Tips on teaching fly fishing?

Ok, so I am looking for some tips, advise, pointers, etc.

I am taking two friends out fishing this saturday. They have both been fishing. The 1st one goes spinner fishing for trout but nothing big. Only when he can get out, which is like once or twice every 3 months. The 2nd guy has gone fishing once with his uncle, many many years ago. Like 10 or 12 years ago.

So, I am taking them both fly fishing. I have two rods: a 9' 5wt & a 7' 3wt. We will be going small stream trout fishing. I know there are fish where I am going so no issue there. Although the water level has me a little, just a little, worries, but not too much.

So, neither of these guys have ever picked up a fly rod, let alone fly fished. I want to make sure they have a good time. The fish where we are going are really eager to take a fly, so as long as they can at least get it out there ok, I am confident that they will get some bites.

But, I still would like to make sure that they have a nice time and enjoy fly fishing.

What kind of tips, pointers, advise would you give me on helping teach beginners how to fly fish? I myself am a beginner. I have been fly fishing since Feb/March of this year so I am far from being an expert. But I am pretty confident on my teaching abilities once I have all the necessary information that I need to present.

I don't want to overbear them with tippet sizes, fly sizes, fly types, casting types, etc etc etc. Because as we all know, there is so much information out there, that one could spend his/her life reading it all and not know it all by the time they pass on to bigger and better waters. So, I don't want to overwhelm them.

Just basic stuff. Like a simple casting technique, proper retrieval (playing) of the fish, proper handling and release of the fish, basics of reading the water, proper safety for wading, etc. Granted the water isn't going to be super deep, maybe 4 feet at the most, but that can be some of the most dangerous waters. :shock:

So, how should I go about presenting this information and helping these guys enjoy themselves on their first time fly fishing? Any pointers, tips, advise for the "teacher" and any for the students (including myself in that group :lol: )?

Thanks guys for your help and input, it is always appreciated and very much!! Take care!

-Spydey

For the water you described I would recommend you attach the fly to either a 4 or 6 lb straight leader. Forget about tapered as it shouldn't be needed. Secondly I would keep that piece of leader as short as possible, say 3 or 4 feet max. That will make casting a lot easier than with a 7 foot tapered job. Then I would show my friends how to read the water and where to cast. If the creek is like the ones we have down here in Southern Oregon they should not have any great problems hooking a few - and maybe hooking theirselves. Panman

Thanks Panman for the info. I will take it into account while talking to them.

Any others with some good pointers? Even if it is contradictory to what others have said, it might be useful.

-Spydey

first off great job on getting your buddies out,,,i would stick to BIGGER dry flies so they can see them and not get frustrated at straining there eyes on size 20s.....personally i would put the less experienced guy in the riffles that way he can just do short casts and feed out fly line as needed.show them what a transition from shallow to deep water is and they will pick up fish.

Mayfly
Caddis
Stonefly
those are the 3 basics insect groups that i would show them and properly ID them.


the most important and hardest thing to do is LET THEM FISH THE WATER FIRST,,i know its tough walking up to a perfect run and wanting to just cast but i would let them get first dibs on the good holding water.

good luck and have fun.

bigsteel said:

the most important and hardest thing to do is LET THEM FISH THE WATER FIRST,,i know its tough walking up to a perfect run and wanting to just cast but i would let them get first dibs on the good holding water.

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Excelent advice bigsteel. Thanks for that one. Also, I was going to see if I could get them to ID the insects too.

I will really need to get them to a good spot to start out at and them from, there head up stream. due to only having 2 rods, we are going to have to switch off every fish or something like that.

Any other advise? Thanks!

-Spydey

focus on the roll cast, thats going to catch them fish and not be too difficult to learn. Make sure they get the D loop behind them. they are going to want tp whip the rod back and forth like they are trying to create a froth in the stream. once again focus on the roll cast. take flies you dont mind losing to trees. you are better off with only 2 rods 3 can be a lot to keep up with. I taught flyfishing/ casting for 3 years and it seems I could always get someone roll casting 20-30 ft before I could get them to throw a good loop, good luck and hope you guys spank em.

Although lake fishing is an easier spot to learn fly fishing, the above advice is exellent. Once the fly is in the water there is one more piece of advice you should know and that is: 'Drag free Drift'. Do what ever it takes to allow the fly to drift 'Naturally' for as long as it can. As soon as the fly hits the water make a mend up stream so the fly line does not make a belly. Otherwise it will make the fly speed up and become something un-natural in the water. Good luck out there!

I would give advice.... but I still suck at fly fishing basics..

Eggs you do the most important thing there is in fly fishing. You get the fly to the water. That's where the fish are. I can still see you brining in that steelhead.

Spydeyrch....you can count on there cast not being too great but if they get the fly in the water they have a chance. If you can ever get you hand on some Lefty Kerh videos and watch them you'll be able to explain flyfishing to a 10 year old. He does a great job of breaking it down for us regular guys. Good job taking your buddies out for fly time!:clap::clap::clap:

This may sound crazy, but depending on the water levels you might have them try high line / tight line nymphing with an indicator. There is no real casting involved as once your flies have have finished their drift and they are down stream of you just let the flow of the water put some tension on the line and then heave it back up stream. As long as you know where the fish are and setup their lines to the right depth they should catch fish. And using an indicator is very visual.

