My Journey

During the spring of 2012, a friend of mine offered to teach me how to fly fish. Wanting to learn since I was a child, I was thrilled at the chance to learn from such an experienced angler. Growing up, I loved to fish, but most of my fishing involved some sort of live bait, attached to a hook on a spinning rod. I bought a cheap rod from a small family owned fly shop, and a $20 reel from Ollie's. During my first few outings, the only thing I managed to catch were a few wind knots. The amount of frustration was overwhelming, and it almost got to the point of me giving up. Being a life long angler, and never being a quitter, I stuck through it and continued to practice. I've always been a hands on learner, so I hit the water as much as I possibly could, leaving my spin fishing equipment at home. It took me about a month before I caught my first trout on the fly rod using an Elk Hair Caddis, which I quickly retired, and someday plan on having framed along with the picture of the fish I caught. As time went on, I caught more and more fish on the fly rod, which quickly fueled an addiction to learn as much about the sport as I possibly could. As spring turned into summer, and summer into fall, I wasn't able to fish as much as I would have liked, and decided to try my hand at tying my own flies. There will be some people that say learning how to fly fish, and tying your own flies shouldn't be done all at once. Unemployed, with limited income, I found it best to at least try to learn both, as the cost of flies would be greatly reduced if I became successful at tying. I started tying in October, and although the flies I tied looked nowhere near "acceptable" by some standards, I was surprised they actually caught fish. My journey doesn't stop here. For those who are just learning, be patient, it took me some time to learn how to cast, tie different knots, and proper presentation of the flies while on the water. I am still learning how to do all 3, but it's getting easier as time goes by. Take your time, read some books on fly fishing, seek information from YouTube, and join some forums related to fly fishing. With any luck, when the painful initial learning curve is over, you will have a life long hobby that can be passed on through generations. From this point on, I will document my struggles, my success and triumphs, and include as many photos and videos as I possibly can from any future outings. The photos will be uploaded here, most videos will either be a link to my YouTube, or an embedded video if I can successfully figure out how to do that. Just remember, when you miss that little fish, you are just one more cast away from the bigger one.

Learned How To Attach Fly Line To Backing

After some patience, trial, and error, I finally learned how to tie my new fly line to the backing on my reel. I used a double uni knot to do so. Most people use a nail knot, which I do not know how to currently tie, or a clinch knot to the best of my understanding. I found the double uni knot to be just fine. For those of you with tapered leaders, I use a double overhand knot to tie the tippet onto the leader. While the video below is not mine, you will find it very useful in learning how to tie the Double Uni Knot.

 Uni Knot