Any fly fishers on here?

I’m not great. Self taught. And miles away 🤣

But if you have the rod etc then just watch some YouTube vids and get out on some short grass and have a go. It’s mostly timing and muscle memory.

Also, fly fishing and fly casting are two different sports. You can do either one really well without necessarily being good at the other but of course both is best.

Simple stuff like staying well back from the edge and starting to fish close to the bank and then slowly extend your line and move forward as you prove there are no feeding fish close in.

Get a pair of Polaroids to spot fish.

I have caught 99% of all my fish on black flies- (although it is a self fulfilling prophecy because that what I use most too) but trout are generally seeing a silhouette above them.

I’ve just put fresh line on my fly reel as a bass on the fly from my SUP is a ‘23 summer goal.

Funnily enough I'm just about to pick up the fly rod again after maybe 30 years. There's a few keen fly fishers at work and I thought I'd give it a go.

I'm hoping the casting is like riding a bike 😁

I would just like to be able to cast without turning the line into something that resembles a birds nest. I don't have any of the gear and I was hoping I could get some lessons and surprise the old man with a days fishing somewhere. I would ask him but we've tried that and I'm not sure we're best suited to teaching each other.

See if you can get a copy of JR Hartley’s definitive guide.

On the basis of tonights efforts: no I am not 😣. But if you're ever south lakes way I can offer a lesson. Probs a bit out of range though. In terms of gear for £100 you can get everything you need to get going try troutflies.co.uk or shakespeare sigma for hudget gear that you'll never NEED better than. It's pretty accesible from a cost PoV.

Hi Steven

I've recently taken up fly fishing again after a break of around 35-ish years, so I'm far from brilliant. However, I generally catch at least one wee wild brownie pretty much every time I go out as the daft wee buggers are mad for anything that resembles a black spider.  I live in Dunipace, Stirlingshire directly adjacent to a play park, which is great for practice casting , and about 50 metres from a really nice trout pool on the River Carron for which I have a season ticket.

I'd be happy to spend a couple of hours with you some evening. I also have a really nice bike trail heading upstream from my house if you want to bring your bike as well.

Craig

Thanks. That would be ideal. I have a busy few weeks with work but if and when things calm down I'll give you a shout.

Looks like you've already got a kind offer but worth bearing in mind that most stillwaters who do flyfishing will have an instructor who'll do lessons now and then. Or local fishing shop will know of someone. It's quite common and not generally expensive...

I usually just squash them, or use a pest spray.

There is a whole other world out there I had no idea about. 😮

He shoots, he scores 😎 🎉

I inherited my grans fly fishing gear and live on the tweed.

Needless to say not something I have got round to yet!

Yup, but no where near enough you to help out.

I'm lucky enough to live close to a good trout river.  It's lovely to spend an hour or two of an evening doing a bit of fly fishing.  Sometimes I even catch something.

@crosshair - I've been meaning to try SUPping and fishing at the same time.  Glad to see someone else thinks it's a good idea.

I used to Kayak fish but my outfit got ridiculous. In some mad attempt to maximise my chance of catching in the limited time I have available for hobbies, I used to load my Galaxy Sturgeon FX up with 5 rods and go and anchor on a favourite mark somewhere. I'd have a couple of big bait rigs with squid on, a couple of ragworm rigs for Plaice etc, a bass lure to keep me occupied and a rod with a set of feathers on in case a shoal of something appeared underneath on the fish finder as well as full lights and green LED's for night fishing 🤣

I'd wear my dry suit and had a packed lunch, flask and VHF radio.

Thank god I never had to test my re-entry procedure with that lot fishing at once! (Although I always had a knife so I could cut myself out if necessary.

Gradually, the novelty value of getting out far enough to catch stuff on light tackle (as opposed to catching similar species on heavy beach gear) V the effort of carting it all down there, lugging it all across the beach and actually going fishing for hours at a time meant I used it less and less and then sold it.

Then last year, I missed it really bad and started to consider an inflatable kayak + a motorbike. That way the travelling there and back would also be fun (as opposed to a potential 3hrs in a traffic jam) and I could still get a few casts at the bass or mackerel.

FFWD to this year and I finally got the motorbike but that pretty much blew the budget for a kayak so I decided to get a cheap SUP instead.

It's brill really. I can carry my rod, the paddle and the board under one arm (V a marathon slog with my old outfit on a trolly). inflate it in 6mins and still get out way farther than you can reach with heavy gear let alone a spinning rod.

Of course a quick YouTube search shows it's been done to death in America with all kinds of coolers, seats, rods holders etc etc but I'm determined to keep things simple and nimble this time! 🤣

That's a very nice setup you had.  You can actually get sups (microskifs really) which you can put an engine on.  It's american obviously.  I keep thinking a sup would be just the thing for pottering along the Pembrokeshire coast with a lure rod on a nice summers afternoon.  I might even do it one day.

Thanks!
I caught perch, pike, chub, roach, crayfish, bass, mackerel, wrasse, gurnard, pout, whiting, dog fish, plaice, sole, thornback ray, conger, smooth hound, garfish, trigger fish, scad, pollock, a starfish and a crab from that kayak 🥲 🤣

I also had a trolling motor that would fit through the flipper hole but that and the battery was usually a few kg too far when I only needed to go half a mile off shore to anchor up 😮‍💨