How To Fly Fish: A Step-By-Step Guide For Beginners In 2024
There’s much more to fly fishing than tying on a fly and whipping your line around a pond. Casting, hook setting and reeling all demand a level of finesse that goes beyond what anglers experience when spin fishing. Learning how to fly fish takes practice, but with time, you’ll eventually learn what it feels like to master it. Well, at least be sufficient at it; I would argue mastery takes decades.
For those looking to break into the dry fly scene, prepare yourself to enjoy a steep yet rewarding learning curve. Below, I’ve condensed the basics of fly fishing into five important tips, each one building on the one before it to help you master the basics. Practice at your local pond or even in the backyard when you’ve got a few spare minutes, and soon enough, you’ll cast and catch with ease.
The writer lifts up a chum salmon she caught on the fly in Alaska.
Learning fly fishing basics (and acquiring the gear to do so) is no small feat. However, if you find equipment that matches your fishing style and practice casting before hitting the water you’ll, set yourself up for success. Here’s what you need to know.
Step 1: Find A Fly Rod That Fits Your Needs
Like any piece of outdoor equipment, fly rodsfly rods vary widely in price. You can pick up a used one for a few bucks at a thrift shop or online, or you can invest in a new Sage rod and reel setup for as much as a roundtrip flight overseas. But before you go shopping, identify your needs.
What kinds of fish do you plan to target? Will you fish Rocky Mountain streams or Texas’s Gulf Coast? How much are you willing to spend on a fly rod setup? The answers to these questions dictate the cost, length, weight and action type of the rod you need.
For example, I fish western Colorado reservoirs, ponds, rivers and streams for trout six to 20 inches long. I use a 9-foot 5-weight rod with a medium action 95% of the time. I’ll use my 3-weight in beaver ponds, and I pack my 8-weight when I fly fish in Alaska. All that terminology might sound overwhelming, so let’s break it down.
Fly Rod Weights
Fly rod weight (often abbreviated to “wt”) ranges between 0 and 14, with 0 being the lightest and 14, the heaviest. The “weight” refers to the width of the rod blank—not the literal weight in pounds or ounces.
As a general guideline, 0-3 wt rods are good for very small panfish and trout. Think small bluegill or brook trout. Weights 4-6 are good for medium-sized fish, like stocked rainbow trout or largemouth bass. Weights 7-9 are for large fish, including chum salmon, northern pike or big lake trout. And finally, 10-14 wt are for monster fish and are almost exclusively used in saltwater settings.
Rod Lengths
Fly rod lengths are usually determined by the terrain near your fishing spot. When selecting a rod length, think about what overhangs your favorite river or lake. Seven-foot rods are perfect for tight, brushy streams. 10- to 12-foot rods are built for wide open waters with lots of room to cast. Versatile nine-foot rods are a happy medium; they’re not so long that they’re impossible to cast in tight spaces, but they’re long enough to propel your cast towards fish in bigger waters.
The writer fly fishes along a Rocky Mountain stream.
Action Types
Just like spin rods, fly rod action types come in fast, medium and slow. The action type has to do with how the rod flexes. Fast action rods bend closer to the rod’s tip, and slow actions bend about 75% of the way down a fly rod. Medium actions bend about a quarter of the way down.
Slow-action fly rods are great for beginners or anglers who fish small streams. They’re good at casting short distances, but struggle to cast a long way. Medium actions are just that: a happy medium. They strike a balance between versatility and performance, meaning they are powerful enough to help land larger and small fish while casting both short and long distances. Fast action rods are built with big fish in mind, and they can be tricky to cast. Fast actions are the go-to choice for saltwater anglers.
Step 2: Practice Casting
Before you hit the water, practice casting your fly rod. As tempting as it may be to hit the water in search of fish, take my word for it; casting is tricky until it becomes muscle memory, and it’s much more enjoyable to practice casting at home than to do so on the river among other anglers. Casting a fly rod relies on slow, methodical arm movements, properly loading the rod and managing line.
