river and the thrill of a strike. More than ever, we are seeing t

Learn to fly fish with a Nymph

fish need a place to be safe

Learn to Fly fish Still Water Part 2 or Deuce If you read part 1 of my post on "Learning to Fly Fishing Stillwaters", I hope you have finally recovered from my long and breathy monologue. If you are learning to fly fish for the first time or just want a different option on how to fly fish Stillwaters. There is so much information that is available when it comes to Stillwater fly fishing, I would need to write an entire book, (oh wait there are books).. If your local Stillwate

Learn to Fly Fish Still Waters, or Still Waters run deep! Part 1 of 2 Thank you to all of you that are following my posts, on learning how to fly fish, or just learning to cast a fly rod. I hope that a few morsels of information have been helpful to you. Up until now I have spent a fair amount of time talking about rivers and fishing for Trout on a fly, but today I thought I would spend a few minutes talking about still waters. Learning to Fly ish still water, or the old sayi

Fly Fishing with Nymphs and the Weighting game, (Not waiting) As I was learning to fly fish, like most people, I started with the basic Fly Fishing Nymph rig, which consists of a leader, tippet, strike indicator, weight, and a fly or two, and split shot, or other types of weight, or just fly fishing with nymphs and split shot. I had about 50 fly boxes stuffed with about 10,000 flies in them ( most of which I carried on my person 100% of the time). The thing I noticed was tha

Fish to the Fish, What is He talking about? I know the title is a bit corny, but it is so true, “you need to fish to the fish”.If you follow along with me as I write these little pearls of wisdom, whether you are just learning to fly fish or you have a few laps under your belt, I hope you will find some useful information. So many times, I will be on the water and watch another fisherman sit in one spot for hours on end without ever catching a fish, and without moving more th

Fly Lines and Your Reel, a learning curve We’ve talked before about how fly lines are built and categorized but today we are going to talk about fly lines and the reel, and how they work together. In this article, I’m sharing a recent experience—something I had never done in 43 years of fly fishing—as a simple “what not to do” lesson. I was recently going on a trip to float the Arkansas River out of Salida Colorado and try to hopefully catch the “Mother’s Day hatch” for the f

Working on your casting skills, Getting Better Getting better at casting is an ongoing journey, In earlier articles we have gone over some of the basics of learning to cast a fly rod. As you are learning to fly fish, there will be many times that frustration will raise its ugly head and make you want to throw the fly rod in the trash and just walk away. Let us not go that far just yet first look at some of the information I am going to share with you today. I am going to wa

What the heck do fish eat? As many of you are learning about fly fishing, not only do you have your hands full with learning how to cast, all of the terminology, the strange tackle, but now we are adding another straw to the Camel’s back, now we add aquatic trout food!. As I read through many of the on-line forums related to beginner fly fishing, I see countless posts on the same question, “what fly do I use”. There are numerous and helpful answers to these questions, but if

Safety is not just for safe people, It is for Fly Fishing Also If you have followed along with me as I ramble along into the Ethernet of space, I just want to say thank you for humoring me. If you are just learning to fly fish or are new to the casting game, I hope that you are able to use and find helpful some of my little pearls of wisdom, today we are going to talk about "Safety and Fly Fishing". I know some of you will poo-poo today’s topic, but I can tell you from experi

How to Fight a Fish, Without Going to Jail. If you are new to the world of fly fishing, or just learning to Fly Fish, by now you should have acquired some skills that you have learned by either following me, watching You Tube videos or whatever means you have chosen, but now we are going to cover :how to fight a fish". You’ve done it, you have a rod, you can do some basic casting, you have learned some skills for rigging, purchased a few flies, and now you are going out to ca

Shops to shop at, or Shopping Small, a Gear Buyers Guide Once again I want to thank you for taking a few minutes so we can talk, I want to cover a topic that might be a sore spot for some, but let’s dig in, and talk about a gear buyers guide, or shopping small. If you are learning to fly fish for the first time, or have a season or two under your belt, I constantly see the words, “I found it on-line”. I get it, in today’s economy it is wise to save a few bucks now and then bu

Things you need to get started As you learn how to cast a fly rod and subsequently learn how to catch fish on the fly I’m sure by now there may be a level of frustration that you may be feeling, but we are going to cover "tips for the begginer fly fisherman some essentials", by talking about lines, leaders, flies, rods. It can be overwhelming, how are you to learn everything you need to fly fish. Do not fear, help is here, I’m going to walk through 5 points that might help yo

The Flies, There is so many, Why are they so Confusing? As you begin to learn how to fly fish or if you are just learning to cast a fly rod, you have by now been bombarded with a plethora of jargon and terminology, but "Flies don't have to be confusing". Some of these words you may be familiar with and some you may have no clue as to what these words mean. Too Confusing It is my desire to help you de-mystify the sport of fly fishing that at times seems cloaked in a secret la