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Hi, I'm Jim Watt welcome to the wide and wonderful world of fly-fishing and I'm Kelly Watt
Five fishing is one of the most satisfying and rewarding pastimes. You may ever pursue
Steeped in tradition fly fishing is a combination of physical skills and psychological pleasure where men and women old and young all may participate
equal joy
Fly casting is a brain surgery. It just takes a little more time to master than other kinds of fishing
But the rewards are disproportionately greater in fly fishing
Just the beauty of casting a fly line and presenting it on the water with some degree of accuracy is satisfying
The actual taking of the fish is a wonderful addition to an already beautiful activity
Fly fishing isn't limited only to trout either bass
Panfish and many saltwater species eagerly take the fly and you're not limited to small fish either
This 100 pound plus sailfish took a popper on the surface and was subdued in less than 15 minutes
Not of course without some heart-stopping real screaming runs and jumps
No less exciting a beautifully presented dry fly sipped in by an aggressive trout on the San Juan River in New Mexico
Okay
So what's this fly fishing all about
Well first let's define some of the parameters of fly fishing in spin or bait casting the weight of the lure
Plug or bait is essentially what takes out the line
Projected and launched by the action of the rod in response to the power you apply
In fly fishing the weight of the line along with the action of the rod initiated by you carries the fly to the fish
In both kinds of casting the rod simply serves as a more efficient tool to make the cast
In all kinds of casting the motions are similar in that the rod must come to a stop point on the back cast
Then move forward to a stop point in the front cast
The only difference is you apply equal power in fly fishing to the back cast and the front cast
Fly reels come in many sizes the purpose of the fly reel is to store and dispense the fly line
They may cost as little as twenty dollars or as much as one thousand it all depends on how many features you wish and how?
Much you wish to spend most modern fly reels designed for larger and stronger fish have sophisticated drag systems
Which help the angler subdue the quarry?
Incidentally you may reel with whichever hand seems most comfortable
Jim and I cast with our right hand and reel with our right hand because we feel that our right hand is more agile and can
Control the reel faster
Many others not the least of which is Billy Pate cast with their right hand and reel with your left hand
It's simply a matter of preference
Fly rods come in many lengths made from a variety of materials
but graphite fiberglass compounds are the most popular components of modern rods and they're
Manufactured with an extremely high degree of precision each is designed to efficiently cast a particular line weight
Most of the rods sold in the United States are seven and a half feet to ten feet in length
They range in price from less than $100 to more than a thousand for a fine handmade bamboo rod
Fly rods are made to cast a specific weight of line and range from the lightest designed to cast a one weight line
To heavier models that cast with ease a 13 weight line
Fly lines therefore range from a one or two weight, which is very small in diameter to a 13 weight
Which is larger in diameter in many cases, but certainly not always the size of the line is fairly proportional to the size of the fish
Conditions of wind and size and weight of the fly will also influence line or rod size
But this will all be covered in later more advanced videos
Fly lines are designed with various tapers for different fishing conditions on this chart at the top is a double tapered floating line
It's tapered on both ends with a long belly section and when one end wears out you can switch it and use the other
That's a terrific feature when you're spending 30 or 40 or even $50 for a fly line
This is the most versatile of the fly lines and as its name indicates floats on top of the water
This will probably be the first line your fly shop will recommend that you buy
Next on the chart a weight forward floating line good for longer casts into the wind. Its use is more specialized
Next is a bug taper floating line
The shorter faster taper makes casting a bass bug or other large wind resistant flies with fewer false casts much easier
On our next chart a sinking tip and a full sinking line both designed as their names indicate to take your fly to
varying depths below the surface
Another line designed for distance casting is a shooting taper
It's a 24 to 30 foot shooting head attached to a level small diameter running line
These heads come in either floating or various sinking density models
Each line is designed to serve a specific purpose and you'll learn more about them as you progress in the sport
But since this is a beginning tape we use a double taper line and for the purpose of demonstration
We picked a seven weight line which is suitable for many kinds of fish and fishing conditions
In the early days of fly fishing in the late 17th and 18th century fly lines were made from the hair of various animals
Horse hair seemingly was the most popular then came silk lines in the 1800s. It could be dressed or greased to float
from which the term greased line evolved
Dacron core PVC lines first appeared on the market in
1953 and quickly took over the market from the more fragile and expensive silk lines
The PVC line actually was a refinement of a rather short-lived Dacron line
Manufacturers simply added a PVC coating to the Dacron line in
1987 Paul Burgess a scientist from Wales developed the first line made from a totally different polymer than PVC
This new line had a Kevlar core as a result
This line had no stretch compared to the 15 or 20 percent stretch found in the PVC lines on the market
This was a revolutionary advance in flyline technology and created quite a stir in the industry as well as in
conversations among fly fishers
Fly lines vary in length
But in general are 80 to 100 feet long and since some fish run further than that
The inner core of the reel is filled with 50 to 100 yards of 20 or 30 pound test Dacron line as backing
