Fly Fishing Exile Ended

This weekend I was able to go fly fishing for the first time in over a year.  It has seemed like even longer since on the most recent fishing trip prior to this weekend all I had caught was a rock.  And to top the trip off, they guys in my family were springing for it for my birthday. The guys took me to Westover Farms in Steeleville, MO.  This was the last place I had had any success fly fishing so I have been really anticipating the trip. I wrote about my last trip to Westover Farms here and have some pictures of the grounds here.  We fished Friday afternoon, spent the night at one of their cabins, and fished again on Saturday morning. It was a great weekend.

Back to the Basics

So I finally have a fly fishing trip planned.  Mid-July I'll be heading to Westover Farms in Steelville, MO for a couple of days of fishing.  It's been a while since I've held a fly rod so I know I'll be rusty.  But I'm going to try to get in some casting practice before the trip.  Knowing  I need the practice two things have to happen.  I need to get rid of the jungle that's been growing in my back yard and I need to do some studying.  I've got two easy places to start with.  

ORVIS FLY FISHING APP
My first research tool is almost always at hand.  A couple of years ago I downloaded the Orvis Fly Fishing App to my phone (I have a review of the app here).  It has some quick basic instruction that has some good meat to it.  Here is some the quick takes from my review:

Gripping the Rod
With the standard grip your thumb should lie along the top of the rod with your fingers wrapping around the outside.  The thumb on top will help you guide and control the rod like a rudder.  You should let the base of the rod line up with your forearm.  At the beginning of the back cast you should have a straight line from your elbow to the tip of the rod.

Don't Forget Your Back Cast
"80% of your forward cast happens behind you."  Your forward cast begins with the back cast.  Let the line extend fully behind you and start your forward cast just when the line begins to straighten.

False Casting
You'll never catch a fish with your line in the air.  But there are three reason to false cast:
1) Airing out a wet dry fly.  A couple of false casts will get the excess water out of a waterlogged dry fly.
2) Change casting direction.  A few quick false casts as you're turning will allow you to change direction and make a good presentation of your fly.
3) Adding line. By letting in line as you're false casting you can make sure you have the right amount of line for your presentation or for shooting your line.

FLY FISHING 101 - FeatherCraft Fly Fishing
The next place I went for my review was to my post on the Orvis sponsored Fly Fishing 101 class I took a couple of years ago from FeatherCraft Fly Fishing (you can read the review here).  What I need to remember from that class:

Patience
The longer the line you have extending from your rod the longer you have to wait for the tension in the rod to load for the next cast.  Knowing when to start my forward cast has been one of the most difficult things for me to grasp.  I tend to pop my fly by starting my forward cast too early.  99% of the time you should wait just a little bit longer than you think necessary.

Rod Position
I have tendency to drop my rod too close to the ground and my line ends up hitting the water on my forward cast and the ground behind me on my back cast.  With less line your casting should stay between 10:00 and 2:00.  As you let more line out you should rotate this area back and expand it.  Stop your forward cast between 11:00 and 12:00.  Stop your back cast between 3:00 and 4:00.  Play with the angles to see what works best for you.

I've got more reading to do over the next few weeks.  By next week I hope to have gotten some practice casts in and gotten myself reacquainted with the Clinch Knot and the Surgeon's Knot.

Learning Something New

After writing about my struggles with trying to fly fish for bass last week, I realized something.  Not only was my casting geared toward trout fishing.  My style of fishing was geared to trout fishing.  Let's make a comparison to hunting.  Do you hunt for deer the same way you hunt for ducks?  No, not at all.  Lake vs Forest.  Moving target vs stationary target.  Rifle vs Shotgun.  There are a lot of differences.

So in that regard, how do you approach fly fishing for bass?

Trying Something New

I went camping last weekend.  One of my friends lives out of the country, and when he and his family are back in town a bunch of guys take him camping.  The past few times have been on some private property on the Meramec River.  A friend of one of my friend's father-in-law has a campground set up on the river with chairs, grills, and even an outhouse.  We headed out midday on Friday for a night with the guys in the middle of nowhere.  Now, it's been a couple of months since I've been able to go fly fishing.  And from having camped out at this spot of the river in the past, I knew that I wasn't going to be catching any trout on this trip.  The water is too warm and there is too much float trip traffic scaring off the fish.  But, maybe I could try catching bass.

I've caught bass with worms real and fake, but I've never gone fly fishing for bass.  I had gotten a gift card for my birthday so I went to Bass Pro on my lunch break and picked up some fly fishing bass lures.  The salesman recommended a 3-Pack of poppers, a red crayfish, and a dark purple snag-less worm.   I had my bass lures and was looking forward to the weekend.  But to be honest, I didn't have any idea what I was getting myself into...