The map
Guide topics
Six topics, one question per article. This page is the map: what each topic covers, what it deliberately leaves alone, and where our Fly-brary takes over.
Getting started
2 articles
Your first rod, your first cast, your first fish — and an honest answer to "is this hard?"
- How to fly fish, start to finish
- Whether fly fishing is hard to learn
- What a beginner actually needs on day one
Not here: What any individual fly pattern imitates.
Gear
4 articles
Rod weights, lines, leaders, waders. What to buy, what to skip, and what it actually costs.
- Rod weight and length for trout
- Leader, tippet and line choices
- Waders, boots, nets and what you can skip
Not here: Which fly to tie on — that is a pattern question.
Technique
9 articles
Casting, mending, drifts, hook sets. The things that turn drifts into fish.
- Casting, roll casting and distance
- Mending line and getting a dead drift
- Setting the hook and playing a fish
Not here: How to fish one specific pattern.
- How do I fly fish a lake from shore?
- How do I fish a hopper-dropper rig?
- How do I stop my fly line from dragging?
- How do I set the hook on a trout?
- How do I set up a strike-indicator nymph rig?
- How do I fly fish small streams?
- Why do trout keep refusing my fly?
- How do I read water and find where trout are holding?
- Should I fish a dry fly or a nymph?
Knots
10 articles
The short list of knots worth learning, tied step by step.
- Attaching tippet to leader
- Tying the fly on
- Loop-to-loop connections
Not here: Fly-tying recipes and dressings.
- How do you tie an arbor knot?
- How do you tie a blood knot?
- How do you tie a Davy knot?
- How do you tie a double surgeon’s knot?
- How do you tie an improved clinch knot?
- How do you tie a nail knot?
- How do you tie a non-slip loop knot?
- How do you tie a perfection loop?
- What is a wind knot and what do I do about it?
- Which fly fishing knots do I actually need to know?
Seasons & timing
3 articles
When to go, what the water is doing, and what to expect when you get there.
- Best time of day, by season
- Cold water, high water and runoff
- Weather, light and water temperature
Not here: Hatch-by-hatch pattern selection.
Practical
2 articles
Licenses, etiquette, catch-and-release handling, and the rest of the real world.
- Licenses and where to check the rules
- What fly fishing costs to start
- Catch-and-release handling and etiquette
Not here: Legal advice — regulations are set by each state agency.
Fly patterns are not a blog topic.
Every question of the form "what does the Adams imitate" is answered in the Fly-brary — one page per pattern, 54 of them, free. The guides link across to it rather than explaining a pattern twice.
Ordering now
The Reel Deal Deck is ready to order.
54 hand-drawn flies on genuine Bicycle stock, $19.95 a deck, with a contribution to Trout Unlimited from every one of them. Shipping is on us from two decks up.