The great majority of fly-anglers ply their trade in pursuit of the wily trout. In fact, some say that fly-fishing was invented as a method of catch­ing the native brown trout of small chalk streams in England, and since then it has simply been applied to other kinds of fish in other places around the world.

The rainbow trout is among the most targeted trout species in fly fishing today. Fly fishing for rainbow trout is so popular because rainbow trout are great as sports fish. They generally fight extremely hard once hooked.

Like most species in the trout genera, rainbow trout feed on a wide variety of natural organisms, such as aquatic and terrestrial insects and small fish. Their aggressive feeding habits is another reason why fly fishing for rainbow trout is so popular.

Identifying Rainbow Trout

The first step involved in fly fishing for rainbow trout is identification. The rainbow trout is easy to recognize because it has a red horizontal streak running down each side of its body (this streak can vary in intensity). The back varies in colour from dark green to yellow-brown, and the belly is a pale white-silvery colour. The rainbow also has a generous smattering of dark spots on the upper half of the body and on the dorsal and tail fins.

Have a look at this picture of a typical rainbow trout:

Rainbow Trout

Sometimes the red streak on a rainbow trout is quite a pale, pinkish colour. But even if the streak is very pale, every rainbow trout will have at least some red or pink colouration on each side of its body. This is the primary way to identify a rainbow trout.

Where to Fly Fish for Rainbow Trout

Rainbow trout are found in lakes, rivers and streams. Like the Chinook salmon, they are native to rivers of the Pacific Northwest coast of the U.S. and Canada. However, the rainbow trout has been introduced into other parts of the world, including New Zealand and South Africa.

Fly Fishing for Steelhead

Steelhead are rainbow trout that spend 1-4 years of their lives in the sea. Steelhead run up rivers from the sea to spawn in the same manner as salmon, and are a very popular species for fly-fishermen in Canada and the U.S. because, like rainbows, they are relatively easy to hook and tough fighters. In Australia, steelhead are also known as ‘ocean trout’.

Both rainbow trout and steelhead are very good table fish as well.

If there is a good rainbow trout or steelhead fishery in your area, don’t waste any time. Get out there and start enjoying fly fishing for rainbow trout!

Fly line is made from special polymer materials and is much heavier than normal nylon fishing line. Special materials – such as the ‘microballoons’ developed by 3M Scientific Anglers – are also used to coat the surface of the line so that it runs very smoothly through the ferrules of the rod.

Without proper fly-line, fly-casting cannot even be attempted.

Most fly lines are about 30 – 40 metres (33 – 44 yards) long, but there are some fly lines (designed for specific fishing situations) that are much longer than this.

Fly Line Loads the Fly Rod

‘Load’ is one of the fly line basics beginning fly-anglers must understand. Because of its weight, fly line ‘loads’ the fly rod during the cast. By ‘load’ I mean that the line makes the rod bend or flex in its middle section.

This flexing means that the angler can, by flicking the rod continuously backward and forward, gradually increase the amount of line being cast, before finally laying the line down on the water.

With spin-fishing, which involves casting and retrieving a small metal or plastic lure, it is not the line itself but the metal lure that loads the rod (i.e., causes it to flex and spring forward) and thus allows a cast of some distance to be made.

With fly-fishing, it’s the other way around. Trout flies are as light as the tiny feathers and mixtures of fur used to make them. Thus in fly-fishing the weight of the fly line is needed to gain distance from the cast.

Floating or Sinking?

‘Floating’ and ‘Sinking’ are two other fly line basics beginners should understand. These are two different types of fly lines.

Floating lines lie right on the surface of the water. They are used by anglers on rivers and streams where floating – or ‘dry’ – flies and small nymphs (flies designed to look like the larvae of insects) are productive. Sinking lines are generally used by people fishing in lakes or on very big rivers where most fish are caught deep down on big feathered lures.

Sink-tip Fly Lines

A recent development in technology has seen the emergence of the ’sink-tip’ fly line. This is a normal floating fly line that turns into a sinking line in its final two or three metres.

Sink-Tip Fly Line

This line allows anglers to enjoy all the benefits that a floating line offers – such as visibility and ease of control – while also getting the fly a bit deeper than is usually possible with a full floating line. Sink-tip fly lines are particularly deadly in combination with feathered lures on shallower lakes, big boisterous rivers and on the estuarine lower reaches of rivers.

