Before I get into this topic there are two things you must understand. First, none of this work is my own. I have unashamedly stolen, (plagiarized sounds better but means the same), all of this knowledge from a fisherman far better than I will ever be. Second, I paid him to teach me. Yes I paid someone to take me fishing, I realise in some peoples books that is only one step above visiting ladies of negotiable virtue (the image of Dean in a negligee is going to haunt me for weeks now) but it’s the truth. If you want to learn how to do something properly get a teacher and if they are any good why shouldn’t they be paid for their skill (like a plumber who fixes your toilet, the same one you tried to do yourself until your wife had enough of having to clean the ceiling every time it was flushed).

There isn’t room to go into great detail so I will assume a level of knowledge and leave the detail to you to find out; this is actually half the fun anyway. There are a large number of fly fishing books about; in fact fly fishing is probably second only to religion in this respect (some believe this is because fly fishing is a religion).

Fly fishing is not a dark art for those who wear tweed jackets to fish. I think of fly fishing as simply another method that can be used to catch fish (just as trolling is different to casting or bait fishing). Fly fishing is in fact reverse fishing, (what the hell do I mean?). In other forms of fishing you use a rod, or a spinning line in your hand, to cast a weight, (the lure/bait), to the fish. In fly fishing you cast the line which happens to have a fly (lure) tied to it. Because you are casting the line you can use very small and light fly/lures and still retain a heavy line class to catch the fish. Try casting a feather on 20lb line and you will see what I mean. The other advantage is that you can change your type of line to fit the type of fishing you want to do or the conditions. Imagine you have a favorite lure but it only dives to 3m. So when the fish are at 1m, or below 4m it doesn’t work as well if at all. By using a sinking fly line you can fish your lure anywhere from 1m to 30m you just spend more time waiting for it to get there.

There isn’t room in one article to discuss what rod weights (wt) mean, or a million other details, so I will have to assume some knowledge. If you want to go further into it there are many good books including fishing for dummies/idiots (don’t laugh it was my first fly fishing book). Now this is the hard part, what do I need and how do I do it? In keeping with the reverse fishing concept you don’t go and buy a rod then line and so on. First you look at what you are casting (lures/fly), the bigger the flys the bigger the line (higher the wt) you need. You also have to give some consideration to the type of fish, no point in hooking marlin on a 4wt trout rod.

Firstly you need to learn how to cast. Save yourself a lot of heartache and pay someone to teach you (Your local tackle store can help you with recommended instructors). We will now assume you can cast and are on your way to Glenbawn with all the gear. Remember fly fishing is just one of the arrows in your quiver don’t forget to bring your other rods and lures/bait. Most of the time on dams you will be fishing with sinking lines for deeper fish. Set up a rod with a surface lure in case a hot surface bite comes on or have a second fly rod rigged for surface (or a cartridge reel with a floating line).

Now to the nitty gritty. To your fly line tie about 1m (or less) of 20lb mono/fluro leader, when deep fishing you only need short leaders and they are easier to cast than long ones (surface fishing generally requires longer leaders although bass really aren’t that fussy). What fly you cry! Well just like lure fishing you only need one fly, the one the bass want that day/minute. Unfortunately like lure fishing you will probably need to try 100 flys to find that one. So take a mix of types and colors and make sure you have a couple of each, there is nothing worse than finding “the” fly and losing it on the next cast! For Glenbawn dark flys tend to be the most popular with black, purple and red being mixed freely. Bass vampires are prob the most popular but don’t forego the other types as they can produce the goods.

Now all you have to do is cast and cast and cast until you find a bass who wants your fly. The simplest (low tech) method is to slowly move along the bank (using an electric motor) a full casting distance out and cast to the bank and let your fly sink to the required depth and retrieve. Which bank? How deep? All this is so on the day dependant that you really have to learn the hard way. However some shortcuts are; if it’s been raining, bass will move over the newly covered ground looking for bugs; if its hot they will be in the cooler water near drop offs and so on. Basically you have to find the fish and if you don’t have the latest in sounders or aren’t that skilled in their use, the only way is to motor along all the different types of habitat and cast your arm off until you find them.

Once you have cast your line out and let it sink to where you want, strip it back using erratic and varied strips with the rod pointed into the water towards where you think the fish is. Let’s say you found one and he hit your fly, now what? First strike by pulling the line towards you and not by lifting the rod. Then just remember three things 1. HOLD ON; 2. HOLD ON; 3 HOLD ON. Do not give line, if you give the bass line he will wrap your $100 fly line around every snag he can. It is better to loose the fish, fly and some leader than your fly line and believe me you will loose plenty of all of those. I have watched as two very good fly fisherman got busted off three times in a row using 8wt rods and 20lb leader and no fight lasted long enough to finish their first swear word.

Let’s say you survived the first three seconds of bedlam. You now have entered hand to hand combat with your fish and may the better creature win. You need to fight the fish with your rod guiding it away from snags. You have to be careful not to break your rod and more than once I have had my rod in the water up to the reel to stop a fish during a last surge to get away. Generally if you survive the first couple of surges you will be able to guide and pull the fish out of cover and finish the fight in open water, make sure when you hook up the electric is taking you out to open water and not into the snags (the Minn Kota Auto Pilot is ideal for this and really is a great assistance in covering the ground and allowing you to concentrate on casting rather than where your boat is going).

Well congratulations you have caught your first bass on fly. Now take the pictures with your fish and fly rod in hand (you have to get the rod in so people know you are a fly fisherman and obviously a superior being?) and then let the feisty little bugger go so that next time you have the chance of catching a bigger and feistier(?) fish.

So in conclusion fly fishing is just another technique and not a sport unto itself (even if its practitioners often try to turn it into a quasi religion). When the fish aren’t taking lures or bait bring out your fly rod and have another go. Of course you will probably find that before long the call of the long wand will be such that you break it out first and keep the others as back up, but so be it.