The backing is attached to the fly line with a nail nut which looks like this
If you buy your fly rod and reel from a fly fishing pro shop more than likely
They'll put the backing and your fly line as well as your leader on for you
But it is something you should know how to do and to more easily demonstrate it so that you can see how it's done
I'm going to use a piece of rope
Wrap the rope around the arbor of your fly reel twice
At the end of the backing tie a small overhand knot very close to the end
Then hold the two pieces of line together parallel to one another
Wrap the tag end of the backing around both pieces of line
making two turns
What we're making here is a slipknot now you've formed a small double loop
Take the tag end of the backing and run it up through the double loop parallel to the main piece of backing like so
Tighten the slipknot that you've created up against the overhand knot that you tied in the end of the backing
Once it's tight
tighten the slipknot that you've formed down around the arbor of the reel securing it tightly to the arbor and
Then reel your backing on to the reel now
You must attach your fly line to the backing to do that
Here's world champion fly caster Steve Ray Jeff to show you his version of a nail less nail knot
Since I was about 10 years old
I tried to tie the nail knot without any tools and it wasn't too long after I tried to
Do that that I managed to to do that. I
Call it a nail less nail knot and I start by taking my tip
It or my butt section in this case the blue line
I wrap it five or six times on the fly line with the tag line that I've wrapped with I
Circle around and make like a little circle out of it and I hold it here near the tip of the fly line end
what I will do now is unwind these spirals these twists over the top of the tag so that it'll be buried underneath and
to do that, I just pinch it here on my left hand as a
Starting point and I unravel the twists around the tag end one
two
Three I'm unwinding the spirals four
Five and six I finished unraveling and I pull on my main leader piece here as always
pull a little short tug there and I have a nail knot without a nail that's
a very simple version of a nail knot and
I like that for when I'm dealing with trout leaders and something fairly light
But any opportunity where I have the opportunity to pull a lot of pressure saltwater fishing or salmon fishing
Or even with various lines where the tendency is the coating comes off easier in that case
I like to do a variation on that what I do is I still start off by winding the tag six times around the fly line
but what I will do next is to take the tip of the fly line and I fold it back over and
in essence what I'm going to do is make a nail knot over a loop and
Also, this achieves an effect of what is called the Albright knot in the saltwater tippets for the shock tippet junction in some cases
But I fold it over the fly line now. I still make my circle around and
Then I will still unwind my twist over the top of both my tag and the folded over piece of fly line
So now I'll unravel the twist over both
And
Now I've completed the unraveling part
I pull on my main leader here and I have a little nail knot over the top of a loop and I will
Sort of draw on the either the tag end of the fly line or the main fly line just to shrink down the loop a little
Bit closer before I fully tighten the nail knot
So now I have in essence an Albright and a nail knot all in one
that way I've got my line locked in and I won't peel off the coating on some of the lines that have that tendency and
I've got a much stronger knot for dealing with saltwater tippets
Another method we use quite often in tying a nail knot is with this handy tool called a tie fast
Take your fly line and lay it down in the groove and lay your thumb on top
Incidentally, there's a little tag that tells you which end to put to your reel
Take the backing and lay it down the opposite direction and
Leave yourself plenty of room on the tag end because you're going to need it to make a wrap around
your tie fast tool
Anchor it with your index finger and make three more wraps around the tool working up toward your thumb
Then take your tag end and run it down the channel you've created and
As you pull that backing tight you pull your knot off the tie fast tool and
You're pulling your backing still anchoring it with your thumb up here and pull it tight
drop the tool and
Pull the backing tight tighten your knot and then the fly line to the backing pull nice and tight
Then clip your tag ends nice and tight so that it'll slip through your guides easily
And there you have a nail knot
Once you've tied the nail knot
Reel the fly line onto the fly reel and when you get to the end you'll notice it's still too big to fit through
The eye of a hook
That's when you tie on what we call a leader an almost invisible piece of monofilament that connects the fly line to the fly
Now we attach the leader to the fly line in the same manner that we attach the backing to the fly line
Using our handy little nail nut tire
We take the fly line and place it in the nail nut tire
Now we place the leader right next to the fly line in the nail nut tire
underneath
Then we wrap it around the nail nut tire two three four five
Times then we take the end of the leader and
Run it back through the loops that you've created and then with a sharp pull
We pull it off and we have a
Good solid nail nut
Now all you need to do is to take your clippers and trim it off right up against the knot you trim the fly line and
then
trim the leader
And you have
Your leader connected to the fly line
Monofilament tapered leaders come tapered ready to attach to the fly line using a nail nut
With all leaders the smaller the fly the longer and lighter the leader and the greater the taper on the other hand
Leaders for streamers like this half-and-half steelhead pattern tied by Joe butyric are often short and not tapered at all
Tapered leaders come in various lengths
Seven and a half nine and twelve feet being the most popular and are rated from 0x to 7x
Which indicates the diameter of the tippet which is the very last section to which the fly is attached each?
