{{+1}}Getting started – the gear{{-1}}

I often get asked the question as to what gear a newcomer to the sport of fly fishing should buy.

A lot has been written on what gear you should buy (most by people who are selling it) when you first start out but by the time you have sifted through the volumes you'll probably be as confused as I was when I first started out fly fishing. Now that I'm a little way down the track it has pretty well fallen into place.

A good starting point is to understand what fly fishing is and what your hoping to achieve.

For me, now, fly fishing is pretty simple and is made up of the following four distinct criteria:

HUNTING INSTINCT – The ability that some people have which allows them to apply “stealth & cunning” as they approach a fish, understand where to fish and when, to feel at one with nature etc. etc. To an extent hunting instinct can be learned but the best hunters have “hunting instincts” embodied in their very make up and apply them intuitively rather than by practice.

CONFIDENCE – If you take two fishermen distinguished only by their confidence level, that is, with identical gear and using what appears to be the same methodology, then the person that has confidence in what he or she is doing and the equipment that he is using will nearly always catch more fish - I don't know why this is but it is a fact of life.

SKILLS – The ability to use all the “gear” appropriately at the right time. Understanding what fly to use and at what time. Understanding the appropriate technique to employ for the targeted species at that time and in that place. Understanding what your fly is doing. The ability to tie and use the right knots for the right application. The ability to cast a range of distances accurately. The ability to present a fly in different ways. The ability to fish or retrieve a fly in a way that triggers a response from the targeted fish. And last but not least the skills to play and land your prize.

GEAR – this includes the rods, lines, reels, flies, tippets, leaders, clothing, waders, boots, fly vest, water craft etc. etc.

If you think about each of these criteria being worth a possible score of say 25 points then, except for some fluky occurrences that you can't rely on, the higher the score you can muster in each of the above areas then the better will be your fly fishing outcomes and enjoyment.

The aim of this article is to cut to the quick in relation to the essential components of the question of gear that is the rods, lines, reels, leaders and tippets and of course flies and to help you score high at least in the area of gear.

There are really two possible starting points. The first is to buy a pre packaged combo and you can get a range special at K-Mart, fishing shops and even from service stations in fishing locations, on the internet of course and these combos cost from as little as $100 or so. Unfortunately you only get what you pay for and the short comings of such a combo will quickly be appreciated (or regretted). Having said that if the price of a pre-packaged combo is all you want to pay out, or all you can afford that's OK. Buy a #6 to #7 weight outfit and a few flies and that will get you started.

The main gripe I have with pre-packaged combos is that whilst they're sold as 'balanced" outfits more often than not the line is underrated against the rod. If you do buy a combo and are unsure of how to set it up or cast it go along to your local fly fishing club and I'm sure you'll get plenty of help. In many clubs you are even encourages to take your gear along to open days and try a few different lines out to see what works best on your rod and generally you will even get a little casting tuition. At best however the harsh reality is that the best score you can hope to achieve with an inexpensive pre packaged combo is probably say 15 to 20 points.

If you want to increase your score to above say the 20 points then you will have to do as I do and that's buy the components separately. Sure it will cost a little, or even a lot more if that's your choice, but in the end you will have a much better chance of succeeding in the sport.

If you want an all round set up that you can use to target trout in lakes and streams, bass in lakes and rivers and salt water fish such as flathead, bream and whiting in coastal estuaries and lakes I suggest you go for a 6 weight outfit. If your just getting started buy only one line and buy that one weight up from the designated weight of the rod you buy. That extra little weight in the front section of the line will help you get started with your casting.

Rods

I think there are three major considerations:

1. I like 3 or 4 piece rods and am unlikely to ever buy a 2 piece rod again. Two piece rods are harder to store and transport and are much easier to break during transportation. Three to six piece rods once had a reputation of having a poorer action than the equivalent rod in a two piece configuration. That has now all changed and the technology is now so good that in most rods there is little if any loss of action as a result of adding a few extra joints. In any case the benefits far outweigh the costs and I would encourage you to buy a 3 or 4 piece rod rather than a 2 piece rod.

2. I also lean toward rods that have soft tips but solid butt sections as they are more versatile in their uses. Soft tips allow for better feel and presentation but strong butts allow you to put pressure on fish and land them quickly. There great on streams or for delicate lake presentations and they have the benefit of having the capacity to handle larger flies, punch a line into the wind a lot better and to muscle a fish to the net.

3. The third consideration is price. Until a couple of years ago I would have said that good rods start at $300 or $400.That's no longer the case. For example recently I purchased two fly rods each at US$199. Both came with: a lifetime warranty by Redington (part of the Sage group) a free Rio fly line and free delivery. The best advise I can give is threefold:

Do your homework.
Don't leave it up to a retailer to tell you what you should by ... you would be naive to think they didn't have an agenda different to yours.
Join a local fly fishing club and talk to a few of the members.
Try a couple of different rods before you make a decision. Again a good way to do this is to link up with your local fly fishing club or some local fly fishing contacts or of course many good tackle shops these days provide the opportunity for you to cast their rods.

