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IvyThicket

Senior Member
I didn't read everything in this thread and everyone has their opinions so I am going to give you mine. I'm not from Georgia but just across the state line in the mountains of NC. I grew up just a stone's throw from one of the most notorious fly fishing rivers in the Southeast, the Davidson River. I cut my teeth on that river and it humbled me more times than not. I learned more from my failures on the D than I could have anywhere else and I was lucky to grow up with the Pisgah National Forest and all of it's blue lines as my playground.

If I were advising a newbie on getting into fly fishing, the first thing I would do is steal his money and then smack him in the face. I'd steal your money because that's exactly what fly fishing is going to do and then I'd smack you in the face to see what kind of patience level I'm working with. Most guys don't have the patience to deal with the amount of birds nests, trees, underwater obstacles, broken rod tips, knots, wind, etc that you're gonna have to deal with.

All joking aside, a 5wt is a great all around weight. I've used a 5wt for trout, smallmouth, largemouth, panfish, heck I even fished the high grass in the marshes near our beach house with it.

As for practicing, I learned just as much off the river as I ever did on. I tell people to practice their casting distance and arm discipline no matter how little they'll actually apply it on the river. Tie a little yarn to the end of your leader and pick points in your yard to cast to. You'll be amazed how much you'll learn about arm discipline and rod tip discipline in your yard. Start close, move to further points. Practice your roll casting, false casting, your single hauls and double hauls because I learned about casting a fly short distances into the wind by practicing my long distance accuracy at home. You will apply those long distance principles of loading the rod and driving your line many times if you fish enough. If you ever get an opportunity, look up 'The Essence of Flycasting by Mel Krieger'. Mel is long gone now and his videos were pulled out of the 70's but he is bar none the best fly casting instructor I have ever found. He just has a way of teaching it to novice fisherman that I haven't found elsewhere.

Outside of that, just remember to KISS it (Keep it simple stupid). You don't need 10 fly boxes of every variety of flies to catch fish. I chuckle at the guys who show up to the river with essentially a duffel bag hanging off their hip. Get you a lanyard with a pair of nippers, forceps, a couple of spools of tippet and some floatant, and keep a box in your pocket with some hares ears, pheasant tails, copper johns, woolly buggers, caddis, parachute adams, worms and some girdle bugs and you'll catch trout on any river, any time of the year. I guarantee it!
 

NCHillbilly

Administrator
Staff member
I didn't read everything in this thread and everyone has their opinions so I am going to give you mine. I'm not from Georgia but just across the state line in the mountains of NC. I grew up just a stone's throw from one of the most notorious fly fishing rivers in the Southeast, the Davidson River. I cut my teeth on that river and it humbled me more times than not. I learned more from my failures on the D than I could have anywhere else and I was lucky to grow up with the Pisgah National Forest and all of it's blue lines as my playground.

If I were advising a newbie on getting into fly fishing, the first thing I would do is steal his money and then smack him in the face. I'd steal your money because that's exactly what fly fishing is going to do and then I'd smack you in the face to see what kind of patience level I'm working with. Most guys don't have the patience to deal with the amount of birds nests, trees, underwater obstacles, broken rod tips, knots, wind, etc that you're gonna have to deal with.

All joking aside, a 5wt is a great all around weight. I've used a 5wt for trout, smallmouth, largemouth, panfish, heck I even fished the high grass in the marshes near our beach house with it.

As for practicing, I learned just as much off the river as I ever did on. I tell people to practice their casting distance and arm discipline no matter how little they'll actually apply it on the river. Tie a little yarn to the end of your leader and pick points in your yard to cast to. You'll be amazed how much you'll learn about arm discipline and rod tip discipline in your yard. Start close, move to further points. Practice your roll casting, false casting, your single hauls and double hauls because I learned about casting a fly short distances into the wind by practicing my long distance accuracy at home. You will apply those long distance principles of loading the rod and driving your line many times if you fish enough. If you ever get an opportunity, look up 'The Essence of Flycasting by Mel Krieger'. Mel is long gone now and his videos were pulled out of the 70's but he is bar none the best fly casting instructor I have ever found. He just has a way of teaching it to novice fisherman that I haven't found elsewhere.