Manufacturer rates each diameter differently, but they are all fairly close
Here is a chart of one manufacturers leaders to show the corresponding diameters with a corresponding rating in pounds
Before we go on to flies. Let's show you how to attach your leader to your fly for demonstration purposes
We're going to use a piece of rope as your leader and a large screw
eye as your fly we'll start with an improved clinch knot pass a leader through the eye of the hook and
Leave yourself plenty of tag end put your finger in the middle there
So you create a loop and twist the line around the leader four times?
When you've gone around four times take your tag end and put it through the loop that you created with your finger
Once you put it through there bring it back through the other loop. You just created
So that it comes back the same direction as your leader if this were real leader you'd use saliva to help
reduce the friction on the line
And you just work it down closer to the eye and there you have an improved clinch knot
Another good knot for attaching fly to leader is the uni knot take the rope
Which is the leader through the screw eye which represents the fly?
Pass it through and then in the tag end make a small overhand loop like that
Put it next to the main section of leader and then wrap the tag end
Around both pieces of leader and take it through the loop four times
one
two
three
four
Tighten the knot
down
On to your fly pull it tight
And then slip it down on your fly making a slip knot in a very effective connection to your fly
This is also a valuable knot in connecting two different sizes of leader together. You tie one knot
On one piece of leader the larger piece and then thread the smaller piece of leader through here
And tie another uni knot on the other side pulling them both close together
And then clipping them off another use for the uni knot
For streamers and larger flies the uni knot can be tied slightly differently
You slide the fly through here
Forget about the fly
Then you make an overhand loop
like that
In the tag end then bring the remainder another piece of the leader up here
Parallel, so you have one loop here and one loop here
Wrap the tag end
through
Around both pieces like this
Four times
Then pulling them all tight
Pulling them all tight
Bring it up and tighten it like so
Now you have a noose down here, which you will tighten
Until it's just large enough to slip your fly through it then slide your fly down
Slip it through the noose like so
Then tighten the noose onto the shank of your fly
After you've done that
Pull the rest of your leader through this
And clip off your tag end and you have a very strong secure junction for your fly to your leader
Now on to flies
I assure you that if you pursue this avocation for long you'll acquire many
And in order to carry them and other items to the stream you'll need a vest
There are nearly as many vests as there are streams
So you'll have a wide variety from which to choose. Jim and I prefer the streamline vest
The one thing about fly fishing is there is a never-ending supply of gadgets
But some of them are very important like this pair of foursips
You can use it for bending down the barbs in your fly as well as releasing fish
Bending down the barbs incidentally makes releasing fish much easier
Also getting that arid hook out of your skin in case you happen to make a mistake
Another important item a pair of clippers with which you can use them
Clippers with which you can nip the ends of leader or even trim flies
On the other end a small needle for cleaning head cement from the eye of your flies
And most anglers carry nets with them to help making landing fish easier
That wasn't the case here. This is what not to do. No, no, don't go out in the current. No, no, no
I'll stand in the line a little bit
No, no, no, no, no, no, no
Nice fish, Jim
I like
Don't pull out Mr.
