Hey guys - we have a ton of stocked lakes in my area and I'd like to learn to fly fish. Any recommendations on a cheap setup I could get at academy?

Advice on technique or youtube channel?

Also, I love fishing but treat me like someone who has no clue.

Thanks!

Welcome to the wonderfully addictive world of chunking fluff!

First things that would drastically help-
1) what is "your area"
2) what fish are "stocked" (i.e. what do you want to catch)
3) do you have a budget in mind

Those answers will drastically impact the advice you get.

cupofjoe04 said:

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Welcome to the wonderfully addictive world of chunking fluff!

First things that would drastically help-
1) what is "your area"
2) what fish are "stocked" (i.e. what do you want to catch)
3) do you have a budget in mind

Those answers will drastically impact the advice you get.

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Thank you sir!

1 - I live in Cypress (Bridgeland)
2 - catfish, blue cat, brim, and spotted bass are what they list as stocked.
3 - I am honestly too ignorant to throw out a number. Is under $75 or $100 realistic? Don't want to spend much as I am in O&G and every day is a surprise :/ This is strictly catch and release.

Thanks a ton!

Good for you and welcome to the club! There are a lot of good fly fisherman on this forum but I will offer my
intermediate level advice. Fly fishing is a lot like golf when it comes to gear. I am betting you will enjoy learning a new sport and will work to get good at it, particularly if you already like fishing in general. Like golf, if you buy cheap you will only want to upgrade soon. Better quality rods cast better....it's just the way it is. Spend your money on the rod.
I would suggest a "middle of the road" approach. if you eventually figure out you don't like it, your resale opportunities will be much better. I would advise you to consider one of two routes.
1. Search Craigslist or FB for someone offloading some high end gear (Orvis, Sage, Loomis, Hardy, etc.) - you may get lucky.
2. Consider a starter kit from Orvis, Redington or Temple Fork Outfitters (TFO). I am partial to TFO b/c I have to outfit me and my 2 boys and I really like their lifetime replacement warranty.
For what you are targeting I would probably stay in the 5-7 wt range.
Once they reopen, find your local Orvis dealer and sign up for a free class - fly casting can be frustrating if you are not taught proper technique. Don't just practice on the water. Go to your alley or street and cast often. The muscle memory will develop quickly. A soft accurate presentation is more important than the choice of fly.
You will get a million different opinions. There is a high % of snobby fly fisherman but don't let them influence your choices or decisions.

I would recommend for the TFO starter combo in a 6wt for a beginner chasing lake fish. If you're new to casting a fly rod, it can be a good bit difficult to get some of the common bass files out there using a 5 wt. The extra bit of power you get from the 6 wt will be quite helpful.

Might try searching online via facebook marketplace and fly fishing groups, microskiff.com classifieds, and Ebay for the combo. Any of the Orvis, TFO, or Reddington combos are popular and are a common first rod. Therefore people upgrade and you can often find them online if you just look.

Good luck out there.

edit: Just saw you're in Cypress. When they re-open after corona you should swing by Bayou City Angler. By far the best fly shop in town. They offer casting lessons (probably give you a lesson there for free while you test out some rods). They are very knowledgeable and in my experience just down right helpful and good people.

Second a Temple Fork setup. I've used their lifetime replacement twice and its amazing. You break your rod and they just send you a new one.

I would look at a 5-7 wt. I prefer to go lighter since makes landing the fish more fun and easier to learn a fly cast. You'll get tired fast trying to wrangle a heavy rod as a beginner.

Check out Bayou City Anglers in Houston. You actually live in/near an urban fly fishing destination. People come to catch the grass carp that live in the bayous and are especially catchable with a dry fly in the concrete bayous. Did a guided carp trip with Danny Scarborough at houstonflyfishing.com and loved it. He does other guided trips in the area as well and while he doesn't claim to be a cast coach he will give you some useful tips.

Also when you become a huge fly fisherman in 3-4 years and need to buy a Sabine Skiff, just make sure you tell them that Alex sent you

OP - welcome to the club. I'd echo the suggestion of putting your money toward the rod, particularly for the pond/lake fishing you describe. The 5 wt is the classic all around weight rod. TFO is worth a look. Orvis has starter kits as the poster above said.

The orvis website has a series of beginner/intermediate videos that you should watch. Just google then and you'll find them. Those will help with terminology, gear, and specific teaching tools. TFO and others make indoor training rods that you can use to practice your casting and delivery motion, those can be helpful if you don't have water out your back door.

Also, just take your set up out in the yard and set up some cones at 20 and 30 yards and begin working on casting a fly and hitting your spots/distances. You can tie a piece of yarn to your leader/tippet, or use a de-barbed fly.

