Fly Fishing
Many people have overlooked the opportunity to try of one of the most enjoyable and gratifying forms of fishing. Either due to the lack of equipment or chance to try, they have never learned to take up the fly fishing rod. After seeing an expert lay an 80' cast into a tea cup or watching a video of a pro fighting a 150# tarpon, perhaps he is justified by the intimidation that he feels.
This should not be the case. There are two aspects to the fly fishing rod.
One is fly-casting, something that one does not become proficient with overnight.
This only comes with practice, practice, and more practice.
If you do not pick up the rod, you do not get to practice. So what reason
do you have to pick up the rod? It must be enjoyable. Thereby comes aspect
number two. Fly-fishing. You do not have to be a flycaster to be a fly fisherman.
Some good flycaster's couldn't catch a fish if it was laying on the deck,
and by the same token, some good fly fishermen struggle to cast at all.
Catching fish and having fun are synonymous with one another, so if you can catch fish with a fly rod then you will have the opportunity to practice while you are having fun.
Nowhere else is the
opportunity as good for the total novice to catch fish on the fly rod as it
is here in Southwest Florida. With the techniques that we use in Backcountry Flats Fishing or "Wreck
Fishing" and "Offshore Gulf
Fishing", it is often a difficult task to get the fly out of the
water before a fish grabs it. Its very rewarding to catch fish on fly. You
convinced the fish that a chicken feather was alive! Its fun to cast the fly
while you are watching the fish swim around the boat. Not spooky like on a
skinny water flat either! This is a great chance for the first time fly fishermen
to get into very strong fish several times to practice fighting techniques
and have a ball as well. VERY visual fishing.
The chance for the novice angler to fight fish the first time they pick up
a fly rod is one of the greatest incentives that I know of to get them to
pick it up again and again. Many of the best fly casters of the day got their
start this way. There is no substitute for experience. The next time that
you come to Southwest Florida, don't let the opportunity pass you by. Try
some "Fly Fishing".
