Sometimes it can be quite daunting starting out with any new hobby as you often don’t know where to start. But when it comes to fly fishing there are many aspects to consider. You’ve seen the programmes on TV, watched the other anglers at the river/lake and fancy giving it a go! But what fly fishing kit do you need? What fly fishing clothing do you need? And the flies? There are so very many to choose from! Then factor in famous fly fishing ‘bravado’ (which can be a little nerve-racking to some) because every fly angler is an expert and only their flies are the best! Put this lot together and you’ve a recipe for a potentially over-whelming situation for a beginner. So what do you do? Fortunately there are plenty of avenues open to you. The first one being the fact that despite the bravado mentioned earlier, there is a wealth of incredibly kind and generous fly anglers out there who are desperate to share their hobby with a beginner and will do so with gusto. So tap your fly fishing friends or relatives for some tips. To avoid getting into any self taught bad habits, it is [...]
Beginners
Inspirational fly fishing story
This kind and inspirational Essential Fly customer shared this wonderful story with us and has given us permission to share it with you. These are her exact words – we hope you enjoy it. Im a single parent with one little boy, I cant do many sporting activities with him so at 41 years of age I learnt to fish and Ive never looked back Ive had some very very memorable days, not always because the fish were big or even just because they were beautifull but for a selection of other reasons. The one I will never forget until the day I pop my clogs goes like this. It wasnt just a day it took me months to prepare for this one. Small child, minimal fishing experience but loved it, 10 tears old watching Matt Hayes on telly catching big trout on the fly. Says to his mother “Id really love to do that Mum it looks awesome” (fatal words) Took him for a couple of casting lessons, took him fly fishing, easy to catch lakes and he’s started catching, take him to harder to catch lakes – and he starts catching, make him fish the Brennig- he catches, [...]
Tips On Fly Leaders – More Important Than Your Fly Rod Yet Often Overlooked
Fly Leaders are the most important piece of tackle there is yet is is not thought about enough! So when Umpqua Feather Merchants launched one of the hottest fly fishing tippets we have ever seen we have been desperate for stock. We took our Red Hot Tapered leaders, played with them and loved the results. This is by far the most innovative Fly Tippet or tapered leader we have ever seen. My eyesight used to be fantastic in my youth, however as my hair gets more and more grey my eyes get weaker at the same time and all too frequently I find I lose the fly as it floats down the river or I miss bites due to missing gentle and subtle takes. Since fishing with the Red Hot Tapered Leader I have found I miss less fish and see more bites due to its innovative colouring of the butt section on this stunning tapered leader. However, this made us think how under-rated the most important piece of tackle a fly fisherman uses is! Typically we all take tapered leaders and leader material for granted however next to the fly it is more important than even our fly rod, [...]
Tip – an easy way to learn or practice your casting technique!
Tip – an easy way to learn or practice your casting technique! On a sunny day, practice your fly casting in the bright sun. Stand in such a way that you can see your own shadow (ie the sun is to the side of you). Then start casting and watch your shadow. Whilst this may not be an ideal way, it means you can study your casting on your own if you don’t have a teacher/buddy to help. Of course, if you really want to check your casting thoroughly set up a video camera!
Fly Fishing Tip – How to use a wading staff
A wading staff is a very important part of a fly anglers equipment. Safety is of course very important! But when you are in fast moving water, as well as safety, a wading staff gives you an extra piece of confidence and reassurance. Just pass the loop over your wrist so that if you need to use that hand in a hurry you are not going to lose your staff! Importantly however is to remember never to lift your wading staff up until you have both feet firmly planted. A wading staff gives you a third leg and you should always be sure that 2 of those 3 legs are solidly planted at all times. If you can, use a wading staff in the upstream hand to give you maximum benefit and support!
New Buzzer Fly Fishing Mobile App Released
We have today released our mobile app for Android phones to help you with Buzzer / Chironomid Fly Fishing. The app is downloadable from the Android Marketplace directly on your mobile phone. With details on midges life-cycle,different types of buzzer flies a variety of buzzer rigs and how to fish them plus other tips and techniques. The Mobile Fly Fishing App is available for purchase for just £2.99 and includes a special 15% discount voucher for your next puchase so you should end up with the Application costing nothing if you use the voucher wisely! This is the first dedicated App for buzzer fishing we have released and have more in the pipeline. We are intending for our apps to be released for both iPhone and Android markets.