Spin rods rely on the weight of the lure at the end of the line to propel the line forward. Conversely, fly rods use the weight of the line itself to propel their lure. Learning when to load and release your line while keeping your rod tip’s path straight is key for making effective casts.
Pick Up-Lay Down Cast
The most basic and important fly rod cast, the pick up-lay down cast, has three components: the back cast, a pause and the forward cast.
To start, let about five feet of floating line out on the ground in front of you. Then, in one fluid motion, pick the rod up and sharply stop your wrist when it reaches 12 o’clock. Pause for a moment, allowing the line to completely unfurl behind you. Then, bring your wrist to 10 o’clock, allowing the line to unfurl in front of you, and lay down the fully extended line on the ground.
This 12 o’clock to 10 o’clock motion can be easily remembered by saying, “Hello? It’s for you.” Pretend you’re answering a phone, it’s for someone else and you’re handing them the phone.
Roll Cast
Rolls casts have many applications, especially in tight spaces or when fishing from a raft. While technically simple, roll casts can take practice to master.
To make a roll cast, start in the exact same position as the pick up-lay down cast. Then, bring your wrist to 12 o’clock, and the line will form a D-loop in front of you. Without making a back cast, bring your wrist to 10 o’clock, and the line will flick out, extending back into a straight line in front of you.
Double Hauling
Double hauling is the most difficult casting maneuver to learn. It’s really only necessary when trying to achieve the maximum distances your fly rod can cast, but it’s fun and looks very cool. However, any fly angler will tell you to master the other two casts before attempting to learn to double haul.
To double haul, perform a pick up lay down cast, but pull on the line with your non-dominant hand during specific moments to help your rod store potential energy. Pull down on the back cast, and pull down again on your forward cast. However, each pull needs to be perfectly timed, so you are “hauling” the line while your rod is loaded. A very common mistake is to seek out more power with your rod hand, not your line hand, which will destroy your setup upon casting.
Honestly, it’s easier to see than to explain; Orvis has a great tutorial that explains this technique. And Lefty Kreh has a playful explanation about double hauling as well.
Casting Clinics And Drills
If fly rod casting clinics are available near you, sign up for one. It’s far easier to learn to cast in person with a certified casting instructor than to read about it online. However, if online info is all you have, here are some tips I learned in my casting clinic.
First, learn a few casting drills. Start by holding your new fly rod straight out in front of you with its tip facing away. Then, smoothly pivot your arm at the elbow to the left, keeping the rod tip’s path as straight as possible. Carefully watch the line change directions in front of you. The line should be fully extended to the left now. Then, pivot your hand all the way to the right. Watch the line swing out horizontally to the right. Continue for a few minutes until you feel familiar with the way your line moves.
Next, do the same exact drill, but keep the line in the air the entire time. Pivot left, then pivot right, watching the line fold over itself gracefully as it switches directions. When you’ve got a handle on fluidly moving your line back and forth, “climb the ladder,” bringing your line higher into the air and back down in a controlled way.
When you feel comfortable climbing the ladder, switch to casting along with the “hello, it’s for you” phrase. Watch for tailing loops, line tangles and other casting errors.
You can take it up a notch by attaching a colored string to the end of your line and placing hula hoops 10, 20 and 30 yards away from you. Build up your accuracy by placing the string in the hula hoop.
The writer walks along a river in Colorado, ready to fly fish.
Step 3: Research Your Local Waters
Before you think about filling your fly box, drive down to the water you plan to fish. Poke around under the rocks, inspect the plants and look for other debris in the water. What kind of water bugs do you see? Are there bugs in the air, too? Take a photo of them, or make a note about how big they are and what they look like. Then, armed with this newfound entomological information, shop for flies that look like the real bugs.
You can take your research up a notch by seining. Seining is using a very finely meshed net to collect bugs. You can purchase a seining net for less than $20, or you can wrap any old fine mesh around your fishing net.
When your seining net is ready, step into the water and face downriver. Set your net into the water by your feet, and repetitively step in and out of the muck, kicking up junk with each foot. The river’s flow will carry any bugs straight into your net. When you think you’ve gathered enough evidence, carefully lift up your net and take a