He went between my legs and
He went between my legs caught the dropper on my waiters and broke the tippet
I think I'll go back and get the net. Oh man
Yes, you're fishing at its very finest
This is just the beginning but that's part of the fun of fly fishing
Is learning about all of the stuff
Now to flies in the most simple terms
There are flies that float on the surface called dry flies
Like the royal wolf that was tied to represent the shape of many different kinds of insects floating on the water
There are poppers that float on the surface and create a disturbance that entices a fish to strike them
Just like our casting and spinning popping lures
Then there are nymphs which are fished below the surface and imitate a stage in the life of an aquatic insect before it emerges on the surface and becomes an adult and flies away
There are wet flies that imitate other forms of insects as well as crabs, fresh and saltwater shrimp and a host of other subsurface life
Last but definitely not least
Streamers are flies that are fished below the surface that represent small bait fish or leeches
Sound a little complicated? Well, yes and no
The wisest fly fisher from novice to seasoned pro will consult the local fly shop and find out what the fish are currently taking
And it does change from day to day so that's why we check
That's the easiest and surest way to catch fish
As you learn more about fly fishing and entomology
You'll have a better understanding of what the fish may be eating at any given time by observing their actions
But that's for a later lesson
Eventually many fly fishers evolved to tying their own flies
A very rewarding and satisfying experience to catch a fish on a fly you've tied
This is a prominent New York doctor, Gary Sherman, tying a sailfish pattern on the way to Dakar in western Africa for sailfish
Fly fishing does often become an obsession so forewarned is forearmed
Before we move on to casting, a safety note, we never fish without glasses or near someone else without glasses
Because your eyes are precious and the protection of a good pair of polarized sunglasses just makes good sense
Not only in the case of an errant cast not going exactly where you intended
But polarized lenses allow you to penetrate the glare that is always present when fishing
Now for casting, but before we get started we've got to get the line to the guides
Make a U in the line and it'll pass through the guides more easily
Tie on a short practice leader with a piece of yarn at the end
This is a generally accepted manner in which to hold the fly rod
Shake hands with it, placing your thumb more on top of the handle so the rod becomes an extension of your arm
Strip out about 20 feet of line and use the action of the rod to wiggle out the line beyond the tip of your rod
Okay, now you're going to straighten out your line and make your first cast
The most basic cast, the roll cast
This is what the cast will look like when you follow along in a moment
To make a roll cast, bring the rod slowly to a position just past vertical
A position we consider to be one o'clock and stop
Cock the angle of the rod off a few degrees away from your body
And you'll notice the line has formed a curved shape behind you
Now push the rod forward sharply, stopping at 10 o'clock
The force of your hand combined with the action of the rod sends your fly line out in a fairly straight line in front of you
Then let the rod settle to a position relatively parallel with the ground
Okay, now here it is again in slow motion
See how the hand moves parallel to the ground on an even plane and there is almost no wrist action
Remember, bring the rod back slowly and stop
Pretend there's a bush behind you and to avoid hooking your fly on it, you must come back slowly
This is a cast designed exactly for that sort of situation when you have no room to back cast
You'll find you use it often
After the rod stops, push forward sharply and stop at 10 o'clock
See how the line follows the path of the rod at first, then launches past the rod bringing your fly and leader with it?
After the stop, let the rod continue down to a position parallel to the ground
Practice that with different lengths of line until you feel you've mastered it, then move on to the next cast
Which is what we call, for lack of a better term, the pick up and set down cast
It's the next basic cast in fly fishing
This is what it will look like when you follow along
Okay, again with 20 feet of line or so out the tip of your rod with the line pressed against the cork under your index finger
The rod tip pointed straight at the line on the ground, slowly begin to lift, gradually accelerating the rod and thus the line
Eventually stopping at the 1 o'clock position behind you
Count 1-2 to yourself, then accelerate forward and stop at the 10 o'clock position
Now you're making your second kind of cast
Watch this cast in slow motion
You start the cast with the rod tip pointed at the line close to the ground
Slowly begin raising the tip, accelerating as the line begins to lift from the grass or the water
Notice most of the acceleration is from the point at 11 o'clock to the 1 o'clock position
At 1 o'clock, count 1-2 so the line will have time to straighten behind you
Now begin your forward cast, saving most of the speed for the move from 11 to 10 o'clock
That's when the rod is in front of you
As you come forward, stop the rod sharply at 10 o'clock and then let the rod settle to a 9 o'clock position
Practice this cast for a while with different lengths of line until you feel you've mastered it
Then move to the next step, shooting line with the cast
This is what the cast should look like
It is identical to the lift up set down, but at this position, when you stop at 10 o'clock, count 1-2
Then release the line from your left hand
In theory, if you've done it correctly, the line at your feet will shoot out through the guides
Okay, hold the line in your left hand with about 10 or 15 feet of line at your feet
And 20 or 25 feet out the end of the rod
Begin raising the rod in the exact same manner you did for the previous cast
Accelerate at 11 o'clock, stop at 1, count 1-2, then begin your forward cast
Remembering to begin slowly, then accelerate at 11, stop at 10, count 1-2, then release the line from your left hand
Notice Jim's left hand stays right along with the rod as he makes the back cast
And goes along with the rod on the forward cast until it's time to release the line
Looking at this cast in slow motion, you can see the stop at 1 o'clock and the line unfolding in the back cast
That's why you wait two beats in the back cast to let the line straighten before moving the rod forward
Once the line straightens, move forward to make the cast, stopping again sharply at 10 o'clock
Waiting two beats again before you release the line from the left hand
This 1-2 count gives the line time to come forward under the tension of the rod before it shoots
Point your rod at the line and strip in the 10 extra feet of line and make another cast
Practice this with different lengths of line until you feel comfortable
In each program of our series, Fly Fishing Video Magazine, we have a segment called Angling Tips
The host of this segment, Bill Martz, often offers solutions to casting problems
The next few minutes is a sample of just a few of Bill's suggestions
What are we going to learn today, Bill?
