Want to start fly-fishing. Got a few questions.

smile_for_me7465

First off, I'm thinking of going to Wal-Mart and buying their cheap starter kit for $40. Think this is wise? All I'll be using it for is getting casting and what not down. Then after I've got more experience I'll use my Dad's, which is a nice rod and reel.

Second, what are some good starter guides and videos on the internet?

wpage

Sounds like a plan.
Here is a link to a good fly forum
http://www.theflyfishingforum.com/

hadjii

I wouldn't buy it. First off, every fly rod has it's own personality, and it's an art in itself to learn that rod. I'm not saying that you have to buy an Orvis or Sage outfit for several hundred dollars right off, but you can buy some excellent outfits at Cabelas or Bass Pro for not much money, which you won't outgrow, and learning to cast with a decent outfit is much easier than fighting with a poor outfit. I took a 2 day fly fishing class up in Minnesota after getting extremely frustrated with trying to cast without killing myself. I think that cost me 40-50 dollars and was well worth it. It wasn't an Orvis school, but it sure got me off to the right start. I really haven't fished any other way since, and that's been well over 20 years ago. I'm no professional fisherman by any stretch, but have graduated to Orvis and high end St.Croix rods. I started off with a Cortland GRF 1000 rod, which cost about 60 bucks I think. I spent countless hours in the yard with that rod, and after lots of practice, I could hit a 6 inch circle from 50-60 feet away almost every time, and fishing some of these small streams in Iowa, you need to be able to hit a small feeding lane from a distance to catch a wary rising trout. I wished I would've kept that rod. It was a darn good one. When I switched to an Orvis rod, it was like starting all over again. Like I said, every rod has it's own personality, so start off with a decent rod to begin with. Best of luck and enjoy it. It's an awesome way to fish.

hadjii

Perhaps you should tell us what you are going to gish for. That's a big determining factor in what size of outfit you purchase. In flyfishing, you are casting the line, not the lure, so what species of fish you are pursuing, determines the size of rod. I fish mostly warm water species because of where I'm located. (Iowa). If I could have only 1 rod for everything from bluegills to trout to laremouth and smallmouth bass, I would get an 8 1/2' rod for 6/7 weight line. With that outfit you can cast size 20 midges for finicky trout up to size 2 woolly buggers and the like for bass. Line is also a major consideration. Once again, you should match line size to rod. If you're leaning more towards trout and the like, I'd put a 6 wgt., weight forward line on the above mentioned rod. The 6 wgt will allow for a more delicate presentation of smaller flies, streamers or nymphs. If you're leaning more towards bass and the like, go with the 7 wgt. weight forward line. The weight forward line has the heaviest portion of the line closest to the casting end of the line and allows for easier casting of heavier flies, streamers and bass bugs. Also casts a little better into the wind. As far as videos. go to the Cabelas website. They offer several good casting videos by Lee Wulff and Lefty Kregh. For books, the first book I bought was by Tom Rosenbauer, called the "Orvis Fly fishing Guide". Twenty plus years later, I still look at it for refreshing my brain. It is a very good and useful read. Don't hesitate to ask any more questions you may have, and once again good luck and enjoy.

P.S. As for reels, a basic single action reel is all you need. Just be sure it is big enough to hold the heaviest line you plan on using plus a couple hundred yards of backing. The backing serves 2 purposes. One is in case you have a big fish on that is a runner and takes all the line and gets into the backing. the other is to take up some space on the reel so that the actual fly line isn't wrapped up in such small coils. fly line has alot of memory, and if it isn't used regularly, will need to be stretched in order to get better casting. Stretching a fly line isn't a big deal. I just take the rod and reel out in the yard and unwind all the line. I then stretch a length between my hands and move onto another length until I have stretched it all. Also, be sure to keep the line clean. Just get a bottle of fly line cleaner from Cabelas or wherever, put some on a sponge and then pull the line through the sponge. It all adds up to easier and more proficient casting, which really makes a big difference in flyfishing.

elkoholic

http://www.cabelas.com/cabelas/en/templates/links/link.jsp?id=0079733321355a&type=product&cmCat=SEARCH_all&returnPage=search-results1.jsp&Ntk=Products&QueryText=flystart&sort=all&N=0&Nty=1&hasJS=true&_dyncharset=ISO-8859-1&_DARGS=/cabelas/en/common/search/search-box.jsp.form23

Good stuff from a great company.

huntingwithdaughters

Reddington has a starter fly rod with reel and line for about $90. It doesn't indicate a line weight but I spoke to the company and they said 5-6 weight. Good for trout, bass and pan fish.

The Classic Fly Rod Forum is a great board with very helpful people.

A great beginning book is published by Orvis: Reading Trout Streams. It will really give you a head start. Trout and Their Food by Dave Whitlock is another superb book.

Tight lines!