Casting
The first thing I'm going to say is (and I cant stress this enough), casting is not everything in fly fishing. In fact, it�s probably the least important thing. So don't get frustrated if you can't cast like a pro in the first week, or even the first year. It took me 4 years to finally get down fly-casting. It�s something very, very hard to teach, and the best advice I can give is to not force the line to go someplace. You have to work with the line in a smooth forgiving feel. It can come in handy when you are trying to cast dry flies though.
Next is a very important cast called a roll-cast, this is much, much more important than the normal cast. Its especially important when you are fishing with nymphs or are fishing in a very heavily brushy area where your backcast is likely to get hung up. I will get more into nymphing later in this article, but right now, its just roll casting. First what you want to do is, using the tension from your line being in the water pull the line up at an angle and make a small circle w/ the tip of your rod so your line rolls over itself and the tip of your rod.
Mending
Mending is much easier said than done. Its a technique that allows you to let your line stay on the water without it creating drag and make your nymph or dry fly go faster than the current in the river. How you mend is you make small loops that go up or downstream (depending if the water is faster or slower between you and the fly). You have to keep making these loops in order for it to work effectively. Make the loops like you do for roll casting (same motion), just don't make your line go out of the water. Another method is, when you are casting, right before your line hits the water, pull you rod tip upstream/downstream so you get an automatic mend from the beginning. If you can master this, you can have much better success on the river.
Choosing a Fly
The easiest way to determine what fly to use is to go to a local fly shop by where you are fishing and just simply ask, most people in fly shops are more than willing to help out a beginner (or any fisherman for that matter). On most Colorado rivers, they are very, very heavily fished, so only the best imitations will do. There are other ways to determine what's going on in (or on) a river. One way is to see what's hatching on the surface. Another is to buy a seine net and dip it in the river and hold it still for about 5 minutes or how many you can (considering the water is VERY cold). Look in the seine net and see what's in it. Match up anything in the net with what you have in your fly box. If you are going on a trip to a river you've never been to, never ever buy flies at a local shop of yours, go to a shop by the river and ask around, it will pay off.
Nymphing
Nymphing is probably the easiest way to catch fish. It�s probably because hatches only happen in periods; nymphs (immature flies in a larva stage) are always below the surface. That way, whatever you do, you should usually be fishing with nymphs. To tell you the truth, I have never caught a fish on dry flies, but I have caught a 22" fish and 20" fish on nymphs. You can fish nymphs with split shot or just by themselves. I would only suggest the latter if 1) the river is really shallow 2) the fish are feeding near the surface. The good thing about split shot is that sometimes the water is really fast and deep and the fish are on the bottom. The split shot allows you to get down to those feeding fish and put the fly right in their face. How much split shot you put on depends on how deep and fast the river is. People in shops will generally tell you everything you want to know. It is sometimes very helpful to use a strike indicator because if you're not good enough to feel a fish bite, you can see when they strike.
Dry Fly Fishing
Dry fly fishing is hard in the retrospect that you can't do it very often, but when you do find an awesome hatch, its as easy as shooting fish in a barrel (well, so I've been told). The problem is that you have to match the fly exactly to whats coming off and match the size pretty perfectly in a hard-fished river. In a river that�s not pressured, a fish will bite a pinecone for crying out loud (not really). Although I have had fish bite my strike indicator, its just a freak incident. If you see a fish rising, watch it and see if it keeps rising in a pattern, if it does, that's the fish to cast to. Sometimes, the fish will rise randomly when there is not a hatch going, if that happens, don't switch flies. Keep fishing with your nymph, He's more than likely going to take that instead of a dry.
Jeff Goncalves
Trout Fishing Editor of Fly Fish the West
Next Article: Finding Fish and More in Depth on the Basics of Fly Fishing