Well, oddly enough, we're going to learn how to do a wrong cast, how to do it wrong
I do that all the time, but if you can know how to do it wrong, it's very easy then to correct it
In fact, one of the ways of knowing how to do something correctly is to know how it's done incorrectly
So we're going to learn how to do a tailing loop
The problems that all fly fishers have at one point, either learning or after they've learned to fly fish
Having that tailing loop, that fly will come underneath right there, tie a knot in the line
And that's what causes those wind knots that I get so often, just like that
Now, what happens is when that starts occurring all the time, most people will then try harder and harder and harder
And the harder they try to cast and overcome it, the worse it gets
It goes back and forth like that, and it's worse yet even
They'll get going, make a few smooth casts, and then they want to go on the last cast
And they'll just punch it out there, and there it is, right in the pile, just like that
I know it happened to me for years because I didn't know what was causing it, therefore you don't know it stopped
Well, what causes it, or one of the things that causes it, is when I'm coming forward on the forward stroke
It also happened on the backstroke too, but when I'm coming on this forward stroke here
Instead of a nice, smooth application of power and smooth acceleration, I'm jumping it
I'm bumping it somewhere during the stroke and shocking the rod tip
I'm making that rod tip, instead of going nice and smooth and bending back like that, it's going and bouncing like that
I'll show you
Okay, clear my line here
Okay, back cast, nice smooth strokes, you can see they're going, they're not tailing
Just hit me in the ear, that's all
There, not tailing
Now
See what happened when I just bumped it right there? There, there it is
Now there's a fly on there
I'm glad too
Like that? Okay
It didn't seem to take much of a jolt
It doesn't, it just, it can be very subtle even
And still be right when it first starts, we'll do it
Or it can be right at the end, and do it
Or anywhere in between those places, all it takes is just a little
Increase, sudden increase of power like that to make that rod tip bounce
And that line will foul up like that
And then knowing what causes that, when you see it happen, it's usually
With someone that's been casting a long time, it's when they're tired
Trying to reach out, the wind's blowing, particularly bad day or something like that
And it starts happening and happening
If you know what causes it, the best thing you can do is just say, okay, calm down
Slow, make it nice and slow and easy cast
Wide loop cast so that there's no problem with it tailing
And then as you're feeling better and you get your timing down
Then you can narrow that cast down again and start your
Start your casting
Okay, so what you're gonna do is learn how to do it wrong
So that you'll know how to do it right
Okay
Now make a few nice, smooth casts, no tailing loops
Nice, smooth application of power, that's it, easy going
Nice, smooth cast, easy cast
Okay, now I want you to shock the tip anywhere you want to, that's it
There, now fly a bin on there
Bill, what are you going to show us today?
