Learn How To Fly Fish

Have you ever been fishing? Many people would answer yes to this. In America alone, according to the American Sportfishing Association, there are nearly 40,000,000 anglers. But; have you ever tried Fly Fishing? Well, If you enjoy fishing of any kind I strongly suggest you try it. But, and this is very important. Learn How To Fly Fish Properly. If you go out with your new fly fishing gear, tie on your fly, cast, and hope, it's likely that you'll catch nothing, and then you'll become disillusioned.

There are many things to learn first: Rod selection, line selection, leader and tippet selection, casting techniques. I could go on and on. But what I'm saying is, get the basics right first.

Fly Fishing is learning to imitate nature as you fool the fish into taking your carefully selected fly. Then feeling the exhilaration as you maybe hook a Smallmouth Bass and skilfully reel it in as it jumps and fights for all it's worth on the surface, trying to throw the hook. Or perhaps a big trout that threatens to break your line.

O.k. so you can get the same thrill from bait fishing, and once you've hooked a fish, the way you reel it in is much the same. But it's the skill of catching the fish which makes Fly Fishing so exhilarating.

So which is best, Bait Fishing or Fly Fishing? The answer is that neither one is better, or worse than the other. They're just different. There is more to learn for successful Fly Fishing, it's true, and some people just don't want to learn about hatches, fly patterns etc. The skill of Fly Fishing is to make the fish see the fly and believe it's a real insect and not a threat, or something to ignore. In my opinion, when you catch a fish this way, the feeling you get is 100 times that, of putting live bait in the water and waiting for the fish to bite.

Most novice anglers start with bait fishing. And it's the best way to introduce children to fishing. But for me, and every Fly Fisherman I've ever talked to, bait fishing just doesn't give the excitement of Fly Fishing.

Learn how to Fly Fish properly and it's unlikely that you'll ever want to go back to bait fishing.