I'd suggest going with a WFF line (weight forward floating) as they are easier to learn with and you can catch a ton of bass, panfish, and others using This set up. As far as flies go, you'll want some small poppers for panfish and bass, there are larger specialty flies for bass like frogs and mice, but remember the larger and wider the fly the more resistance it created in the air, so those big flies are sometimes harder to cast on a 5 wt, particularly for a beginner (my experience anyway). Flies that sink like clousers are also good but if you've got a bunch of moss they can be problematic.

As far as leader length goes for pond fishing panfish and bass, you don't need a 12-15 foot leader, it will just makes learning hard for you. 6 feet or so will do just fine.

Let us know what you decide to outfit yourself with and post pics of your trips.

If you're wanting to stay under $100, you're best bet is going to be to find something used.

If I were you, I'd join the 'Fly fishing gear buy, sell, trade' group and post what you're looking for. Starter setup under $100 (rod, reel, line included). I'd also checkout Facebook Marketplace, Craigslist, etc.

ETA - that group is on Facebook.

Excellent advice guys! I will start my research this weekend and see what I can come up with. Thanks for taking the time to write up this stuff. Hope to send some pictures soon!

Good luck with your wallet..........just saying

Jackrabbit Ag said:

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Good luck with your wallet..........just saying

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My thought at the price desire was, does he want a rod and reel to go with that line and flies?

longeryak said:

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Jackrabbit Ag said:

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Good luck with your wallet..........just saying

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My thought at the price desire was, does he want a rod and reel to go with that line and flies?

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There's a whole lot of good advice on here and I can go even cheaper for you.

Don't get me wrong, I'm a big advocate of quality gear but I understand going inexpensive while you learn.

This is what I'm teaching my 9-year old to fly fish with:
- Eagle Claw Featherlight 7'0" 5wt - $30
- Okuma Sierra 5/6 reel (you should be able to find this for no more than $45)
- Orvis Clearwater Beginner Fly Line - $49

A couple things- the rod is fiberglass. Personally, I think this helps a beginning caster because it forces you to slow down and focus on your casting stroke. Plus, you really feel the rod load. You lose some of this with graphite rods. Second, I up-lined the rod to 7wt line. This really exaggerates the rod loading and you can really feel it. But, the rod can handle it. You'll lose some distance but I can easily lay out a 70' cast with it.

Since you're a beginner, I'd recommend using pre-tied tapered leaders. Keep your eyes on Sierra Trading Post as I've bought a ton of leaders I used when pond hopping off of there.

And, believe it or not, but eBay is a pretty good source to find assortments of bass/bream poppers and woolly buggers- which will likely cover about 90% of what you want to throw in neighborhood ponds.

Jackrabbit Ag said:

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Good luck with your wallet..........just saying

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No ***** I just got into it and am nearly at a grand in rod, reel, line, flies, waders, boots, leaders, tippet, etc.

You could definitely do it cheaper though. I spent more than necessary on a Sage set up.

I like TFO as an option as well. I'll look, but I may have a cheap reel somewhere I can send you as it really only acts as a line holder for what you're talking about. I've caught quite a few catfish on flies as well, but the sunfish and bass will probably be your main targets.

I have bought a lot of flies, leaders and tippet from https://www.bigyflyco.com/
Sierra trading post always has lots of rods and reels at a pretty good discount
I'd probably find a cheap used 5wt setup, put a new halfway decent line on it, and go start figuring it out. If you really get into it that will be a good backup/ loaner set and you can get yourself a nicer 6 or 7wt for bass and saltwater, and a 3wt for the ponds. A big bluegill on a 3wt is great fun!

For $150 or less you can get a complete outfit from Bass Pro. Plenty adequate for learning.
After you've caught a few fish you can go buy an expensive rod. Then you will appreciate why they cost more.
If you think you might be going to Colorado get a 5 wt. Otherwise 8 wt is easier in the wind and better for horsing fish out of weeds.

Watch the Mad River Outfitters introduction to fly fishing series on youtube. They have posted two versions. One is a YouTube conversion of their 30 year old VHS tapes.
The other is a YouTube specific series they made about a year ago.

I'd link to it but I am on a conference call.

Agree with the seirra trading Post. But they are shutdown right now.

If you don't get a kit, Get a nice rod, a great line and any reel.

I bought a little 3 weight combo from Cabela's and love it. It works great for pond fishing.

It came fully rigged and ready to fish.

I don't know who all these people are saying you need a rod and reel. Just go pick up some fly line, flies, and watch this video. You'll be all good.

Here's some observations from trying to teach my friend how to fly fish. Warning: I'm intermediate level and self-taught, so some of this info might not apply or might be flat out wrong...

