Thinking about getting into this

I don't have much input on fly rods that are under $100.  I do know there was a bunch of guys at a local sportsmen's club that were buying up some scientific angler rods from wally world a couple years back. I did cast one of their's one time, they were just fine for trout fishing, and excellent for the price. I can't remember what they cost but I remember them being extremely cheap. Matter of fact, they may have been closeout items, not even sure.  Anyway, you certainly don't need an expensive rod to trout (or even steelhead) fish. Don't let anybody B.S. you otherwise.   You'll only be casting short distances, so just find a rod that feels good to you. Then, practice.  On the lawn will work, but in the water is the best.  You'll want to learn to roll cast(where the rod is brought back without lifting the line out of the water, then thrown forward rolling the line over and out). Roll casting on the lawn is tough, the cast requires the resistance of the line on the water. Don't get discouraged, you'll not pick a rod up and cast as far as someone you has been flyfishing for years. But you can learn to make short, clean casts fairly quickly. Clean casts catch fish, not long casts. Clean casts keep you out of trees, your leader un-knotted, and don't spook fish.  Just make the longest clean cast you can, and slowly each time out you'll notice you'll be casting further and further.  

That's all I have to offer on the casting. I'm sure someone can give you a bunch of technical mumbo jumbo, but that's how I learned, dad gave me a flyrod at age 5,and a few thousand trees/tangles/ hooks in myself later, it just works.

Cold,
    Check out FishUSA.  They are the sponsors of this site and they have plenty of different outfits.  Tell them your price range and wt factor.  For what you want to be doing I'd guess 5wt will be good.  However a warning!  If you plan on coming up for steel that's a little light for a beginner.
    You can also call Wally World (scientific anglers, or the very inexpensive Shakespeare combo) or Poor Richards but I would try Fish USA first.  Like it was mentioned you don't need expensive stuff to start and I woudn't recommend it.  E-mail me if you have any particular questions.
 
FishUSA:  Cortland complete 4/5 wt rod with reel, backing, line, and tippett and rod sock:   $99.99.  Not a bad set up for trout!

Depending on your location I'll look into a Cabelas fly rod & reel. Personally, I have 3 and they keep up even with my old Split Cane (perhaps one of the best fly rods ever made). Based on the package you buy, the price can jump around from 50 dollars (graphite fly rod of course) up to the 500 dollar range (Bamboo, split cane, the higher end fly rod makers). Overall thats the place I would get a cheap, yet strong, rod. Being from Butler County I'm not exactly from your area but I can help you out with location. There are Cabelas in Hamburg Pennsylvania & one just outside of the Pennsylvania border along West Virgiana. Sorry can't think of the name.. Good Luck!

Cold,
  When you get your set-up sent me your home addy. and I'll send you some to get you started.  A beginners set-up of good flies would be about 20 decent flies.  I can spare that many.    As for life expectancy of a fly.  about 1-2 hours (in my case)  some people have them for seasons.  So it varies.  The more fish you catch, the more time the fly is in the water (or the trees, in my case) the faster the wear.  Send address to:                             [email=hemilovr@hotmail.com]hemilovr@hotmail.com[/email]

The problem with getting started in fly fishing is that it has a lot of "barriers to entry" -- i.e., you have to acquire quite a few basic skills before you can unleash your first cast. The easiest way to get past this stage is to find someone who will mentor you for awhile. Or take a class.
 
Rods -- I suggest that a beginner should choose an 8'6" 6 wt rod, because they're easy to learn to cast, and this weight is very versatile.  Look for a rod with a progressive or medium action. Newbies should avoid fast (stiff) or slow (soft) rods. You need to feel the line in the air to gain proficiency-- and you can easily get the feel of a six weight. Casting isn't hard to do; it's only hard to explain, kinda like walking, riding a bike ...
 
Also, check out the Orvis site. Some of their Clearwater rods are down to $139 or so. And they come with a guarantee. Hard to beat.
 
Flies -- they're (relatively) expensive, because it's all hand work. For a beginner, I suggest buying some white zonkers (size six or so) and some wooly buggers. This will get you out on the stream, into fish and gaining experience. If you decide to continue, you can add to your arsenal, mebbe learning more about what you need from people you meet on the stream a/o the excellent tutorials on the Orvis site. Many beginning anglers have learned a lot about fly fishing from Orvis w/out necessarily buying everything from them.
 
Whatever you do, don't listen to the specialist who tries to stock you up with #28 midges. Yes, fish sometimes want a little snack, but they raise the frustration level too high for beginners. Newbies should stick with flies they can quickly tie on the leader and enjoy fishing. Plenty of time for getting technical later.
 
Get out there and enjoy the experience. When you get frustrated, take a little break. I think a lot of beginners unintentionally train themselves to get irritated, kind of like golfers. Beginners do better in a relaxed state of mind.
 
