The cheapskate's guide to fly fishing

05 Dec, 2023

Howdy! I've been meaning to write more now that I have this shiny new blog. I couldn't think of things to write about, so I chose to cook up a post about my latest obsession: fly fishing!

Fly fishing TL;DR

When most people think of fishing, they think of using a rod that has some fishing line to throw a lure or a hook with bait at the end into the water. Fly fishing is different: you're still using a rod to throw a lure into the water, but the lures (called flies because many of them imitate lil bugs that fish like to eat) are much much lighter than typical fishing lures or hooks with bait. Since flies are relatively quite light, the line that's used for fly fishing is much thicker and heavier than your typical fishing line. This allows the fly rod to act as basically a slingshot or spring that transfers the energy to the fly line and lets you cast the line out. Also the line floats! This is a terribly simplified view into fly fishing, if you want to learn more I've linked lots of resources down at the bottom of this post!

How I started fly fishing

I've thought fly fishing was cool for a long time. I didn't grow up fishing; I think the only time I went fishing I caught a stick and didn't really see the point of it. But fly fishing seemed elegant and interesting, like something I would like to try. Earlier this year I started bait fishing with a good friend of mine. It was mainly an excuse for us to sit and talk for hours outdoors. We never caught anything, but we had a vague desire to become better at fishing. This friend of mine got married in October, so in September we went on his bachelor trip. Fly fishing came up as a possible option for a fun excursion, and we went ahead and booked the trip. We met our guide at a small stream in Great Smoky Mountains National Park, and had a great afternoon wading and catching trout. The amazing beauty of the stream and the thrill of catching fish were intoxicating, and I was hooked. Fly fishing was exactly as I had imagined it: elegant and yet exciting. There was no sitting around waiting for the fish to bite, you had to get in the water and go after them yourself!

How I got the first fish

Fly fishing is often criticized as being more expensive than conventional fishing. While it is more expensive than conventional fishing, you can get started for way less than most people tell you. A rod (just the rod, no reel or line or anything) that's considered "mid range" will run you about $200 or so. That's way more than some nicer conventional rods which you can get for $50-$100. I'm here to tell you though: you can get every piece of gear you need to get to start catching fish for less than that mid-range fly rod! Here's my bare minimums list for getting started fly fishing:

The grand total is about $109, and tbh you could skip the waders and just buy a pair of rubber boots. Waders are nice to have if you're going to fish water any deeper than your calves though, which you almost certainly will end up doing, so you might as well get them. I did my first solo fly fishing outing with such a pair of boots! You'll also want some fingernail clippers to clip off pieces of line. I hope you already have some! If not… how?? Eventually you can get a pair of dedicated "nippers" for cutting line, but there's no point at the start in spending $10 on basically fishing branded fingernail clippers. Finally, you'll also need a small bag of some kind to carry your gear (mainly your flies and tippet and clippers at this point), ideally a sling bag so you can sling around and grab stuff easily. Any backpack you already have laying around will do in a pinch! If you need to buy a bag, don't overthink it or spend $200 on a specialized fly fishing bag. Any old backpack from Goodwill or some other thrift shop will do. I'm using an old sling bag I had lying around in the garage.

Thoughts on new hobbies

Any new hobby can quickly become a money pit. It's honestly kinda sad that capitalism makes even our leisure into a consumerist competition for "better" stuff, but that's the world we live in. When I decided to get started fly fishing, I made an intentional choice: I was going to look for the absolute cheapest way to get into the sport. Again, it's a bummer that you have to fight the culture and try to stay content when it comes to hobbies, but I've taken this approach before and it's worked well. When you start with very cheap equipment, it's often a blessing in disguise as you aren't being carried by super nice gear. You can learn the basics and later on, when you upgrade your gear, it will feel amazing! I've heard that this is common when upgrading to a nicer fly rod, and I'm looking forward to experiencing this effect sometime next year when I upgrade. Staying cheap can also help you stay focused on the actual activity you're doing. It's a subversion of the capitalist drive to just spend money to get happiness. The point of $HOBBY isn't spending money, it's doing the thing!! The fish doesn't care that you spent $900 on your rod. The point of fishing is getting outside into beautiful places and enjoying nature. You don't need to spend big bucks to do that.