Outside of that, just remember to KISS it (Keep it simple stupid). You don't need 10 fly boxes of every variety of flies to catch fish. I chuckle at the guys who show up to the river with essentially a duffel bag hanging off their hip. Get you a lanyard with a pair of nippers, forceps, a couple of spools of tippet and some floatant, and keep a box in your pocket with some hares ears, pheasant tails, copper johns, woolly buggers, caddis, parachute adams, worms and some girdle bugs and you'll catch trout on any river, any time of the year. I guarantee it!
Excellent advice. I'd add a Yellow Palmer and a Parachute Female Adams and a Prince Nymph and Tellico to your fly list.
 

Buckman18

Senior Member
Excellent advice above, the only tidbits I would add are:

1. Egg Patterns, especially for DH or regular stocker trout. Those are a great way to learn.

2. Red Wigglers. Sometimes its just too tempting to tip a nymph, even for those of us who've fly fished a long time.
 

JonathanG2013

Senior Member
A lot of people on here have spent many years fly fishing. One thing I was shocked at the depth of water that will hold trout. I was messing around talking to an older gentleman fishing.

I saw a nice run in about 4 inch deep water. Not thinking I would get a bite. Ended up catching a 10 inch rainbow.

If the water looks good make a cast upstream to see if you can get a bite. Trout can be in water a few inches deep or in a really deep pool.

Also do not be afraid to go when it is raining also.
 
I agree with what others have said above. A 5wt is a good place to start and will cover most applications here in GA for freshwater. A hand sized bluegill will bend one double as will small bass. That being said, if you catch the fever, you'll want to add to your arsenal! Cabela's has some really good gear. I have a 20 year old Cabela's 5wt that I still use.

For flies, a lot of the trout patterns double well for bream and bass. Wooly Buggers are one of my favourite go to patterns (olive and black) and work just as well on bream and bass as they do on trout.

I'm not a great caster so I'm not one to give advice on technique, but as others have said you rarely need to cast beyond 30 feet. Keeping the line out of the brush and accuracy are more important than distance here in GA. Good luck and feel free to post here on the regular! Lots of good folks on this forum that give good advice.
 

oldguy

Senior Member
There's a lot of "rules" - don't be afraid to think outside the box and experiment. You'll be surprised what you'll find. Like jg2013 said above trout'll be where you find 'em. I was wading downstream early one morning through a riffle. Had a GR Hare's ear out front with the rod pointed downstream like walking a dog. A trout hit that fly viciously, almost snatched my rod out of my hand, broke the tippet and was gone. That was years ago. I ain't forgot and wonder to this day what that fish looked like...
Every fly these guys have mentioned are fish catchers. I'll add the "old" Hornberg fished wet even w/a tiny split shot. Streamers will hook you up too.
 

flyrod444

Senior Member
Been guiding and teaching folks how to catch trout on a fly for 35 years now and all the advise giving is spot on with controlling ones drift to be be drag free one of the most important, except when streamer fishing or using a wet fly. When fishing streamers or wet flies one wants the fly to swing across and down stream. I use this technique allot since there is no slack line for beginners to deal with. It's been my experience that learning when and how to set the hook can be the hardest thing for allot of people. They set to late or up stream when they should be setting down stream or not at all. Fishing a target rich spot like dh water or a pound full of bream will give a beginner many oportunities to work on setting the hook. In the end it just takes time on the water to become proficient. One other thing is while you can practice over head or side arm cast on dry land one must be on water to practice the roll cast. With out friction of the water a roll cast will not load the rod.
Always remember these to phases as well. "A bad day fishing is better than a good day at work"
"Trout live you in beautiful places"
 

IvyThicket

Senior Member
One other thing is while you can practice over head or side arm cast on dry land one must be on water to practice the roll cast. With out friction of the water a roll cast will not load the rod.

You can absolutely practice a roll cast on dry land, I'm not sure where you get that. I've been doing it my entire life. You're thinking of a water haul cast.

 

northgeorgiasportsman

Moderator
Staff member
You can absolutely practice a roll cast on dry land, I'm not sure where you get that. I've been doing it my entire life. You're thinking of a water haul cast.


You can't do a proper roll cast on dry land. To do an effective roll cast, the rod has to load up on the back sweep and a grassy lawn doesn't offer the same resistance that water does.

As a side note, you can practice anywhere you like, but I wouldn't recommend pavement or gravel because you'll nick the line and scrape off the coating.
 

IvyThicket

Senior Member
You can't do a proper roll cast on dry land. To do an effective roll cast, the rod has to load up on the back sweep and a grassy lawn doesn't offer the same resistance that water does.

You're talking about something that is so minuscule that it's virtually unnoticeable, especially if you're casting upstream and the water is moving towards you and counteracting the loading effect of the rod. The grass offers an outstanding practice field for anyone and to say you can't practice it is not correct.

