[Mike Barrio]

We have touched on this in the "indicator" thread, a lot of folk introduce a friend to fly fishing at a fishery by setting them up with an orange blob under an "indicator / float".

Not ideal  

I usually set a 1st time angler up with a single barbless classic wet fly ........ a black pennell, kate maclaren or bibio.

This usually catches them a fish, helps them to explore different depths & retrieve rates and is obviously easy to cast. Barbless is I think a good idea because they often hook themselves in the first few outings at some stage.

What do you think  :
What is a good set up for a beginner?

Best wishes
Mike
 

[Jim Eddie]

Mike

Yes I would agree , that a single fly set up is best for a beginner , also I would add that I would probably have a shorter than normal leader.

Re traditional flies , many of them have been with us  for 100 years or more. They have stood the test of time because they caught fish then and they catch fish now.

I wonder how many of the modern flies will be around in a 100 years   time.

 

Jim

[Iain Cameron]

hi folks

i've introduced a couple of folks to fly-fishing this year, from boats, on stillwaters. Single fly, of course.

I've used surface-y dry flies though, rahter than wet -- hoppers and f-fly for example. Why? more periods of fishing the flies static, so less casting involved, and hence less disruption to the surface around the boat, and less chances of monster tangles and fankles. it was also at times when there was enough surface activity around the place to keep us both interested.

this way, my mates could spend sometime casting and thrashing about, which is the only way to learn, but other spells of quiet concentration and watching the fly on the surface. hmm, are we back to float fishing again ;-)))

cheers
iain

[Sandy Nelson]

Sounds good to me.

Short leader ,single fly.
Did this with daniel for a start, but he wanted the indicator to spot takes, it also made it harder to cast for the novice.But after an experience with a daddy longlegs dryfly the indicator was binned and he fishes all sorts on an 8ft leader with much success
The casting improved a lot too. :

Sandy

[Jim Eddie]

I probably should have addded no to long a rod especially fora child. no use trying to teach a child with a 10ft rod.

 

Jim

[the water buoys]

hi all i started with a 10ft rod size 7 line and it was hard to fish with but then my dad thought about if he put the butt of the rod in the sleeve of my jacket it would stop you from going rite back and catching fences and snags behind me and always keep my rod tip close to the water as this helps you fell any takes that you may get now i have gt a 5 weight rod and line and i now fish for fun and its brilliant espesialy using my old favourite fly cast soldier palmer muddler head and a hares ear on the tail.
andrew
the water buoys :  :  :

[Mike Barrio]

I've had a few more "novices" on the water over the last couple of weeks  

Those of you that know me well will also know that I am certainly no "purist"  

So, I have been experimenting with what we have been discussing in this thread. I tried the "indicator + blob approach with them and the feedback was "that it was a bit boring" and they found it difficult to cast with. We also tried fishing the same size 12 blobs without an indicator and this was much better.

Firstly, they found it much easier to cast with.
Secondly, I asked them to watch the end of their fly line while the blob was "on the drop" and then retrieve it at a very slow pace ...... they now felt as if they were doing something, they saw takes, they saw follows, they felt plucks, they felt takes and they reacted to them.
Thirdly, they caught fish!

Pink, orange and lime blobs appeared to work best  

Part of the reason for liking these was, I think, the fact that they could see the bright flies under the water and sometimes also see the fish.

But we swapped them every now and then for a size 12 Bibio fished in exactly the same way and these caught fish too    

Great stuff
Mike