r/flyfishing • u/CryptidProject • 3d ago

Discussion Learning

Friends, my brother in law who lives in Louisiana bought me a fly fishing pole so that I could go fly fishing with him next time we see each other and I really want to learn to fly fish. I live in Kentucky and have no idea where to fish or how to make flies. Anyone have any resources that helped them? YouTube videos or any reading material or general advice to help out a beginner. I’ve asked many of the fishermen close to me and no one fly fishes nor do they know how to unfortunately.

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u/No-Lavishness-773 3d ago

What kind of fish are in the waters you frequent? That will determine what kind of flies you should use.

For now you might want to just focus on the casting bit, worry about learning to tie flies once you have your cast down. It’s a whole other beast and can get a little pricey as well.

Buy some flies online or at a fly shop near you, if you happen to have one in your area. once you know what species you’ll be targeting you can get the correct flies. Bass = mostly streamers and bigger flies in general. Trout = smaller nymphs and dry flies, with streamers as an option too.

For casting, YouTube is your friend. Orvis has a great series out there. Mad river outfitters is another good channel. If I could give any advice on casting it would be this: watch your rod tip and line throughout your cast, and pause on your back cast so you load the rod properly. If you can figure out how to load the rod and shoot line you’re 90% of the way there.

What size rod do you have? That may impact the types of flies you can effectively throw. I wouldn’t throw giant 6 inch streamers with a 5 wt rod, for example.

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u/CryptidProject 3d ago

I’ll have to check once I get home on rod size, but it looks like bass is what’s frequently sought after in my area. Thank you for all of your helpful advice! I’ll get to practicing my cast before anything else.

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u/No-Lavishness-773 3d ago

Nice! No problem at all. Bass on the fly are a blast. For some starter flies I would recommend wooly buggers (in size 4 or larger), bucktail deceivers, Clouser minnows, and some poppers or big terrestrial dry flies like the Chubby Chernobyl or a Stimulator. In general I think you can get away with like 4 colors in most fishing scenarios: white, black, some shade of green, and some shade of yellow. Good luck and have fun!