My First Fly Rod, and My First Casting Lesson

 My wife noticed that I kept looking at a fly rod combo at the local bait shop and that I spend some time reading about fly-fishing on WFN so for my birthday she surprised me with a fly rod kit. It is not a very expensive outfit, but she wanted to be sure that I would take the time to learn how to use it and that I would want to use it. She did well. I am very pleased with my first fly rod.  In this blog I will share with you my first lesson.     

 The Martin Combo was less than $30 dollars and it included a 3-piece 8 foot 5/6 weight rod, a loaded reel, and an assortment of flies. The loaded reel comes complete with backing, line, and leader. It was ready for a fly to be tied on and fished.    


 Since I will be teaching myself I have turned to the help of WFN shows, blogs by Dan Laking and other Ambassadors, articles and videos and other information found on the Internet. I also have a friend that is a tail water trout guide and fly fishing instructor on Dale Hollow, which is an hour away from me, so I called him. The first thing he said that I needed to learn was the roll cast. He recommended that I start with a heavy popper to begin casting with. I tied on the biggest popper I had.