The biggest thing about practicing a roll cast is teaching the caster to keep the line moving whereas many novice fisherman stop just prior the forward cast which unloads the rod. A new fisherman can teach themselves every aspect of this in their yard.

As for where to practice, a grassy yard is always best on dry land and you must always practice with a leader so that you do not end up splitting the end of your fly line.
 

flyrod444

Senior Member
The video is good but falls short of what I call a roll cast. The roll he is doing all happens up in The air. When roll casting in tight streams this cast would not work out so well. What I call a roll cast is when you work your line upstream by making the roll form upstream of you rod and roll on the surface and stay very low. With proper technique one can cast 30 or 40 feet + upstream while keeping the fly or line from getting hung up in low limbs or trees. If using a dry fly it is possible to cast with a roll that is only 3 or 4 feet high. This type of roll cast must be done on water. The technique showed in the video is a good learning tool for a roll cast but the cast he is doing is what I call a semi roll cast or a flick. I have fished large and small streams of wnc for 50 years now and have used the roll cast from day one. While I fish with people from time to time that can cast as well as me if not better, over head I've only been out with a few that could stay with me roll casting. Cast out 40' of line on grass and try roll casting with the roll going infront of rod and rolling on the grass to where you are casting and it will pile up in a pile. Been there done that.
 

trout maharishi

Senior Member
A 5wt will be fine. I think you should always consider the size of the flies you want to cast as well as the size of fish you expect to catch. A 5wt will cast larger popping bugs as well as small streamers. It will also work well for the most common size range trout flies that you would normally cast (10-18s).
 

fish hawk

Bass Master
Something I will add,buying a quality fly line makes a word of difference.I like rio gold and rio avid trout.I know theres some that will say that it makes no difference but a good quality fly line will be super slick and just made better whereas I found the cheaper ones to be stickier,wont go through the guides as well and have lumps in the line,this might not matter for fishing smaller streams but if your casting for distance it is quite noticeable. I'll also add that I'm a warm water angler.
 

NCHillbilly

Administrator
Staff member
A 5wt will be fine. I think you should always consider the size of the flies you want to cast as well as the size of fish you expect to catch. A 5wt will cast larger popping bugs as well as small streamers. It will also work well for the most common size range trout flies that you would normally cast (10-18s).
And a heads up: When this man ^^ says something, I listen. Closely. I'm very glad to see him posting here these days.
 

BigDogDaddy

Senior Member
Wow, great replies. Went with the 5wt to get started on, sounds like a need to watch a few videos on casting technique before I get started. Good news is I have pond in the front yard to practice on. I'll be sure to post up successes and failures!
 

TomC

Senior Member
Good choice, I started years ago with a TFO Pro 5 wt. Over the the years it has morphed into many different rods and is currently a Scott G Series 4wt (something special!!) Caught just as many on the ol’ TFO though! Fun addictive hobby and I actually enjoy tying as much as fishing…..maybe more!
 

IvyThicket

Senior Member
The video is good but falls short of what I call a roll cast. The roll he is doing all happens up in The air. When roll casting in tight streams this cast would not work out so well. What I call a roll cast is when you work your line upstream by making the roll form upstream of you rod and roll on the surface and stay very low. With proper technique one can cast 30 or 40 feet + upstream while keeping the fly or line from getting hung up in low limbs or trees. If using a dry fly it is possible to cast with a roll that is only 3 or 4 feet high. This type of roll cast must be done on water. The technique showed in the video is a good learning tool for a roll cast but the cast he is doing is what I call a semi roll cast or a flick. I have fished large and small streams of wnc for 50 years now and have used the roll cast from day one. While I fish with people from time to time that can cast as well as me if not better, over head I've only been out with a few that could stay with me roll casting. Cast out 40' of line on grass and try roll casting with the roll going infront of rod and rolling on the grass to where you are casting and it will pile up in a pile. Been there done that.

Ah, I think where me and you are getting confused is that the cast you described is not by definition a roll cast. It may have roll cast characteristics but not a proper roll cast.

I’m in no way calling it wrong or bad or however you may think that sounds, I’ve developed many different techniques over the years that were born out of necessity and I use the cast you’re describing plenty, it’s just not what’s going to be found if you Google a roll cast. What I am referring to as roll cast with a high rod tip can absolutely be practiced in the yard quite well. That’s all I wanted the OP to know.

No worries, tight lines my friend.
 
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