Selecting the Right Fly Fishing Line & Reel

Video Transcript

"Hi! This is David Dirk, managing director of Dirks Outdoors, on behalf of Expert Village. Today we are going to talk about fly fishing basics. Now let's talk about fly lines. There are a lot of fly lines on the market, many of them very very good. But if you are a beginner, the one thing you want to know is that in most fly fishing situations you are going to want to use a floating fly line. You can buy a sinking tip fly line, you can buy a sinking line that sinks completely. Sinking lines are good for specialized situations like deep water fishing. But for stream fishing for trout or pond fishing for bass, pickrell or sun fish, you are going to find that a floating line is going to be best. The other thing that I recommend too, is that you start with a double taper fly line. A double taper fly line is really simply a fly line that has basically when they manufacture it, it has a very thick middle and then it is tapered down to a very thin point on either red. What that allows you to do is casting double taper fly line allows a much more even application of power and for beginning fly caster, it makes fly casting a whole lot easier so make sure you get a double taper floating fly line in the right weight. The last recommendation I have on fly lines is to make sure that when you buy the fly line it comes already set up with a leader loop. The leader loop will help you to easily attach your leader material to the fly line without having to hack into your fly line itself, so make sure it has a leader loop. The next thing we are going to talk about are leaders. A leader is very simply a piece of mono filament that is tapered from one end to the other and it allows you to actually deliver the fly or the popper or whatever you are going to be putting at the end of your fly line to the fish. Now a leader has 3 sections. It is the butt section which is the thickest section of the leader which is usually the first third or so of the leader is the butt. The middle section called the mid section and then at the very end where you are actually going to tie on your fly is the lightest end, the tapered end called the tippet. One basic knot you should definitely learn right away if you are starting fly fishing is the clinch knot. The clinch knot is used in a variety of situations but most importantly it allows you to tie your fly to the fly line. In order to be able to do the clinch knot, what you need to do and this simulates by the way, his finger is going to simulate the eye of the hook and run the tippet material on your leader on to the eye of your hook, then you want to wrap the short piece around the leader about 5 or 6 times. In this case we will do it simulated and then take that short tag end there and run it through that open loop that is between the eye of the fly and then pull down. What you will end up with is a very neat knot that actually is excellent for keeping your fly line and your fly connected. "