Completely new to fly fishing, and I have questions

[Tyal]

In the next day or two I'm going to purchase my first fly fishing setup (Orvis Encounter 9ft 5wt) And I'm hopefully going to learn how to fly fish and enjoy it

But I have a bunch of questions, mainly regarding the flies. I'm going to be doing a lot of trout fishing hopefully through all the seasons and I'm not sure what flies to be using. I also don't really get the difference between the types of flies and what I should be using when. I get dry flies sit on top of the water and wet flies are under the surface, but thats about it. A friend of mine said wooly buggers are good for trout, but I really don't know what else. To start I plan on purchasing the flies, currently I don't have the cash or time to invest into fly tying So what should I buy?

Other than the flies I know the setup comes with the rod, reel, case, backing, and line but I'll have to buy a leader material, what should I get?

Thanks

[Andy W]

You have picked an interesting time to take up fly fishing given we are looking at least another 3.5 weeks lockdown – but that will give you some time to swot up on NZ Entomology first, and to get in some casting practice in once you get your gear...

Fly fishing is about putting an offering in front of the fish, so as it seems like a reasonable match of what the fish is probably looking to eat. Sometimes referred to as Match the Hatch, it’s a matter of observing what’s coming off the water and if you can see a fish feeding then getting something that matches down to, or above the fish.

Seeing as though you have a bit of time on your hands start on the web. Figure out what type of water you are going to be targeting, and then start reading about the bugs that live within. The most common bugs in our rivers and streams are caddis and mayfly’s and there are plenty to read about online. Start by searching for New Zealand Mayfly and New Zealand Caddis. Probably 50% of any fly fisho’s fly boxes are caddis/ mayfly imitations. Mayfly’s are a lot more difficult to match the hatch, due to the number of stages they go through in life.

Given we are going into winter, a lot of river and stream fishing is going to be out and that limits you to lake edge and rivermouth fishing which is where woollybuggers come into their own, but nymphing the rip of a rivermouth and even the edge of a weed bed is just as good for catching fish than endless casting and stripping of sunken lures. During winter my go to flies in any lake are pretty much what I use in summer which is something that looks like a feed of big caddis, even if that caddis has legs or a hot-spot bead as attractors. Small woollybuggers (10 – 14) come into their own as reasonable imitations of the damselfly nymph through winter – least they do down here.

When we get through this shit join a club, as you will earn more from skilled anglers (including casting) than you will from you-tube. Most clubs offer some form of tuition, not limited to casting, but also fly tying and buddy systems.

If you can get access to books through this, look out Trout Stream Insects by Norman Marsh and Trout on a Nymph, by Tony Orman. Normans book in particular demystifies entomology down to a small number of “need to know” chapters.

Leaders and tippets, and micro-rings are a whole nother discussion.

[Steve]

Yes and we’d like to sell you the fly rod package but it’s not essential so you have to wait for that. Andy’s advice is good, plenty of online resources to read up on, video to watch, the new reality - we’re all virtual fly fishers for now!