I hope this was a somewhat helpful walk through fly fishing and can serve as a guide for folks that want to get started without spending too much money!

Fly fishing resources

Waders

There are basically 2 types of waders: boot-foot and sock-foot. Boot-foot waders have rubber boots welded onto the legs of the waders; the ones I linked above are boot-foot. Sock-foot waders have a neoprene sock attached to the legs instead, kinda like mini wetsuits for your feet. These are intended for use with wading boots, which are specialized boots that let water flow in and out which makes it easier to wade. I recommend going for boot-foot waders to start, mainly because of price. Sock-foot waders alone tend to be more expensive, and on top of the waders you have to buy wading boots, which can start at around $80. Boot-foot waders + wading boots results in a much more stable, supportive, and comfortable wading setup, so I'd recommend getting some once you're deeper in the sport. You can easily spend more than $1000 on waders + boots tho, so I'd say just stick with boot-foot until you're fishing in places where you really want that additional support and comfort. Wearing 2 pairs of socks in boot-foot waders has helped me with comfort and stability, and it's also a lot warmer when fishing in the winter :)

Getting flies

Flies are the main piece of equipment that you'll be continuously spending money on. Flies can get caught on trees or rocks, chewed up by fish, or just wear out over time. Unlike other fishing lures you may have used in the past, most flies are made of softer materials like thread, fur, feathers, and foam. This means that they'll just naturally not last as long as a plastic fishing lure. If you get a fly rod combo like the one linked above, it may come with a few flies to get you started. These will be of hit or miss quality. There were a couple that lasted me several uses, but others disintigrated after just a couple of casts. You'll want to purchase at least a few higher quality flies if you decide that fly fishing is something you want to keep doing.

Now where should you purchase flies? Lots of folks will tell you to only purchase them from your local fly shop. There's 2 issues I have with this: not everyone *has *a local fly shop, and tbh they're just expensive. You can end up paying anywhere from $2-$3 per fly at a fly shop. Now yes, they will be very high quality, but we're trying to do things on the cheap to get started and spending $3 per fly is just not gonna work if you're trying to keep things cheap. My approach has been to go to my local fly shop to get the skinny on which flies are working in my area, purchasing a couple of them there to support and thank them for their intel, and buying in bulk online. The main place I've used has been The Fly Shack, which has great quality flies for less than a dollar each.

Learning resources

There is a LOT of information to learn about fly fishing. Casting technique, fly selection, fish behavior, the list goes on. Like with equipment, much of this is unnecessary for getting started. The basics you'll want to learn will be: how to do the basic fly cast and roll cast; how to pick flies; and the basics of reading water to identify where fish might be hanging out. There's been 3 main online resources I've used to teach myself the basics of fly fishing:

• Orvis fly fishing guides
• Ventures Fly Co.
• Far Bank fly fishing school

I recommend watching as many videos as you can of experts fishing, as they will give you techniques that you can imitate and practice on your own. Of course, it's best to get real life instruction from an experienced angler, but this can be hard to come by. Lots of fly shops will offer classes on these topics, especially casting, and I'd recommend those if you can afford them. They do tend to be expensive, which again goes against our "do it cheap" mentality in this post. The top tier way to get instruction IMO is to go on a guided trip. A guide will teach you the basics and hopefully you'll catch some fish which will really motivate you as you're getting started in the sport! These are quite expensive ($200-$400 or more depending on where you're going and how long the trip is), but this is a case where I will advocate against "doing it cheap". If you can afford it, go on a guided trip before you start investing in gear. You'll be able to tell if this is something you even want to spend time and money on before spending money on gear that might just sit around unused.

#fly fishing #hobbies