We're gonna look at downstream dry fly fishing
Sometimes it's necessary to get a dry fly to float a long distance downstream
And be ready for the strike at that time
It'd be nicer if you could get up close to a fish, wade in close
Make a nice short little cast, be very controlled drift and such
But sometimes it's just not possible
So we're gonna look at a couple methods of downstream dry fly fishing
We want to keep drag out of the line, that's the most important part of dry fly fishing
Is make that dry fly go right down the river
Just like it's a natural, not going slower or faster than the current
Which is traveling
And what makes it go slower or faster is drag
Either caused from the line or the leader
Possibly the wind blowing on the river could blow a large fly around
But mostly it's from the leader and the leader
So we have to work at controlled slack
That's putting some slack in the line, but controlling it
So that it's not out of control and just drifting anywhere it wants to go
And a fish hits, you have no control, you have to take all the slack out
But just enough so that the fly can drift free
And if something happens, the fish strikes, you can react to it
Okay, our current obviously is running this way
I'm gonna make a cast, I want the fly to land downstream of my leader
And my line, first of all
So, making a cast here
I've got a lot of slack pulled out right here
And I'll just show you how to make that long cast down there and keep that fly floating
Flies downstream, right here, it's floating
I'm letting the slack come right up like so
I'm not throwing so much into the water that I can't control it
Pulling the slack up behind me
Now, anytime it should hit, I have a very little bit of line
I'm not letting it tighten up like that
That's when you know you're starting to drag
So I'm keeping that drag just, it's like the last inch of line is all you're keeping out of it
Now we're coming into it, there's where the fish is
You let it tighten up and swing over out of the feeding lane
And then bring it in if you didn't take it and do it again up here
There is a little bit of a problem, obviously, when you have 80 or 90 feet of line out
And a fish hits, there's so much slack in that line
That sometimes you're just not going to be able to hook it
But you're looking at a situation where you have no other choice
So you've got to make a good presentation to get the fish to hit first
Okay, let's go for it once more, bring this up
Cast out here, I've got the slack worked out here, laying on the line
Or laying on the water here
Flies downstream from the line
Get that initial cast out here
Now I'm just going to make, sometimes you might want to throw a mend in too
To keep that line directly upstream from the fly, just like so
Kicking this out, this is not a terribly fast current here
If it was going really fast, you'd be really moving that out there
But it would be taking the slack out that fast too
Although it would look like you have miles of slack out there, it's really not
It's taking up very quickly
You've got one eye on that flathead, you've got one eye up here
Just to kind of see what's going on with your line
It starts raising off the water like that
That's drag setting in
There's slack, the line's laying there
Now, you see the line lift up like that?
Now if you're nymph fishing, you look at that
That can be caused by fish when that's raised up like that, because that's drag too
Bill, what are you going to show us today?
Well, Kelly, I thought we would talk about casting on lakes
And some of the problems that come up
We had a good breeze here a second ago, but it's gone down
But it reminded me that so often in wide open spaces, you have a wind blowing
It's very hard to cast
So an ideal situation in casting with the wind
Is to have that wind blowing from your line side
And this side blowing this way, so it blows the fly down wind away from your face
Away from the rods, it doesn't hurt it
But there are ways you can get around that to make it still easy to cast and keep it safe
Why don't you come over on this side now and we'll give this a try
Very simply, what happens if I make a cast coming up on a standard side like this
The wind will blow, it's coming from this side
The worst way will blow this fly sometimes right into my face or into the rod
It could possibly break the rod or break the fly off
Or stick in my face, which is a good reason to wear the glasses
So what we can do very easily is keep your arms straight
Just like your regular cast, only tilt your elbow, bring it out to the side like this
And your arm makes the same movements as you were casting before
Except now it comes across your face like this
Very easy to cast, very simple
This way the fly is blown down wind
And is away from the rod and your head and your face and everything else
So it makes it very easy
And making this kind of a cast is just exactly the same as bringing it up overhead this way
Except with the wind blowing this way, it will blow the fly down wind from us
Away from our face, away from our head and away from the rod
Want to give that a try? Sure
Good, good
And don't haul, right? Don't haul
Easy, easy, that's it, there it is
Nice smooth start, that's it, smooth start
What I'm using here is a sink tip line
The first 15 feet sink, and this one happens to be a fairly fast sinker
Sinks down below the surface, then the rest of it floats
It's very good for river fishing, it's also good for certain lake and saltwater applications
The floating line is very easy to handle, maneuver on top of the water
Then the sinking line can get the fly down where the fish are
But when people first start using sink tips or sinking lines for that matter
They have a problem in picking it up and making it ready to cast
And this is what happens, they're pulling it in, pulling it in
And they get to the amount of line that they normally have with the floating line
And they want to pick it up off the water, and what happens
Is that the pressure on that sinking portion overloads the rod
Sometimes you can't even pick it up out of the water
And then the line falls down here at your side instead of making a nice back cast
So what you have to do is do a little roll cast
And you keep roll casting until that sinking portion comes all the way up out of the water
Lays down on the water, then as soon as it lays down on the water you don't want it to sink down
You don't want it to go down below the water because then you'll be in the same position you were before
As soon as it touches down, make your back cast and make your regular cast
You see how this has sunk down here now? Way down, okay
We'll bring it up, up, up
And when you get to right to this point, what most people do
Will try to roll cast too quick
They'll come up like this to this point and then hit it down
And you see how that...
