Helping somebody catch their 1st fish on the fly?

[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 :  :  :

[Mark Zhang]

I gave my daughter a small lure to start. She did a lot of cast, and doesn't want to go back again

[Robert MacDonald-Lewis]

I have been slowly introducing our Finlay to fishing. For his first fly fishing I took him out on a loch in a boat, this meant the wind was always helping him and in many ways simplified the casting and made it easier to get the hang of.

I could also choose a loch with a willing population of fish.

For kids the novelty of the being in the boat helps keep the day interesting.

[Ben O'Neill]

Ive taken my 7yo to a local still water. To start with I did the casting but line control was then an issue and we dropped a few.

We worked it out but the biggest issue was the same fishery has a few coarse ponds and a 3m whip, a float, a tin of sweetcorn and endless 1-2lb carp were much more fun!!

lots of fish help but I think the main thing for a kid is to give them something they can grasp independently vs. something they need a lot of help with.