Jamie,
Welcome to the insanity of fly fishing. Now all you need to do is start tying your own flies so you can "save money". All fly equipment, lines, rods, reel and leaders have their place and uses in the sport. I restarted fly fishing in the salt 10 years ago with a Medalist reel, and 8wt fiberglass rod and a hand full of flies. On that day, I caught a dozen or so 36" stripers in the surf of Cape Lookout NC. I was a piss poor caster with very cheap gear. I fished sinking lines for years, 130 to 500 grain lines. It was just a few years ago that I bought a floating line to fish Crease flies and surfaces poppers for surface feeding fish and I didn't use it much. Now, here in the salt marshes of Beaufort SC, chasing tailing reds in the grass, a floating line is about all I use. Here, sinking lines only have you in the masses of oyster rock that are ubiquitous to the area but I still use them to get down to fish in the deeper holes and at the beaches. Back on the OBX, I used 4 to 6 foot of leader. Here, it's 9 to 12 foot. The bottom line, they all have an appropriate use so don't disparage any lines or gear, just learn to cast and use them properly. As for casting. learn to do it right and practice every day if you can. You can cast on a good grassy area as well as you can water. Good casting comes from proper casting techniques practiced over and over to develop the needed muscle memory. Join the local Fly fishing club and attend any and all of their casting instruction events. Most of the time those event are at little to no cost. To try other lines, shop sales and Ebay. I've bought some great lines on ebay for very little money. I've also bought some great lines from my Orvis dealer at $5.00 a piece. Be sure to over line by one line weight and learn to build your own tapered leaders. Best of luck to you and if you're ever in the Lowcountry of SC, drop me a line and we'll sling some string.
John Mathews
On Sunday, October 19, 2014 10:29:30 PM UTC-4, Jamie Carracher wrote:
I started fly fishing back in May after taking the introductory classes at Orvis. I enjoyed those classes so much, I bought a rod and have gone out at least once a week ever since. On my first day by myself, I caught a little perch at the Tidal Basin and thought: this isn't that hard! And then I didn't catch another fish for six weeks. I've really improved when it comes to casting (thanks for the tips at the Tidal Basin, Todd!). I also have caught a lot more fish. On a recent trip home to Ohio, I caught a sizable rock bass and a 15 inch or so smallmouth (my biggest catch yet). That was cool.
Here in D.C., I haven't had much luck catching decent sized fish. I'm using a 5 wt with floating line and flies like the woolly bugger and clouser minnow. I don't have a car, so I normally go to the Tidal Basin, C&O Canal or the river up by Fletcher's or Chain Bridge (let me know if you ever fish any of these places, would love to meet up!). I don't have waders yet because it seems silly to buy those when I'm mostly catching little bluegill.
I'm guessing my biggest problem is my floating line. Should I be using sink tip or even full sinking line? Is a 5 wt good enough? Is it easier to fish the river on a boat? Thanks for any tips!
--
http://www.tpfr.org ---
You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "Tidal Potomac Fly Rodders" group.
To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an email to
tidal-potomac-fly-rodders+unsubscribe@googlegroups.com.
To post to this group, send email to
tidal-potomac-fly-rodders@googlegroups.com.
To view this discussion on the web visit
https://groups.google.com/d/msgid/tidal-potomac-fly-rodders/954b41b3-1588-474f-96b0-73efff412b86%40googlegroups.com.
For more options, visit
https://groups.google.com/d/optout.
No comments:
Post a Comment