New To Fly Fishing - Help And Advice Will Be Greatly Appreciated!

[cr0g]

My friend and I just picked up the sport, we've tried out a few places on the bow and Glenmore resevoir without any success. We think it's because either the river was flowing too fast, or the tributary wasn't flowing fast enough. Anyway, long story short, we don't know what we're doing. Any help would be greatly appreciated!

 

Thanks.

 

Steve

[bigfry]

YouTube. Read as much as you can on these threads. Good luck'

[Nachako]

YouTube. Read as much as you can on these threads. Good luck'

Also read the first half of Jim McLennan book " Trout Streams of Alberta " to help you understand that there is more to it that being able to swing a line or pick the right fly.

[Hawgstoppah]

Try and get out with members of the forum who are willing to show you a few things about the bow. Also, maybe even hire a guide that would take you on a wade and teach you how to fish it from shore. One day with a guide might cut years off the learning curve on the bow

[RedBeard]

Also read the first half of Jim McLennan book " Trout Streams of Alberta " to help you understand that there is more to it that being able to swing a line or pick the right fly.

 

As a guy who hasn't been in the sport very long, I remember well the growing pains of learning all the intricacies of fly fishing. One HUGE help was the "Orvis Fly Fishing Guide Podcast" (from the iTunes store, or DL the Podcast republic app on Android, stream on blackberry). There are hours of information for beginners to experts on fly fishing. Tom Rosenbauer will give you all the info you need to know to become a better fly fisherman and catch fish.

 

Also, grab the book above, or Barry Mitchell's Alberta's Trout Highway ($35 at any local fly shop) and find a small trout stream where they are eager to take a dry. You'll learn lots just by hooking into some small trout . Read lots about good catch and release practice as well; if you are learning then the first thing you should know is how to reduce mortality rate in C&R fishing, especially for small trout!

 

For me the bow was a tough river to learn on. I caught a whitefish on my first fly fishing excursion, then got skunked and untied knots on the bow for about 6 months afterward. It took me two years to catch a bow river trout on the dry, and I'm still waiting for a bow river streamer trout.

 

Good Luck!

[sldrose]

I highly recommend that you watch this dvd/vid.

 

The essence of fly casting

by Mel Krieger

 

The bow isn't an easy river, and even with a guide who will do the whole streamcraft/entomology/fish finding for you,

it's still up to you to make the cast.

 

 

Invest in the DVD, and spend a good amount of time casting on the lawn until you can make a 40ft cast with a bit of fluff into a target the size of a hula hoop.

 

 

If you can do that consistently, any outing with a guide or seasoned local from this forum is going to be more about finding and catching fish rather than

fixing knots in leaders, lost flies, line tangles, drag free drift etc.

 

hope that helps.

[relk19]

One of the best tools I used when learning (in my second year atm) was Orvis' how to's. Covers pretty much everything.

http://howtoflyfish.orvis.com/video-lessons

 

A good book for learning how to read water, and where the fish might be, is "Reading Trout Water" by Dave Hughes. I would recommend Alberta's Trout Highway as well.

 

As mentioned, the bow is not an easy river, but don't get discouraged, because when you finally land that big rainbow that just jumped 7 times, it makes all the frustration worth it.

[Jayhad]

pay a guide to take you out for a day, you will learn years of info

[troutlover]

make sure its a real guide. Book through a shop and let them know your intentions and they can make the best match. Hansens has some really great guides.

[DonAndersen]

Fly fishing is a journey. Been at it for over 55 years and am still learning. I started w/o books or any other info and learned for the first 10 years by what the trout taught me.

If you are looking for a decent book A.J. McLean's " the Practical Angler" book written <> 40 years ago contains nearly all the things required to be a compenet angler. For the beginner, Clive's book by an Alberta writer is about the best there is. Catch Clive at http://clives.shawwebspace.

Certainly buying experience works as does the internet. Be aware however that Fly Fishing is a technical activity and you can get bogged down in stuff that matters little. This site, amoungst others, is capable of doing exactly that.

Lower your expectations and have fun. Knowledge comes slowly. Enjoy the journey.

 

Don

 

 

[lamponius]

Lot of good advice but here is my 2 cents...

 

Try a small stream, find a nice pool. there will be fish. Then tie on a nice dry, and focus on your casting, presentation and more importnatly, the drift. You will catch small trouts, but you will learn how to fly fish.

If you want to fish the Bow, find a side channel, there way easier to "read". Try to go an evening, and there should be small trouts willing to take a dry. Great way to learn.

 

Hope that helps.

 

PS: Do not spend a lot of money buying stuff. My first trout in Alberta was caught on a 50$ combo gear and a hopper pattern...

[MattyTaylor]

Couldn't agree more with the small stream advice. Catching fish makes things more encouraging and fun. Fish every part of the stream and you'll get a sense of fish hideouts - at least for that particular season/weather, at the start, they aren't aways obvious either. The bow can very very challenging right from the get go. Once you get the hang of the smaller stream, you can then apply much of what you've learned to the Bow by breaking it down and looking for similarities to where you were catching before.

 

It's a great point about fish handling too - learn how to do it properly from the get go in order to ensure the fish have as best a chance as possible at surviving. Respect the river and its creatures and it'll give back to you tenfold.

[CanadianFish]

Having started about 5 years ago myself, I personally think this is the best advice you can use..

 

Find a fly fisherman to go with and fish with..... You can watch DVDs, youtube , read books and listen to podcasts which are all great as well.. but Absolutely nothing will beat on the river experience and someone to tell you what you may be doing wrong.

 

Whether it is a guide you pay or just meeting up with forum members, this is by far the best thing you can do to start.