By in large I like any rod I am buying to have a life time guarantees. I have seen a lot of rods broken both during fishing and otherwise. In recent years I have been fishing with people who have broken a fly rod. One mate, an experienced fly fisherman, was playing a small tailor in the Clyde River and "high sticked" the fish and broke the tip of his Redington. An Australian champion was dismantling his Strudwick rod after a fishing outing and the rod broke just above the joint rather than at the joint. My neighbour, who I often fish with, was playing a 2 to 3 lb late spawning rainbow in the lower Thredbo and his Sage rod broke just above the butt. In each of these cases it was a pain in the butt (excuse the pun) but not devastating because each of the rods had a lifetime guarantee. Imagine how much worse each of them would feel if there was no warranty. By the way warranties differ company to company with the most common practice being that you pay about 15% of the value of the rod to have it repaired or replaced under the lifetime warranty.

Lines

Often these days you will find that with firmer action rods lines that are one weight up from the rod weight make loading up so much easier. Particularly when you first star out loading your rod with a slightly heavier line will help with casting larger streamer and estuary salt water flies and still allow you to do shorter delicate presentations in streams etc..

Buy good quality lines (from $40 to $130) only as the cheap lines often have short lives, a lot of memory, inferior coatings and some are poorly graded (i.e. #7 may not be a true #7).

If your buying only one line make it a floating line if trout will be your main target (Scientific Angler XPS and GPS are my current preferences but there are many good dry fly lines). Whilst floating lines come in a wide range of colours I have found that olive colours are the most versatile closely followed by gray.

If salt water estuary fish will be your main target buy a clear intermediate line (Cortland and Scientific Anglers) make very nice clear intermediate lines).

If you can justify buy both as they have applications across the different fisheries.

A full sinking line is also very handy and again many are available (I like Scientific Anglers Mastery Series sinking lines).

Don't forget to load the line onto the reel on top of good quality backing. You will need the lesser of 50 meters of backing or as much as it takes of that backing to fill the reel out so that when the fly line is added it loads the reel to within 5mm of the rim of the reel. To get the reel properly filled I like to put the line on the reel first starting with the leader end at the reel and then add the backing onto the butt end and to fill the reel with backing until its loaded to the 5mm mark. Then run the whole lot off in the back paddock, open park or other open area and put it back on the reel this time starting with the backing.

Reels

Buy a reel with a reasonable drag. Sooner or later you'll be hooked up to a big fish stripping line off your reel and it's then that the quality drag makes the difference. I think that the best value for money reel on the market at the moment are the modular reels. These are reels that come with three to 5 spools depending on the brand. BFR, Snowbee, FeatherCraft just to name a few. Most are priced at about the same price as a traditional reel with a spool but the advantage is that it will have 3 to 5 modular spools made from either high grade plastic or machined aluminium. Spare spools for traditional type reels on the other hand generally cost about 50% of the reel cost. Once you have your modular reel you can load the spools with different lines and then swapping lines when your fishing between say your floating, intermediate and sinking lines is is quite easy.

Leaders and tippets

I have gone off tapered leaders in recent years. For stream, lake, estuary and bass I use a simple system that allows me to swap lines easily. On the end of each of my fly lines I attach a small monofilament loop of only about 20 mm in length. I build my own leaders out of 2 or three sections of decreasing thickness quality fluorocarbon or monofilament line. Maxima Ultra Green monofilament is a great starting point for leader / tippet material and it is still my preferred line when I am just out for a fish. When I am fishing competitions I mostly use Riverge Grand Max but its worth noting that it is a little more expensive than some fluorocarbons on the market but in my view its more than worth the added expense because it is much thinner than a lot of the alternatives and it has great knot strength and structure. For estuary and bass I typically start with a meter of 15lb or 20lb attached to the fly line loop with an open loop locked with a blood knot. To that heavy butt section of my leader, that is connected to the fly line, I attach two meters of 10lb Maxima Ultra Green and attach my flies directly to that. For trout I use a similar set up but with a shorter second section and a couple of meters of 6lb or 4 lb tippet material. As a starting point work toward an overall leader + tippet length of around 1.5 times the length of your rod but keep in mind that a good presentation with a short leader/tippet will catch more fish than a daggy presentation with a long leader/tippet. As you gain experience you will find that different length leader suit different applications, conditions and line types.

Flies

Have a look at my fly boxes and you'll see the various flies I carry.

If I were limited to just one fly for trout fishing it would have to be a size #10 black, brown or olive lightly weighted woolly bugger. By swapping lines you can fish them at a variety of depths and woolly buggers have a reputation for taking a range of fish world wide.

If I had a bit more latitude and wanted a small selection of flies that would cover most trout, estuary, salt water and bass fishing applications I would carry the fist fly in each category on the attached posts. If I could carry more I would add the second fly in each category and so on.