Good luck.

Cold-
 
Don't get discouraged or too daunted- there's some terrific advice on this post. I'm going to PM you my work e-mail- please feel free to shoot me out any questions that you might have, and I'll be more than happy to help you out.
 
Dan

Oh good lord...

So I'm a 2 day old fly fisherman.  That makes me happy.  <-- See?

Anyway, I got the chance to take a one-on-one lesson from a member here (Green Weenie), yesterday, and jumped at the opportunity.  He helped me learn alot about casting (including that it's not the great mystery its cracked up to be!) as well as tactics, equipment, posture, and a ton of other things!  One thing I hadn't really considered was what to do once I got a fish on, so he probably saved the life, or at least the blood pressure of my eventual first fish.  There was also much swapping of stories, many of them from him to me teaching me something about fly fishing.  I won't get in to every little detail of the trip, but suffice to say that Green Weenie did more for me in one evening than I'd have probably accomplished in months of learning on my own by trial and error.  I even have an idea of the things I tend to do wrong while casting (not enough time on the back-cast for the line to straighten out, tip entering water, hands too "bunched together"), so knowing these things will help me improve on my own. 

So that was yesterday.  Yesterday gets an A++.  Spent today at work watching the clock (which made it seem ten times as long as it was).  As soon as I left, I hit up Gander Mtn to get a few last things that I needed in order to fish like a normal person (leader connectors...a leader, tippet, floatant, weight, aaaaaand a few more flies), then headed home for food, and to get a few things done around here. 

Managed to get away to go fishing around 530, and it was about 6 when I finally had everything tied up and ready to roll just above the granite-gate bridge...that is...the giant pile of gravel that serves as a bridge on the Loyalhanna at the Mill Creek mouth.  I started by practicing my roll cast which took a little bit of time to remember, but I was soon rolling like a champ.  This was when I got my first strike, when a bluegill made a violent pass...at my indicator.  Then I decided to try the overhead cast/back and forth cast/you know what I'm talking about cast.  Two of those and I found out that I must have messed up my line-to-leader connector somehow, as I watched it fly off like a bat out of hell, lost to the deep.

So I said to myself, "Self...that's part of the game, just tie on another leader and...****."

I only had that one leader.

So, with no other fishing equipment in the car, and the prospect of a fishing trip without fishing not seeming very appetizing, I made a trip for more leaders, grabbing 4.  First self taught lesson: always have another leader.

So 45 minutes, a half-gallon of gas, and 3 anger levels later, this is not a fun day.  I start to set up again and after one look at the rest of the connectors, I tie the leader on myself.  I may try the connectors again soon, but for now, they're on the $hit list.  Also, night was threatening my fish time, especially on the shady 'hanna, so I tied my fly direct to the leader, in lieu of tippet.  From the reading I've been doing, some people consider this sacrelige, but at that point I was fit to be tied (no puns intended), and decided '**** on it.  I just want to fish a.s.a.p.'.

Enter the better part of the evening.  Got alot of good casting in, with the accuracy of the flyrod really surprising me as I landed my dry fly within inches of a fallen log time after time.  One thing I did notice was that, even with floatant, my fly seemed to like sinking.  It wasn't a big deal tonight, as it was more of a test drive, but I think dry flies are the way to go for the evenings here, for reasons I'll explain shortly.

A few casts later, and my leader got a hellacious tangle in it that would have made Jackson Pollock proud in its randomness.  With my fragile sanity already worn thin, I simply clipped the intact leader from the end of my line, looped it up, and tucked it back in its bag for later untangling.  With light just beginning to fail, I tied on another leader, this time with a bit of tippet, and secured a white wooly bugger to my line.  After that, I moved to a different hole, more to stretch my cramping legs than anything.

A few minutes later and...I dont really know what I did wrong, but indicator flopped down in a great roll cast...with a white wooly bugger nowhere to be found.  I truly have no idea where it went, and probably never will. :(

So after an olive beadhead wooly bugger took its place, I made a few more casts, doing pretty well with it...and then it got dark.  *Cue: Frustration*  Still, I even learned from that.  Self-taught lesson #2: Dont bother trying to fly fish in failing light.  Soon after, I learned Lesson #3: There is nothing more maddening than untangling a leader while mosquitos perforate your arms.

Finally getting my rod into a transportable state, I whacked a few too-brave mosquitos and flicked them into the water at my feet.  Within moments, a series of dimples erased the dead bugs from the surface.  Self-taught lesson #4: Use a tiny black dry fly tomorrow evening when the 'skeeters come out.

All in all, today gets a C-.  Far more frustration than anything else, but I realize that alot of it was my own lack of foresight and experience...I'm still mad at those connectors though...