Fly Line Basics: Weight

Fly line comes in differing weights. It is important to try to match the weight of your rod and line to the type of fishing you are going to be doing. Delicate spring creeks may require a very light rod and fly line. Big rough water will probably call for something heavier. However, if you want to buy an all-purpose fly-fishing rig, then the best weight to opt for, in my opinion, would be a 6 weight line. This will work perfectly in most fly-fishing situations.

Fly Line Buying Tips

It is worth spending money to get a good quality fly line. A fly line with a good finish to it significantly assists casting and will help a beginner improve his technique more quickly than is possible with a cheap line. Leading brands include 3M Scientific Anglers, Cortland, Airflo and House of Hardy.

Fly fishing reels are essential pieces of fly-fishing equipment, but they are a comparatively simple affair.

The free-spool baitcasting reels commonly used for salmon fishing have all sorts of finicky little parts that have to be constantly cleaned and oiled. A fly reel, by contrast, is remarkably straightforward. It really has only two working parts – the spool and the drag mechanism – and it doesn’t need nearly so much effort to maintain.

Presumably because fly fishing reels are so simple in design and construction, they are the one essential piece of fly-fishing tackle where these days, you can actually get quite good quality for a very low price.

Fly Reel Design and Function

Fly fishing reels are round and compact. They have a small handle that is attached directly to the spool but which doesn’t protrude very far out from the spool.

Ross Flycast Reel (viewed from back and front)

The spool of a fly reel revolves at exactly the speed the angler turns the handle. This is in contrast to other types of fishing reel, where because of the presence of gears, the spool may move through up to 5 or 6 revolutions for every turn of the handle.

Reels used for surf salmon fishing in New Zealand, for example, are designed so that the lure can be retrieved through the water at high speed without the angler having to over-exert himself.

But with fly-fishing, there is no need to retrieve the fly through the water using the reel. When the fly is retrieved, it’s usually done by tugging the line with your free hand, not by cranking the reel.

While your fly reel is essential, it doesn’t play nearly as great a part in the process of getting your fly to the fish as your rod and fly line do. Basically, your reel is there to house your line. Only after you strip your fly line off your reel does it become useful to you.

Of course, sometimes your reel will see intense action when you are playing a fish. But much of the time, your reel will sit idle while you concentrate on sending your fly line back out onto the water with the help of your rod.

Fly Fishing Reel Buying Tips

If someone gave me $1,000 to buy a rod, reel and fly line, I would spend $700 on the rod, $200 on fly line, and only $100 on the reel. I use a Taimer TZ reel, which is designed to hold about 30 metres of 6 to 8 weight fly line.

This reel is made of graphite, so it is strong and lightweight. It has a wide, flat spool and the drag mechanism is housed within a graphite drum so that it can’t get clogged up with dust and grit. It has a small hardwood handle that is counter-balanced by a steel knob.

The Taimer TZ reel looks good and does exactly what it’s supposed to do without any fuss – that is, it gives you simple, easy access to your fly line when you need it. And this excellent little reel costs a grand total of about $50US. It is good to know that you can save a bit of money on something!

Important Point!

There is one very important thing to remember when buying a reel: your reel should not be too heavy for your rod. Reels come in different sizes, and if you buy one that is too big and heavy for the rod, your outfit will be unbalanced and the rod won’t cast as well as it would with a smaller, lighter reel. In other words, balance is the ultimate consideration when putting together a fly-fishing outfit.

When it comes to fly-fishing, a ‘nymph’ does not mean a figure from ancient Greek mythology! Rather, a nymph is a small creature that lives amongst the weeds and boulders on the bottom of a river or lake. In fact, nymphs are just the larvae of certain insects that eventually hatch into flying insects and inhabit the terrestrial world.

Stone Fly Nymph Flies

Stonefly nymphs will eventually grow into fully-fledged adult stoneflies, with wings, unless eaten first!

Have a look at the following drawing, which shows a stonefly nymph or larva:

Illustration of Real Stonefly Nymph

Now have a look at this stonefly nymph imitation:

Olive Stonefly Nymph Fly

As you can see, the fly-tier has tried to include all the elements of the real nymph in the tied imitation. The fly has a two-pronged tail, a segmented body, a bulky thorax, a green wing-case, and legs protruding from the thorax – thus it is a lifelike and accurate imitation.

The simple fact is that sub-surface food items make up the majority of the trout’s diet, so you should have a good stock of nymph imitations in your fly box.

Characteristics of Nymph Flies

Nymph imitations do not float like dry flies. They sink down toward the bottom of the river, where natural nymphs are constantly floating along in the current as they struggle toward the surface to hatch. So nymph imitations are designed to look like a natural nymph drifting downstream in the river’s current.