Cape Grading With Grizzle Necks / Grizzly Necks For Dry Flies
So what is the big deal over grizzly necks or grizzle necks for fly tying? Grizzle necks have superb banding makes superb hackles for dry flies. There are Chinese capes and Indian capes HOWEVER these are not generally considered as dry fly hackles in the professional fly tying market. Grizzle capes and grizzle saddles are graded by their ability to tie small dry flies. The greater the number of tiny dry flies a grizzle neck will produce, generally the higher the price. The most desirable characteristics of a grizzle neck include correct colours, soft fine stalk, short barb length for very small dry flies, high barb count and requires fewer turns of the hackle to produce superb dense hackling. Ignoring colour as you can purchase grizzle saddles dyed in many colours, dyed grizzle necks range in colour from pink to olive, yellow to orange. So really the first question to ask is “what flies will I be tying in what quantity and what sizes?”. The production fly tyer will have a different answer to the average home tyer. Typical experience of fly tyers in general is that small dry flies sizes below #20 are very rarely produced in and the [...]
Fly Fishing Sunglasses – HD Video Recorder & Camera Sunglasses
Essential Fly Fishing Video / Camera Polaroid Sunglasses Review Sun glasses are essential for fishermen, both for keeping out the sun, helping focus on a fly, seeing the trout / salmon below the water rise and take our fly and most importantly to protect eyes from flying hooks!I remember watching one of my wife’s TV programmes about hospitals and seeing a fisherman get a arsley bomb (lead wight) embedded in his eye and have always taken real care, after all it is more of a dangerous hobby that we realise at times. Fly fishing sunglasses are the most essential gear for fishermen, they should be purchased before we even purchase a rod and line for protection. Ok I must confess, fishing and computers are a passion. Both loved, drive me to distraction, frustrate and excite me so when I first saw these fly fishing sunglasses with a difference – fly fishing polaroid video sunglasses I really got excited. Polaroid lenses, with a HD video camera 1280 x 720, audio recording and digital camera build into the fly fishing sunglasses frame, lightweight these fly fishing sunglasses are suitable for men and women.When I first saw the camera on these I was [...]
HD Video 1280 x 720 and 12 mega pixel camera POLAROID FISHING SUNGLASSES
Essential Fly Fishing Video / Camera Polaroid Sunglasses (1280 x 720 pixel video 4gb video 12 mega pixel camera) Polaroid sun glasses are essential for fishermen, both for keeping out the sun, helping focus on a fly, seeing the trout / salmon take and most importantly to protect eyes from flying hooks! These fishing sunglasses are something different. These lightweight comfortable fishing glasses incorporate a HD video recorder recording 720P HD video in 16:9 video format and 1280 x 720 pixel camera for still photo’s. So when your mates cannot be there or when you hook into that special fish simply click the button by your ear and start the video recording. At 30 frames per second recording you can show exactly how you caught that fish! Simply plug directly into the USB port of your PC when you get home or remove the Micro SD card and put that into your computer then replay the fight with that magical fish again! With 3 modes of operation these stunning pair of video fishing glasses can take a series of 3 pictures each 12mega pixel 4000x 3000 pixel photo’s in snapshot mode or can be swapped to audio mode where it [...]
Emerging Emperor Dragonfly Video and Photo’s
On Friday Sandy Dickson and Andy went to Knaresborough to the local trout lake for a spot of relaxation from the busy world at The Essential Fly. While there Sandy spotted this beautiful Emperor dragonfly that had just emerged. We took photo’s and video of this beautiful dragonfly as it pumped blood into its’ wings and then flew off. This is HD quality video and can be seen below or on our Facebook pages for fly fishing. Dragon fly nymphs or damsel nymphs play an important part in the trout fly fishing fisherman’s hobby. Although we see a few of these superb damsels / dragonflies darting about the lakes we often do not appreciate that trout feast on damsel nymphs in the lake and trout flies imitating this are an important part of the fly fishing armoury. Emperor Dragonfly Emerging More Abut The Dragonfly A dragonfly is an insect belonging to the order Odonata, the suborder Epiprocta or, in the strict sense, the infraorder Anisoptera. It is characterized by large multifaceted eyes, two pairs of strong transparent wings, and an elongated body. Dragonflies are similar to damselflies, but the adults can be differentiated by the fact that the wings of [...]
Salmon Fishing Fly Selection
So you are going salmon fly fishing, what a superb sport but the problem is what salmon flies do you use? Well it is not like a trout where we can see them rising to flies and eating from the surface, with salmon we are triggering the predatory instinct as they cannot eat once they enter fresh water. If you speak to Finnish fly fishermen they use small sparsely dressed flies quite often traditional patterns like Hairy Mary salmon fly, Willie Gunn tube fly, Stoats Tail green butt known in USA as Black Bear green butt, or a Blue Charm salmon fly. Speak to a Norwegian they more modern hairwing salmn flies like Monkey tube flies and Sunray Shadow tube flies talk to a Scot and you will get yet another answer. These are the same salmon species yet everyone fishes for them with different flies. Flies like Ally Gowans Allys Shrimp range have proved to be superb for Atlantic salmon from Scotland to Iceland and as far as Russia. So what salmon fly do you choose when you go salmon fly fishing? Well there is no magic answer, without doubt modern hairwing flies create stunning movement and account for an [...]