I did this very thing during a family reunion in Bozeman MT a few years back. My 2 nephews from Kansas had done plenty of spin fishing for bass - catfish - crappie, but had never caught a trout or fly fished. And with the Gallatin River right there we decided to go for it. Bought a cheap 6wt setup at Walmart - went to a local fly shop to get info on flies and buy some flies + leaders etc. Found some fishy looking water (and not on private property) and proceeded to rig up a bead head stone fly with a prince dropper. It was August so we wet waded out to our mid calfs and I had Dave and Mike watch me go through the motions and on my 3rd drift I had a nice 10 inch trout on. At that point (seeing that this method and their crazy uncle actually caught fish) they were fighting for turns with the fly rod. Of course this is the Gallatin and there are trout in there -- they both caught a a couple of nice trout nymphing.

Its crazy but it might work ...

If where you are going has casting room. Everything you need is in the WHUMP video on Youtube. BUT of course now i can't find it. maybe someone can help.

OnTheFly said:

Although lake fishing is an easier spot to learn fly fishing, the above advice is exellent. Once the fly is in the water there is one more piece of advice you should know and that is: 'Drag free Drift'. Do what ever it takes to allow the fly to drift 'Naturally' for as long as it can. As soon as the fly hits the water make a mend up stream so the fly line does not make a belly. Otherwise it will make the fly speed up and become something un-natural in the water. Good luck out there!

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Yeah, I was thinking about how I am going to teach them about that. It is important and so I will need to teach them about it. I think that I need to make an acronym for this kind of stuff. hhhhmmmmmmm :think:

Thanks OTF for the advise. It is much appreciated.

-Spydey

eggs said:

I would give advice.... but I still suck at fly fishing basics..

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Hahahahahaha!!!! I am right in that boat with you eggs. Now if only that boat were a drift boat floating down the santiam, or mckenzie, or some other awesome piece of water, that would be sweet!!!

But yeah, I still suck at it!!

-Spydey

Irishrover said:

Spydeyrch....you can count on there cast not being too great but if they get the fly in the water they have a chance. If you can ever get you hand on some Lefty Kerh videos and watch them you'll be able to explain flyfishing to a 10 year old. He does a great job of breaking it down for us regular guys. Good job taking your buddies out for fly time!:clap::clap::clap:

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I have seen some of his videos and even read some of his books. He does do a great job explaining it. I hope that I can do the same thing when we are on the water.

The thing is that I am going to be explaining this stuff while we are driving, at 4:30am and while we hike 2.5 miles in to the water. Then a little more on the water and I am going to let them go off on their own. Hahahahaha. Hope it works.

-Spydey

P.S. Thanks Irishrover for that boost of confidence.

Trout said:

This may sound crazy, but depending on the water levels you might have them try high line / tight line nymphing with an indicator. There is no real casting involved as once your flies have have finished their drift and they are down stream of you just let the flow of the water put some tension on the line and then heave it back up stream. As long as you know where the fish are and setup their lines to the right depth they should catch fish. And using an indicator is very visual.
Its crazy but it might work ...

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Actually , it isn't crazy at all. When I started out fly fishign, I was going to go all gungho and stricktly do drys. Well, that didn't work out too well. I wasn't catching anything. So a good friend (Brandon) introduced me to nymph fishing, and that is what I was primarily doing. I have fished this particular water where I am taking them, twice now. The first time, I nymphed the entire time and got into some nice fish! Then the second time, I took Modest_Man with me. He was dry fly fishing and was just nailing them, while I was nymph fishing and was getting little guys here and there. But the water had gone down so much that nymph fishing wasn't as efficient and effective as using a big dry fly. So I switched and started getting many more hits and landing many more fish.

So the nymphing thing isn't crazy talk at all. I do it too. But I think that for this water, it will probably be lower than the last time I was there, so dries might still be the way to go. But we will have to see.

I do agree though that nymph fishing is sooo much easier and a wonderful introduction to fly fishing, espcecially to get into some fish for the new guys.

Thanks for the tip trout.

-Spydey

P.S. Sweet story about fishing in MT. I have to get out there some time soon!!

BigShayne said:

If where you are going has casting room. Everything you need is in the WHUMP video on Youtube. BUT of course now i can't find it. maybe someone can help.

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Hahahahahaha!!! That guy cracks me up!!! Modest_Man and I were actually talking about him last time we went fishing. He is this older "gentleman" but loves to swear in his videos. Just cracks me up. He gets all excited and into his teaching.

"Now, just do this with me. Grab what ever you have next to you, a pen, a stick, a pencil, your fly rod, and do it with me. forward WHUMP!!! Backwards, WHUMP!!! ...." Hahahahahaha, great instuction and hilarious to watch.

Thanks for that one Big Shayne. Maybe I am going to have to download some of thos vids from youtube, along with the lefty kreh ones and complie a small DVD. Then ake my portable DVD player for them to watch in the car. That might help.

-Spydey

Ok, so this is what I have gathered from everyone's tips so far. I need to focus on the following:

Casting, Reading Water, Big Flies, Riffles, Let them be first, ID Insects, Roll Cast, Drag Free Drift, Natural Presentation, Fly on the water, Nymphing, Tight Line, WHUMP.

I will compile a little something for my friends so that all this makes sense for them. Probably break it down as we go. Note things as we move up stream and give them tips and advise as we move.

Thanks again to everyone for your input and help. It is much appreciated!!! Take care!!

-Spydey

I am a beginer too

I am a beginer too

But i say The role casting first is best. That is how i learned. And it would be ideal if you could get them some practice casting on an open field before you go fishing.

Just 10 min in a big field getting a feel for how to control the line and use the rod helps a lot. Then when they get on the water, they can focous on presentation and stuff instead of learning how to cast with a bunch of overhanging trees.

I have a fly rod and reel you may borrow if you would like.
503-357-5319
Bob in Forest Grove

Lamzy said:

I have a fly rod and reel you may borrow if you would like.
503-357-5319
Bob in Forest Grove

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Thanks Bob.

I sent you a PM.

-Spydey