In order to achieve this sinking effect, nymph flies often have fine lead wire in them. The lead wire is wound around the shank of the hook, and then the other materials used in the fly’s construction are tied over the top of the lead base.

Go into any tackle shop and find the nymph selection in the trout fly department. Drop one of the nymphs into the palm of your hand and see just how heavy nymphs can be!

Of course, some nymphs are not weighted. If you’re using an un-weighted nymph but it’s not sinking enough, then you can use split shot or lead wraps on your trace or line to give weight to your rig. Split shot are tiny lead sinkers that can be clamped onto your trace. Personally I dislike split shot because it makes my rig feel unwieldy. I much prefer using lightly weighted nymphs.

Dry fly-fishing is special and exciting because you can actually see the fish take your fly off the surface of the river or lake. It is also a bit easier than fishing with nymph flies or streamers – for the same reason!

But experienced fly-fishermen who know how to catch trout with nymph flies have a generally greater strike rate than those who are adept at fishing only with dry flies.

This is because it is a flat biological reality that more often than not trout will be feeding on nymphs, and so in most situations there is more chance of catching a trout if you can present a nymph to it in the correct manner.

Inspect your fly fishing rod and you’ll notice, between the end of your fly line and the fly itself lies a very important piece of equipment – the ‘leader‘ or ‘trace‘. (Some people even call it a ‘cast‘). This is a length of extremely thin nylon or fluorocarbon line that is nearly invisible to trout, but it’s also strong enough so that once a fish is hooked, it can be quickly and easily landed.

A tapered trace is a length of nylon that has been specifically prepared for use as a fly-angler’s trace. At one end, the tapered trace is quite thick, and generally there will be a loop pre-tied by the manufacturer. The trace then tapers smoothly until it is very thin indeed at the other end. The thick end with the loop is attached to your fly line and you knot your fly to the thin end.

Tapered traces are wonderful things because they help you cast better. For some reason – which I’m sure an expert on aerodynamics could explain – a tapered trace rolls out through the air far more effectively than an un-tapered trace.

Tapered Traces and Tippets

The only problem with tapered traces is that as you fish through the day and change your fly a few times, your trace will necessarily get shorter and shorter. This is a problem because, by virtue of the taper, the shorter the trace gets, the thicker it becomes – and you want your trace to be as thin as possible all the time.

The solution to this problem is to attach a ‘tippet’ to the end of tapered traces. A tippet is a short (30-40 cms) length of very thin un-tapered nylon. It is attached to the tapered trace using a special knot, and the result is that you can happily change your fly a number of times without having to shorten your tapered trace.

When the tippet itself becomes too short, you simply replace it. This will require you to shorten your tapered trace a little. But generally you’ll have to replace your tippet only once a day, which means that using a tippet greatly reduces the rate at which you have to eat into your tapered leader.

How to Tie Tippets to Tapered Traces

The “double blood knot” is a special knot that’s used to tie a tippet onto a tapered trace.

Here is a step-by-step illustration of how to tie a double blood knot, commonly used to join two pieces of nylon or fluorocarbon fishing line together.

Click on image to view full-size

(Note: I call the knot above the ‘double’ blood knot, but other people simply call it the blood knot; and what I call a blood knot is often referred to as a ‘half’ blood knot.)

Tapered Traces Tips and Guidelines

It is possible to buy tapered traces from good tackle shops. Tapered traces are usually sold in small plastic packets. You have to take them out of their packet and unravel them before use.

It pays to give a tapered trace a bit of a stretch before you tie it to your fly line. This will remove any of the kinks or ‘memory’ it has developed while sitting in its packet on the shop shelf. Better that you stretch your trace by hand than to risk having a trout stretch it for you!

The very beginner fly-angler should probably refrain from using a tapered trace or tippet. This is because during your first few sessions, you will probably produce a lot of serious tangles and you’ll have to replace your trace frequently.

For that reason it’s best to start off using a straight trace taken from a plastic spool of nylon. However, once you’ve advanced to the point where you’re not getting into a tangle every five minutes, you can begin to use tapered traces and, as mentioned, this will markedly enhance your casting.

Once you have decided on and purchased a suitable set of basic fly fishing equipment, you will have to put it all together before you can head out and catch a fish. It is crucial to rig your fly fishing equipment up correctly – otherwise you’ll end up with nothing but tangles and frustrations on the river bank!