CASTING
-Let the pole and line do all the work
-Slow down, the cast isn't as fast as you think
-Shorten up, it's also not as long as you think
-Try not to strip out more line than you're going to cast. This is where kinks and line snags happen.
-Watch out for really beautiful false casts, then un-doing all that goodness with a bass style cast on your final motion. It's an unnecessary mental thing to try and "throw" the fly at the end.

RETRIEVE
-Keep your rod tip down
-Point your rod at the fly
-Basically: slack or line sag is the enemy. Any movement of the line should move the fly. Otherwise, energy is absorbed by the rod and the effective power at the fly is reduced.
-Watch out for stripping the fly in with the rod 90 degrees to the line.

SETTING THE HOOK
-I shouldn't give advice here...
-Oh what the heck... I personally don't set the hook other than stripping *extra* fast and as hard as I can. If the fish bites and swims to me, I'm kinda screwed.

PRACTICE
-Do it
-A weighted fly is harder to learn with
-The same hook that will miss 1000 fish, will catch 1000 blades of grass. I cut the whole dang thing off for practice flies.
-I started out by laying 40 feet of line in the grass behind me. Then in one motion, used one hand to haul the line, and the other to sweep the rod. Not overhead, waist high or a little higher. Never pulled back into another false cast, just let the line lay down in front of me. Then I would straighten the line out, and do the same thing but as a backcast. Eventually the line didn't need to be tended. At some point, 40' turns to 60', then you're into the backing before ya know it.
-Find a patient guide who doesn't mind beginners. This will save you some time and shorten the learning curve.

Hope you like fly fishing as much as I do. I wouldn't write so much for any other subject. Good luck!

Watch these

https://m.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLQWrNcNbEVXaJST1gtRJf32UXCu9EO6a9

Some really good advice here. My first fly rod setup was a $50 complete set from Oshmans. My dad and I each got one and we had a blast figuring it out together. It was a really SLOW 6 wt, 2 piece rod and I put 8 wt line on it so I could feel the action of the rod. We learned by chucking big popping bugs at bass, which is pretty tough to do but also a hell of a lot of fun.

Based on my experience, I would recommend getting a cheap combo setup with the rod, reel, line, etc. For me, it was much easier to learn on a SLOW rod which tend to be on the cheap end of the spectrum. People pay big money for brands like Sage with a super fast action. I still find these challenging to cast if I'm fishing with a guide and his equipment because you sort of have to learn the timing of the rod and have good technique to make those fast, expensive rods really work well. I was half way through a trip with a guide in Oregon last year before I finally got the feel of the Sage rod he had me using. I tend to fish with more medium action type stuff from TFO or I have a few that I built off various brand and off brand blanks. Once you get really good you may find you can get a lot more distance and accuracy with a faster rod but they certainly aren't for everyone.

Also good advice not to spend a ton of money on a starter reel. You have plenty of time to collect fancy large arbor reels with neon colored backing that make you look really cool. Your reel is pretty much just a line storage device.

Practice in your yard or a park with a hula hoop. This helped me a ton when I was getting ready to go on my first trips to the coast. You can practice with a bare line or tie on a little piece of foam to get some resistance and so you can actually see if you hit your target. Watch out for trees and overhead lines!

Learn to roll cast and don't be ashamed if that's the only cast you can do. You don't have to look like brad pitt conducting a symphony of false casts to catch fish. The fish are in the water, anyway. A roll cast is the easiest and very useful cast to use - sometimes the only cast you can use if you're bank fishing anywhere near trees/brush.

The best analogy that I got when I was just learning was that the casting motion is like trying to flick a grape off the end of a plastic fork. For some reason that really seemed to make things click for me.

Its really frustrating and also really fun. Welcome to the club!

If you don't mind waiting and want to go real cheap, the maxcatch glass rods and cast reels are pretty tough to beat for the price.

https://www.amazon.com/MAXIMUMCATCH-Maxcatch-Fiberglass-Fly-Fishing/dp/B07DDHQGPT

My son is living in Austin now and wants to get out and go fly fishing for anything that will bite. He called to ask what a fly line costs and when I told him I paid $99 for the line on my new reel he nearly had a heart attack. I'm sure there's cheaper out there, on sale, etc, but I think the cheapest Rio lines go for about $75.

I checked amazon and you can get a standard scientific angler WFF 6 wt line for about $25. I've caught lots of fish on that line. I'm sure there are some really nice fly lines that go for over $100 but nothing wrong with that SA brand line for general purpose, IMHO.

Thanks. I'll pass that on to him.

Echo makes some good rods too.