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A Beginner's Guide To The Essential Tackle

Our December 1999 contribution from Terry Lawton

For the newcomer to fly fishing, there is a bewildering amount of tackle available. Go into any good fishing tackle shop that caters for fly fishermen and you will see more tackle on sale than you will ever need. But buying ever more fishing tackle - the latest reel, a new and better rod - is one of the delights of the sport for many people. So many items of fly fishing tackle are really nice things in themselves - beautifully designed and made fly reels, fly boxes with little spring lids over the individual compartments, hand turned brass and rose wood priests, fly rods - the list is endless.

In this article I am going to discuss the essentials that you will need to get started. How much my recommendations will cost is up to you and the shop from where you buy them. Don't buy the most expensive items to start with. As you learn more about the sport, start to cast better, fish different waters, you will find that you want different items of tackle, a longer rod or one that will take a heavier line for example. As you will always need a priest and you can never have too many fly boxes, these are two items where you can indulge yourself at the start.

The first essentials are a fly rod, fly line and reel. Although you should not start with an expensive rod, do not be tempted to buy one that is too cheap either. Some cheap rods are simply horrid and will make learning to cast more difficult. If you have a friend who is a fly fisherman, ask their advice, contact a local casting instructor and visit a number of tackle shops and see what they recommend. Armed with this information, you can then make a sensible decision and buy a rod that will get you started and should see you through your first season or even the second. When you know how that rod performs, its strengths and weaknesses, you know what sort of waters you will be fishing, then think about buying a better and more expensive rod.

The essential requirement for the flyline is that its weight matches the rod you buy. Rods are made in many different lengths and each one will be designed for a specific weight of flyline. This information will be marked on the rod just above the handle. It will say something like 9 foot AFTM 6 and it is the AFTM number that indicates the correct weight of line. Sometimes there will be more than one number which means that the rod can be used with a lighter or heavier line. Lines are available that either float or sink and in two main designs of taper, double taper or weight forward. For river fishing a double taper floating line will fit the bill. For stillwaters and reservoirs a floating weight forward line will be a better buy, as well, possibly, as a sinking line. The tackle shop should be able to tell you which type of line to choose. Choose a budget price line. There are many experienced anglers who never use anything else and manage perfectly well. As a beginner it is quite likely that the line will get damaged and have to be thrown away. Leave the choice of a more expensive line until you buy a better rod.

The reel can, again, be an inexpensive one. Don't worry about disc drag and lots of fancy features. The reel is only needed to hold the line conveniently. Before you put your line on the reel, you must put on some line called backing. This fills up the reel and extends the length of the flyline if you catch a monster fish that decides to head for the sea or the far shore of a lake or reservoir.

Other items that you will always need include a priest for despatching any fish that you intend to keep to eat. Do not try to kill fish with a stone or piece of tree branch. Treat them with the respect they deserve and kill them swiftly and cleanly whilst still in the landing net as this makes a lively fish that much easier to hold. It is surprising how hard one can hit a fish, I know this from personal experience having missed the fish and hit my hand!

Fly boxes are another essential requirement, ideally one for dry flies and one for nymphs and wet flies. My preference is for boxes with foam linings into which the fly is hooked. Boxes with separate compartments are all right for bushy dry flies but you do risk dropping them all or having them blown out by a gust of wind. Boxes with spring lids tend to be very expensive and make an ideal birthday present. For wet flies there are boxes with rows of shiny metal clips - avoid them. When you return flies that are wet to such boxes there is every chance that the water trapped by the clip will make the hook itself rusty. Again, choose a foam lined box.

You will need a landing net with a reasonable length of handle. There are some very attractive wooden tennis racket style nets which are really only practical when wading. A net with a folding head and telescopic handle that is easy to extend will fit the bill.

A pair of polarised sunglasses is another essential item. Wearing them will protect your eye from damage by a fly when casting, particularly on windy days, and make seeing fish in the water that much easier. Many casting instructors will insist on their pupils wearing glasses at all times.

A pair of small scissors or special a fisherman's snip is needed to trim the ends of nylon, either when attaching a length of nylon - or tippet - to your cast and again when tying the fly to the end of the tippet.

Finally you need something to hold everything. A bag used to be the first choice and whilst still popular with the more traditional angler, they do weigh down on one shoulder. I would recommend an inexpensive waistcoat with lots of pockets, but not too many. Quite serviceable waistcoats can be bought from market stalls as well as fishing tackle shops.

We now need to move on to expendable items of equipment. You will need a number of ready-made casts which are used to connect your fly to the end of the fly line. You can buy knotted casts that are made up from short lengths of nylon of varying thickness and strength or continuous tapered casts or leaders as they are known in America. Casts or leaders are made in different lengths and with different breaking strains. You will also need a couple of spools of different strengths of nylon to attach to the end of the cast as a tippet, to which the fly is finally attached. The strength you choose will depend on the size of flies you fish and the likely size of the fish that you are hoping to catch. Don't be tempted to use to fine tippets as you may well end up leaving flies in fishes mouths. Using nylon a bit heavier than strictly necessary will increase your chance of landing a fish.

Now for probably the most expendable item of the lot: flies. I have no idea how many different patterns of fly available: there are thousands. The tyro fly fisherman will find that flies get stuck up trees, hooked in the opposite bank or the river, break-off when the timing of a cast goes awry and even end-up in the backs of cows. (Arthur Ransome wrote an amusing story about dry cow fishing some years ago.) What do you buy to begin with? Advice should be available from friends, the local tackle shop, fishery owners and members of local clubs. Start off with a small selection of patterns but do buy them in different sizes as a change of size can be more effective than a change of pattern. Nymphs and wet flies that are fished underwater want to sink quickly so it is best to buy flies that are weighted with lead when they are tied.

If you are planning to fish on rivers you will want a different selection from that which would be suitable for stillwaters. Always buy at least three of any pattern or size because you may loose a fly or break a hook and if one particular fly is catching fish, then you will want a replacement. The price of flies does vary quite considerably. The main factors that determine the price are the quality of the materials used to tie it and the hook on which it is tied. Cheap flies tend to be tied on cheap hooks which are not always strong enough - they can bend straight - or sharp enough. There is nothing more disappointing than loosing a good fish because the hook wasn't strong enough.

Dry flies are meant to float and to make sure that they do, you will need some fly floatant. Fly floatant is available in different forms including liquid in a bottle into which the fly is dunked and then shaken dry and gel types. This latter type is available in little plastic bottles and a little is squeezed onto a finger. The heat of your finger will melt the gel which is then rubbed into the hackles of the fly. Which ever sort you choose, do not use too much and make sure that you dry the fly - particularly if using liquid floatant - with a few false casts. When fishing with wet flies or nymphs, particularly in the deeper lakes and reservoirs, it may be necessary to degrease your leader and tippet with some sinkant which can also be applied to the fly itself. Again there are various types and makes of sinkant available. As they are inexpensive you may want to buy two different types to find out which you like best.

With everything listed here you will have all that you need to get out onto the water and start trying to catch fish. As your knowledge and experience grow, you will start to realise that certain items of your tackle have shortcoming and, all being well, you will know what to look out for when buying replacements. You are sure to find that you need another fly box, more flies . . .

For an overall introduction to fly fishing check my WHAT IS FLY FISHING? article,

Terry Lawton is a passionate nymph fisherman who caught a wild 4lb 2oz brown trout (his biggest to date) on a home-tied variant of a goldhead, Sawyer-style pheasant tail nymph. You can contact him direct at: t.lawtonpr@netcom.co.uk