The tackle shop where you buy your fly fishing equipment will put your fly line (and backing) onto your reel for you; there’s no need to worry about completing this procedure yourself.

But you’ll have to do everything else on your own, without the help of a shop as¬sistant. ‘Everything else’ means assembling your rod, screwing your reel onto the rod, threading the fly line from the reel through the ferrules of the rod, attaching a trace to the end of your fly line, and attaching a fly to the end of your trace.

The Standard Rig - Click on image to view full-size.

The good news is that once you’ve learnt how to do all this, it becomes second nature, and you’ll be able to rig up your fly fishing equipment within a matter of minutes – and dismantle it quickly as well when you want to drive to a new spot or pack up at the end of the day.

Assembling a Fly Fishing Rod

What follows here is advice about how to successfully assemble your fly fishing rod. You can then go on to master the remainder of the assembly process with detailed guidance on attaching the rest of your fly fishing equipment. This includes adding the reel to your rod, threading your fly line through the rod’s ferrules and attaching trace to your fly line.

Most fly anglers opt for a ‘two-piece’ rod. A two-piece fly rod comes apart half way along its length. To assemble a two-piece rod you simply slip the top end of the bottom half into the bottom end of the top half of the rod, then push until the two halves are firmly joined. Be careful not to push the two halves together too hard, as this may damage the rod.

Some fly rods come in three or four pieces. But even with a rod that has more than two pieces, it will be quite obvious how the whole thing is supposed to fit together.

In fact, because fly rods are tapered, it is really not possible to put a multi-piece rod together in the wrong way. If you try to put the rod together incorrectly, you will quickly discover your mistake, because you’ll find yourself trying to slide one piece of rod into a hole in another piece of rod that is either much too big or much too small.

Important Point:

When assembling a fly fishing rod, a common mistake is failing to properly line up the ferrules of the rod. The ferrules are the circle-shaped ‘guides’ attached to the rod that carry the line all the way along between the reel and the tip of the rod.

Click on image to view full-size.

If you don’t make sure that all the rod’s ferrules are properly lined up, your casting distance will be severely impaired, because your fly line will not be able to travel freely in a dead-straight line from the reel to the tip of the rod.

To make sure that all the ferrules line up properly, you need to actually line them up before you push the sections of your rod together. Trying to twist the sections of rod around after they have been pushed together is never a good idea.

Line the ferrules up as much as you can, then gently push the sections of rod together. If you make a mistake, pull the sections apart and try again until you get it right!

Once you’ve assembled your fly fishing rod, you’re ready to move on to adding the rest of your fly fishing equipment.

The flies used in fly-fishing are often wonderfully intricate creations. Made from an almost unlimited variety of materials, they come in all shapes, colours and sizes, and are designed to imitate a vast range of different life-forms, all of which trout feed on at some stage in their lives.

Dry Fly Fishing

Dry fly fishing is special and exciting because you can actually see the fish take your fly off the surface of the river or lake!

Dry flies imitate terrestrial insects – insects that live out of water, such as moths, cicadas, beetles, and blowflies. When such insects fall onto the surface of a river or a lake, they immediately become potential items of food for the hungry trout; thus fly-fishermen have floating flies to imitate terrestrial insects that have somehow ended up trapped on the water’s surface.

Some insects, such as mayflies, are ‘semi-aquatic’: they spend most of their lives underwater as larvae or ‘nymphs’ and then eventually hatch into flying insects for a few days, which is when they breed. There are dry fly patterns that imitate these flying adult semi-aquatic insects as well.

Typical Dry Fly Pattern

Characteristics of Dry Flies

Dry flies are tied so that they will float on the surface of the river or lake. You may be wondering how it is possible to make a fishing fly that floats!

Well, this is done with special materials, used in the fly-tying process, called ‘hackles’. Hackles are usually found at the front of the fly near the eye of the hook. However, some dry flies have hackles along their whole length.

Dry flies used in dry fly fishing often have a stiff tail at the back, which also assists buoyancy. Deer hair is also used in many modern dry fly patterns; it helps keep a dry fly afloat. This is because each individual strand of hair on a deer is actually hollow!

As an example of a classic dry fly pattern, have a look at the following version of the common and popular dry fly called a ‘Dad’s Favourite’:

Dad's Favourite Dry Fly

This fly is designed to imitate the adult common mayfly. As you can see, there is a tail sticking out at the back of the fly. This looks very much like the wispy tail of a real mayfly.