You could really get hooked
Right, see how that came back like that? That's exactly what happens
What you want to do to avoid that is to come up and just stop for just a second
And then come forward
If it didn't come all the way out of the water like that, come forward
And then bring it back, stop for just a second there
There, just hit the water, bring it up, out, up
And make your cast, okay?
Do it one more very quickly, then you can try it
Bring it in, seeking portion is down
I'm going to raise it up
You brought up the question before
You do want to wait and wait until this line here from the tip is behind the rod tip here
And you wait until that time
Then when you come forward on the rod this way
The line back here will then load up the rod properly, okay?
We'll do that again here
Bring this line up, seeking portion is now sunk down
A lot of pressure on it
We'll bring it up, up, up, slow
Let that line come back behind the rod
Come forward, make the stop, hit the top
Make a back cast, make a forward cast
And it's done, okay?
Okay
So bring it back
Okay, with this line, it doesn't do very well
About right there, yeah
Perfect, okay?
Bringing it in, bring it in, just like retrieve, now you're stripping in
Unfortunately, no fish hit it, so now you're going to bring it up, slow, pause
Make the roll cast, hits the water, make a back cast, forward cast
And crash into the rod
I think I'll try that again
Okay, you're bringing it in, bringing it in
No fish hit, bring it up slow, pause, roll cast
It's hit the surface, bringing back cast, forward cast
Great, perfect
What I'd like to talk about is turning over long leaders
12, 18 feet long where you have to get a fine presentation to fish
Where they're very spooky, very smooth, clear water
Usually presentation is everything in a situation like that
Assuming we have the proper leader to turn it over
You need the right leader to turn over the right fly
We'll work on the casting end of it
What we have to remember in making a cast like this
Is that we need a tight loop
A loop that goes out that's not very wide, not catching a lot of air
That is very narrow, we'll cut through the air
And we'll continue that loop right through to the end of the fly, right through the leader
That's why it's important to have the right leader
Where that's controlled is right here in your wrist
A lot of people think casts are made using no wrist
Just straight arms, straight back and forth, very mechanical
That's why we have this movement in here
And the amount of wrist that we use during the cast
Coming forward, right at the very end of the stroke
Make that stop and we close our wrist
I call this closing the wrist and then opening it on the back here
So I'll close my wrist this way
The amount that I close it during the stroke
Will determine the width of that loop going out
First of all, let me make a cast and I'm going to use a lot of wrist
That goes out there
I'll wave that forward real wide there, real wide there
It's like throwing balloons against the wind
It just doesn't quite make a long cast
Doesn't transfer energy well, doesn't go through the air very well
It's very good if the wind's behind you
Then it catches it like a sail and will just shoot right on out there
But for this cast, we want to make sure
That that leader will turn all the way over
So it has to have a tighter loop so it can uncurl all the way to the end
The way we do that is using very little wrist
I'm going to use just a little less wrist than I used before
As I false cast, you can see this loop
Go from wide to narrow
There we are, wide
Waving that wrist
Now you won't use quite as much
It's narrowing down
Now I'm going to use less
Less
So it's almost as if the least amount of wrist movement
Gives you the tighter loop, right?
And the bigger the wrist movement, then the bigger the...
Right, during this stroke, that wrist movement comes
When it's very small, a very tight loop will come right at the end of the stroke
How the wrist movement makes that loop
How it forms that loop
I'm going to start again with wide loops
Using a lot of wrist through this whole stroke
And then gradually tighten that up
So there's hardly any wrist movement at all
Real wide loops
I'm closing this through the whole forward stroke
Make that real wide loop there
A little bit less
To hardly any
You can see how that loop has tightened up considerably
It makes a big difference
Oh, it makes an awful lot of difference
We're going to talk about
Teaching the drag out of the line when you're dry fly fishing
Or even them fishing too, across stream and downstream
The key is in controlled slack
We've talked about it before and we'll probably talk about it again
It's in controlled slack
You can put the fly down
If I were to cast straight out like this, drag sets in almost immediately
Because the line is straight right to the fly and the current sweeps it down
The fly is going faster than the current then
Or if it's going slower than the current, it's being held back
If the fish was coming up straight downstream from me
And I put it out straight like that, as soon as it hits, drag sets in
Because the fly is sitting still and the current is moving past
So we have to overcome that
And we can do that for short distances
Right in the cast itself
So that it lands with the slack in it that will let that fly float drag free
There's a couple ways of doing that
And we can also look at not just downstream, but going across stream too
Works both ways
We're kind of in the middle here
Quartering downstream here
Get the cast working here
We're going to work with one that works very well, especially downstream a little more
When there's no wind
And all I'm going to do is cast up high in the air
And then when it falls on the water, see how it just falls and pulls like that?
