First fish on fly rod

[haggard]

After a couple false starts in past years, went to the lake today with the sole purpose of catching a fish on a fly rod. Targeted panfish on a 5 weight setup, with an intermediate sinking leader (1.5 ips). Started with a wooly bugger but watched bass and panfish follow it but they couldn't be less interested. Switched to a green ghost streamer and things picked up. First fish (white perch) was a thrill whose only match was catching my first fish ever, a smallmouth bass, a few years ago on the same lake, just a few hundred feet away from this spot. By the end of the day landed a total of 10 dinks on the fly. Mistakes made and confidence gained; can't wait to try for bass on the fly, and stripers in the salt. Would never have tried a fly rod without inspiration and lessons from fishing buddy @jbmaine but now hooked.

 

[jbmaine]

And so it begins? good job.

[flyfisher]

Nice work.  You are one of the few people I have seen that start with a sink tip line and catch their first fly rod fish.  Keep it up and you will be rewarded each time out.  I have always said that fly fishing when not catching is way more fun than conventional and when you are catching it is a blast.  

Before you know it, you will be tying flies too

[Further North]

Welcome to the club!

The more you do it, the more you'll like it.

[haggard]

1 hour ago, flyfisher said:

You are one of the few people I have seen that start with a sink tip line and catch their first fly rod fish.

The reason for that was the previous week I targeted panfish at the same spot on a L/F spinning rod with a small grub on a jig head, and noticed the bites always happened when the lure sank down a couple feet, so wanted to do a similar presentation on the fly rod, but didn't want to change out the floating fly line (WF-5F). I had no idea sinking leaders existed until I searched.

 

Quote

fly fishing when not catching is way more fun than conventional

Well said, so true.

[flyfisher]

1 hour ago, haggard said:

The reason for that was the previous week I targeted panfish at the same spot on a L/F spinning rod with a small grub on a jig head, and noticed the bites always happened when the lure sank down a couple feet, so wanted to do a similar presentation on the fly rod, but didn't want to change out the floating fly line (WF-5F). I had no idea sinking leaders existed until I searched.

 

Well said, so true.

I misread and thought you said sinking line but yeah sinking leaders are a thing.  For bass and panfish i usually just go straight leaders and use mono if i want it to "float" and flouro for sinking when I use a floating line.  

[haggard]

22 hours ago, flyfisher said:

I misread and thought you said sinking line but yeah sinking leaders are a thing.  For bass and panfish i usually just go straight leaders and use mono if i want it to "float" and flouro for sinking when I use a floating line.  

 

I'll have to give that a try - thanks.

[Fallser]

Nice.  Smart move in starting with panfish.  When I started out fly fishing I fished only for trout, because that's all anybody I knew fly fished for.  It was very frustrating and I almost gave it.  One day I was fishing my local creek for stocked trout and I started catching sunfish and a light went on in my head.  "I can fly fish for something other than trout"  It's been downhill ever since.  Next thing you know you'll start tying your own flies.  

 As flyfisher said, you don't need a sinking line or a sinking leader to fish a couple of feet down.  The only time I really use sinking or intermediate lines is in salt water or if the fish are exceptionally deep. 

  Next step buy yourself some small poppers or foam bugs, I'm what they call a dry fly snob, I prefer fishing top water flies and bugs.  Great start, keep going. 

[haggard]

On 7/19/2022 at 3:25 PM, Fallser said:

 As flyfisher said, you don't need a sinking line or a sinking leader to fish a couple of feet down.  The only time I really use sinking or intermediate lines is in salt water or if the fish are exceptionally deep. 

  Next step buy yourself some small poppers or foam bugs, I'm what they call a dry fly snob, I prefer fishing top water flies and bugs.  Great start, keep going. 

 

Yes definitely planning on doing top water. Only started with the streamers because the previous weeks I knew they were down there. Thanks for the comments and tips ?

[Further North]

On 7/19/2022 at 2:25 PM, Fallser said:

When I started out fly fishing I fished only for trout, because that's all anybody I knew fly fished for.  It was very frustrating and I almost gave it.  One day I was fishing my local creek for stocked trout and I started catching sunfish and a light went on in my head.  "I can fly fish for something other than trout"  It's been downhill ever since. 

Exactly - I seldom fish for trout.

Bass, musky and pike are my main targets with fly gear.  I can't recall the last time I went after trout.

 

On 7/19/2022 at 2:25 PM, Fallser said:

As flyfisher said, you don't need a sinking line or a sinking leader to fish a couple of feet down.  The only time I really use sinking or intermediate lines is in salt water or if the fish are exceptionally deep. 

We think of that a little differently: I use intermediate lines, and sinking lines, unless I want a jigging action to the flies.  I feel that it gives streamers a much more natural action.

With big musky poppers, an intermediate sink line actually gives poppers better action - more pop and noise.

...but I dislike weighted flies...particularly those with metal eyes.  Sooner or later, they're going to smack your rod...and sooner or later your rod will break where the impact happened.

 

On 7/19/2022 at 2:25 PM, Fallser said:

Next step buy yourself some small poppers or foam bugs, I'm what they call a dry fly snob, I prefer fishing top water flies and bugs.  Great start, keep going. 

Topwater is great fun...when it works.  I find that subsurface is more effective, most of the time.

But the days when topwater works are epic!