The body of the fly is thin and brown in colour, which again closely represents what a mayfly looks like. The fly also has dark-coloured ‘wings’ – made of fibres cut out of duck feathers – and these mimic the upright position of the wings of a newly-hatched adult mayfly.

As mentioned, the fly also has a beard of hackles up near the eye of the hook. Strictly speaking, these hackles don’t imitate anything found on the body of the real insect.

However, when the fly is on the water, the hackles tend to bunch together, and thus end up looking more or less like the legs of the actual mayfly which the Dad’s Favourite is supposed to imitate. Overall, then, the Dad’s Favourite is a very accurate imitation of an adult common mayfly.

Compare the Dad’s Favourite to a real adult mayfly:

Real May Fly

When dry fly fishing, you don’t always have to be imitating something particular when you are fishing with a dry fly. Many times it’s best to fish with a general dry fly, such as a Molefly, which you can see clearly on the water and which could be taken by a trout for any number of different terrestrial insects present in the area you are fishing.

The concept of fly rod ‘action’ is a tricky one for the uninitiated. But it is crucial to gain an understanding of what is meant when someone tells you he has a ‘fast action’ or ‘medium action’ fly rod.

When I talk about fly rod action, I mean the way the rod responds over its entire length by the pressure put on it from the fly line running through it. Basically, the stiffer the rod, the faster its action. And accordingly, the faster the action of the rod, the greater the casting distance it will afford to the angler.

A very stiff rod will be able to handle larger amounts of fly line, and thus allow the angler to make longer casts. A medium or slow action rod – which is ‘floppier’ than a fast action rod – will handle only so much line, and if the angler tries to push the rod into casting more line than it’s capable of handling, the rod’s action will fail and the fly line will crumple into a pathetic heap on the water.

An Unsuccessful Cast

You might now be wondering why anyone would buy a medium action fly rod!

Well, the fact is that a medium action fly rod will beautifully cast a shorter amount of line, without requiring the angler to put a big effort into the cast. A fast action rod will not flex much at all until it is loaded up with a large amount of fly line. Thus to cast a short amount of line on a fast action rod, the angler has to do all the work.

But a medium action rod with greater flexibility will load up nicely with only a small amount of line, and thus the angler won’t be required to push the rod so much to get the fly onto the water. So if you know that in an average day’s fishing you’re not going to need to make any particularly long casts, a medium action rod is perfect, because it will achieve short casts well and won’t take much effort to operate.

Fly Rod Action isn’t Related to Weight or Length

The action of a fly rod is not related to its weight or length. Take, for example, the Sage XP fly rod – Sage makes both an 8’6” and a 9’ version of this rod, and it comes in a variety of different weights. You can buy a 4 weight Sage XP if you want to – or you can buy a Sage XP for casting 8 weight fly lines. But the Sage XP is always a medium action rod. It will start to flex nicely under the load of only a short length of fly line.

However, the XP’s cousin – the Sage RXP – is, by contrast, a fast action rod. It is stiffer than the XP and will therefore start to perform well only under the load of a larger amount of fly line. Of course the RXP is also available in different lengths and weights.

Which Fly Rod Action is Best for Beginners?

I believe that a beginner fly angler should go for a medium action rod. Fast action rods are really for the expert who wants to make long casts without losing too much accuracy. Beginner anglers should concentrate on casting only short distances. If you are a beginner and you try to cast big distances, you are bound to end up with nothing but frustrating tangles and false starts. A medium action rod is by far the best one to learn on.

Fly boxes are basic tackle items you will need in order to go out fly-fishing on a regular basis. Basically, fly boxes are where you will store your flies to keep them handy and safe from damage.

Trout flies are made of delicate materials such as bird feathers and animal fur. Thus, it is easy to damage a trout fly by handling it in such a way that the materials used to make it get twisted or crushed and the shape of the fly becomes less realistic.

So fly boxes are important: they allow you to carry your flies in your vest or bag without any damage occurring while you walk long distances up or down the river.

Two Types of Fly Boxes

These days there are two basic kinds of fly box available. The first kind is really just a plastic box divided up into different compartments with a flip-open lid. This is the same kind of tackle box that salmon anglers use for carrying their metal lures.

Compartmental Fly Boxes

Some plastic fly boxes are more specifically designed to carry trout flies because the compartments within them are too small for metal lures. I find this ‘compartment’ style of fly box very suitable for carrying dry flies. This is because each individual fly sits in the box without being pushed against the side or bottom of the box too much.

It is when a dry fly is pressed against a hard surface that its hackles and wings can get crushed out of shape.