That there's no wind blowing to knock that fly off course
You just put it in the direction you want it to go
That's your target
Cast up high, and then as it settles
Jeez, we almost had another one there
As it settles, it falls in nice relaxed coils on the water
These fish are distracting my attention here
I have to start throwing rocks in the water
I think we're going to have a hook in there
Okay, let's show that again
I'm making my casting plane go way up high in the air
And then it falls down relaxed like that
I can get probably out of that cast
10 feet of drag-free drift in this situation here
Right now is when it sets in
So that much time is all drag-free, that's one way
Another way to do this is to make your cast
Closer to the surface, there's a little wind
And just overcast real hard
And it hits and bounces back
We have a little bit of an upstream breeze
That's why it's blowing up there
Make the cast
Pow, and it bounces back at it like that
That throws coil not only in the line, but in the leader
And all the way down through there
And that works extremely well
Working straight downstream with a target
That fish is within a very narrow lane
It comes right over the top of them, let it bounce back
And it comes right over the top of them, drag-free
And then let it drift right off to the side of them again
And there's one other method you could use too
We've talked before, and again we'll talk a lot more about it
Line control is throwing the curves right in the line
Now it's very important you keep a nice tight loop
And cast right at your target, but you have
Two to three feet more line than necessary
If it came right down you would have passed up your target by two or three feet
We'll come back on that
As soon as you've started your cast, right there
You've made the stop and the fly is on its way
You can do anything you want to the line, it's not going to affect where that fly is going to go
Stop it, and then feel those little waves in there
That fly will land right on target
And you'll have all the slack in your line
It's going, still going, there, drags that in
Just that little bit right there
Put into it
That's probably the most effective of all right there
It's got the best accuracy and the most controlled slack you can put in on it
This is only the beginning
There are many advanced fly casting videos on the market
And they will help improve your casting ability
Many fly fishing pro shops offer two or three day seminars
In the basics of fly fishing
Incidentally, one of the more enjoyable aspects of this sport
In addition to all the others, is releasing fish
This is the Green River
And a beautiful rainbow brook trout hybrid
That gave Kelly quite a beautiful fight after eating her royal wolf
Seeing the beauty of which
Will turn even the most macho angler's eyes a bit misty
Thank you
That's a good one
I like that
Now that you've learned the basics of fly fishing
Let's take a look at some of the places you can go
And styles of fly fishing available to you
The variety of fishing situations is nearly endless
If trout hold a fascination for you, here's the Dolores River in Colorado
I didn't mean to learn
That's great though
Further over
Don't pull it out
Yes
Nice, nice, nice
Don't pull it out
I'm thrilled, I'm thrilled
Hi Mr. Fish
Let him have it
Except if he wants to go under all those weeds over there
Oh now we're having fun
Oh my gosh
Way to be Kelly
This is great
If salt water interests you
The Florida Keys area is definitely mecca for flats fishing
Imagine facing a pot of tarpon coming toward you
None of which are less than 80 pounds
And they might even eat your fly
Beautiful
Coming right here
Or the real screaming runs of an 8 pound bone fish
Cooked in less than 8 inches of water
Look at that little son of a gun go
This is incredible
He's not happy
Want even bigger adversaries?
Then Costa Rica's Pacific Coast is the ticket
For one of the most exciting game fish in the world on a fly
The Pacific sailfish, lots of them
They eat the fly with gusto
Wow
How about trout in New Zealand?
The Kiwis have a totally different method of fishing
From ours here in the United States
They walk along the bank until they see a fish
Then they start presenting a fly
None of this casting all day
And hoping the fish finds your fly
On the South Island there's practically no fish
And the fish are huge
Strike
I got it
Woo
That'd be too hard on him
I hope our brief introduction to fly fishing
Is helpful in getting you started in this beautiful sport
Kelly and I hope that we'll see you in some of our travels sometime
Thanks for watching
So long
To take the next step in this beautiful world of fly fishing
We have a second video, Beyond the Basics
In this 90 minute show, fishing guide and instructor Bill Martz
Takes you to a lake and a river where in each location
He explains what to do to effectively fish
Each of these situations
How to find out on what bugs the fish are feeding
And which line is most appropriate for each
In addition he gives you valuable instruction on
Retrieves, strike detection and a variety of other valuable tips
You can immediately put to use in your fly fishing pastime
Beyond the Basics, only $19.95
See your local dealer or call us directly at
1-877-2893