fly fishing instructional videos

I am in the same boat as you. A friend lent me Martins fly fishing basics and the Orvis tape. I have always used the noodle rod.

What kind of casting are you looking to do? Is it a basic roll cast or something more like that for dry fly fishing?
A roll cast is the a similar motion to that of throwing a baseball.

A overhand cast is a clock style motion w/ the main part of the cast happening in the 10-2 o-clock range. At each one of these locations of the clock face you have a stop w/ a pause before the opposite motion. The pause is there to give time for the line to roll over before the cast is brought in the opposite direction. You're going to hear the words broken wrist spoken about, this is the literally the wrist breaking and collapsing. Your wrist needs to stay firm and not bend.

When you get to the actual casting place yourself so that you are quartered to the cast. This quartering will give you opportunity to watch your back and forward cast.

The other major advice I can give you is if you get frustrated, stop and place the rod down and come back to it later. Some aspects of this sport can be humbling, and thats one of them.

Lastly let the rod do the work don't try to push the rod, it will power the cast. Pushing the cast only makes it fail.

Welcome to the long rod side of the universe, your never go back again to that other outfit.

ORIGINAL: TransAmWS6

Im pretty much teachin myself to flyfish through trial and error, but what are some good videos i could check out to actually watch someone cast and fish instead of just reading how to do it?

I've been doing it for close to two years. I never did get a video or anything like that, I got virtually all my information off the internet, maybe a video clip here and there. It didn't take long to learn to cast. It did, however, take me long to catch fish and I believe the reason was that I was oblivious to the concept of 'mending line'.

I didn't do extensive research heading into fly fishing but enough to get me started. Well the difference in catching fish and not catching fish was in the way my flies were being presented. As soon as I learned what mending line was and learned to physically do it on the water, I started catching fish. I'm not so sure this is your problem or not, but it was definetely mine.

And in this area of the country, casting is not that important, it's presentation. Basic forward, backward and roll cast is all you really need to be concerned about.

Anyway, I'm far from expert and find myself learning something new virtually everytime on the water. There's just alot that goes into it.

I read a few different articles and I can't remember exactly which ones they were, but I'm sure a google search will bring up some quick, good results.

Mending is especially important if you're fishing dries or nymphs. Anytime the water is moving faster or slower than the fly being presented, the fly line will cause it to 'drag'. It will look unnatural and most of the time will take the fly out of the strike zone altogether.

Just google it up and don't let the wealth of information intimidate you, it's really easy to do. Understanding the basic 'upstream mend' will get you started in catching fish.

Edit: This should get you started, read this article...

http://www.flyandfloatfishing.com/flyfishing.htm

ORIGINAL: Taken from article above

The upstream mend is a commonly used maneuver in fly fishing when an angler is faced with a situation in which they are forced to deal with fast water while attempting to fish a slower portion of the river.  The fast water will suck the fly line and presentation downstream, and out of the strike zone; an upstream mend allows the angler to pick up the line, and place it upstream allowing the presentation more time in the strike zone without the presence of drag.

The very beginning of that article is so true and was a mirror image of me when I first started...

Many fly anglers fish the wrong way.  They pull up to the river, strap on their waders, rig up their rod, tie on some flies, and simply go down to the river, cast, and watch their presentation move downstream.  They think they’re fishing; in reality, they’re only casting.   These fishermen are missing one of the most important concepts in fly fishing: line control.

Never fished those streams but as far as what nymphs, all the generic ones...

Prince, Hares Eare, Pheasant Tail, Copper John...

I'm assuming you're fishing for trout? Fish egg patterns the same way (sucker spawn, blood dot, glo bug...).

Flyfish with minnows down on the Yough for awhile.  If you break your wrist during the cast, the minnie will rip off the hook.  It took me awhile to learn to fish minnies with a flypole.