A Crushed Fly

As you can see in the drawing, the fly’s wings are bent back out of shape and its hackles have been squashed flat. The tail also droops instead of sticking straight out behind the fly.

Foam-Lined Fly Boxes

The second kind of fly box commonly available is again a basic plastic box, but this time with dense foam attached to its inner surfaces, and with no compartments. Each fly is hooked into the foam.

The advantage of this is that once hooked into the foam, the fly is securely attached to the box itself. If the box is dropped or opened in windy conditions, the flies won’t fall out or blow out.

With a compartment style box, there is always the danger of losing flies if you drop the box by mistake or open it when there’s a good breeze blowing. Even so, I still prefer to use a compartment box for dry flies.

When I am selecting a dry fly on a windy day, I always make sure I’m standing with my back to the wind. That way there’s much less chance that any of my flies will be blown out of the box.

Matching Fly Boxes to Flies

I do, however, use a foam style box for carrying nymphs and feathered lures. That is because those kinds of fly do not have protruding wings and hackles, and thus they don’t usually get crushed out of shape when they are made to sit up close to a hard surface.

If you put a dry fly into a foam-style box, its hackles will get pressed up against the firm surface of the foam underneath it and inevitably it will end up out of shape.

Also, nymphs seem to get stuck together if they are kept in a compartment style box. This can be highly frustrating when you need to get a new nymph from your box and tie it on quickly before the fish you are stalking swims away or stops feeding.

A Nymph Fly

But dry flies, because of their hackles, naturally keep each other at a distance and don’t become attached to each other, and thus they can far more easily be carried in a compartment style box.

Of course it’s possible to go out and purchase a very expensive fly box (of either style) that has a fancy brand name and is made of aluminium/aluminum or some other supposedly long-lasting material.

If you have the money, go for it! But in all honesty, a solid plastic box will last for years if you look after it carefully. And plastic boxes are usually very reasonable in price.

It is, however, worth trying to get hold of plastic boxes where a metal rather than a plastic hinge is used to attach the lid to the rest of the box. Metal hinges last much longer than plastic ones.

So, you have purchased the basic equipment needed for fly-fishing. You have also bought some of the secondary tackle items such as a fly box and polarized sunglasses. You have even mastered the art of rigging up your rod, reel and line. This is a very good start! But before you can catch a fish you must also begin the process of learning to cast.

The Basic Fly Casting Action

The first thing to learn is that fly casting is really just a simple repetitive flicking action: flick the rod back, then flick it forward, then flick it back, then flick it forward. The flick comes mostly from your wrist, although you should move your forearm back and forward as well (otherwise your wrist will get very over-worked and sore!)

What am I Trying to Achieve?

Back-flicking Motion

The basic purpose of this back-and-forward flicking action is quite simple. What you want to do is flick back and forward so that you keep a certain length of fly line up in the air.

As soon as you stop flicking, the line will fall earthward and you are back to square one. But if your line is up in the air and moving back and forth, you can then lay it down in front of you on the water at any moment – and in the exact place you want it to land.

Notice also that you can walk forward or backward while you have fly line moving in the air. This is extremely important in river fishing: you need to be able to move upstream with line in the air, ready to lay the line down when you have moved up far enough that your next cast will cover new water.

Forward Flicking Motion

If you flick about five or six yards of fly line backward and forward, you will notice that the line forms loops as it moves through the air, as in the drawing above. This is good!

When you are fly casting you want nice big loops in your line. A big loop means that the fly itself is not getting too close to your fly line.

When the fly gets too close to the fly line, nasty tangles and wind knots quickly occur.

The first thing that a novice fly-caster should do is find a large area of grass, for example in a park or on a tennis court, and start to practise flicking backward and forward with five or six yards of line. Practising on grass is good because grass is soft and thus won’t damage your fly line. Never practise fly casting on concrete or hard ground

It’s also advisable at this point to practise using just your fly line. In other words, when you are really just learning the basics, don’t bother with a trace and a fly. Just concentrate on keeping the line in the air for a while, creating some nice big loops, and then getting your fly line to land in a straight line on the grass in front of you. This is the basic fly casting action that complete novices should try to master first of all.

As you practise, try to concentrate on letting the rod do the work. Remember it’s really your rod that casts the line out, not you.

If you have been casting with a spinning outfit for any length of time, you will tend to try to ‘cast’ the line out there in front of you with your arm. When fly casting, you want your fly rod to ‘shoot’ the line out instead. Your job is to facilitate the action of the rod, so that it casts the line out as best it can.