So that's it until tomorrow night.  Anyone have anything to say about any of that?  Encouragement/comments/questions/point-and-laugh/tips?

Also, if any other local fly fisherman want some comedic relief with their fishing, just send me a PM...I'd be happy to meed somewhere and fish with you...or maybe watch you fish...wouldn't want to ruin the catching aspect of your fishing.

I've only been fly fishing for about 5 years, so some of this is still fresh in my mind.  There was a lot of "down-time" (non-fishing time fixing knots, changing tactics, etc.) and frustration at first.  These will decrease with practice.
 
Some thoughts...
-  put some floatant on a bit of your leader/tippet and on the first couple feet of fly line and dry your fly once in a while by blowing on it or false casting to help it float (some flies just float better than others)
-  don't false cast too much (the back and forth motion to get the line out) - I still do this - sometimes you need to, sometimes it wastes time and causes problems - keep learning to roll cast and to use the water tension to just flip back upstream
-  when fishing nymphs, streamers, wets take the time to figure out and get to the correct depth - by using weight and/or casting further upstream.
 

How do you guys mend?  I've been trying it, and while I can accomplish what a mend is supposed to do, it's all for naught, because it jerks the fly around in the water, which kind of defeats the purpose.  So far, my best drifts have been in slowly moving water, as straight upstream as I can cast, and then just take line in as the current brings it back to me.  For the streamers, I just kind of threw them out at about a 45 upstream, drifted them to a point just a little downstream, then retrieved them.  Any suggestions on this?  

Ahh yes, the knots...I've always used the palomar knot to this point, and it's what I fell back onto when the dimming light made the adventurous knot tying impossible (I can pretty much pull a perfect palomar in total darkness, with one hand asleep).  I've tried the nail knot several times, and I think maybe it's the fly fishing version of snipe hunts.  Surgeons knot came pretty easily, though I need both hands and a dextrous mouth to accomplish it.  The improved clinch seems like it'd work really well for me if I wasnt tying it with the Kate Moss of fishing line (tippet), so I cant tell from the finished knot if everything tied on correctly.

Green Weenie had some kind of knot tying tool, and I've been thinking of ways to make one of my own.  Not exactly like his, but like...maybe like a 2-3" length of something that looked like a tiny I-beam in cross section for tying blood knots instead of surgeons.  Pass the lines, twirl the I-beam, and the I shape will give you gaps on the sides to insert the tag ends.  Sound reasonable? 

Any advice on the Imp. clinch?

Also, anyone else have difficulties with the braided leader loops for on the end of your flyline?  I know you're not supposed to clip the flyline at all, and really, I only lost maybe 1.5" of it last night, but I dont want to lose any more of it.  Suggestions to keep it from letting go?

Also, anyone else have difficulties with the braided leader loops for on the end of your flyline?  I know you're not supposed to clip the flyline at all, and really, I only lost maybe 1.5" of it last night, but I dont want to lose any more of it.  Suggestions to keep it from letting go?

Ah, forgot, sorry.
 
I use a nail knot with a bit of Pliobond on the knot to join line/leader butt. I have a Perfection loop at the end of the leader butt (only about 10" of butt) to make a loop to loop connection with the leader. Most use Zap a Gap on the knot instead of Pliobond.
 
I use nail knots for line/leader connection in saltwater fly fishing, and (knockknock) haven't had the knot fail.
 
Don't worry about clipping the line. Some guys clip it to make it turnover better. (I'm not recommending this.)

Don't take the Ultralight! I was in the same boat this summer, just continue to use to flyrod! You'll get better with experience.

I didnt see those!  Hmm, well thanks for continuing the search, but I've already picked up a kit (Sci Angler).  Now I'm just trying to put it to good use. 

I'm using the E-Z trout floats from the Trout Magnet people as indicators...is that acceptable or should I be using something else?

Also, is there anything I should know about floatant?  I got a mini-MMs sized tube of it (remember those?) with a handy notch in the rim, so I can put my fly in, hold the lid closed, give it a shake, and get my fly back out, all with one hand.  I really am glad I got it, but how often should I reapply it?  Does it turn off the bite?  Even with a fresh dusting, as soon as I get tension in my line it pulls the fly under.  Is this normal?  Should I avoid this and if so, how do I go about that?

It was a real pleasure to help you with casting the long rod!  You seem to have not lost your enthusement for the new hobby.  Just remember roll cast: Raise the rod slowly to 12 o'clock, line even with your shoulder and power forward.  Forward cast: thousand one, thousand two and you will be fine.
I may be able to spend some time with you on Sunday afternoon or early evening.  Let me know........pinch the barbs down!

cold, i appreciate you starting this thread, as i am a rook also.  to all who post here with help and advice, thanks.  you guyzes are incredible.