Angling is a water sport better known as ‘fishing’. It generally involves the use of rods, reels, lines, and baited hooks or lures with hooks to catch coarse and sea fish. Fly-fishing is one of the more popular forms of recreation worldwide. It lets people get into the outdoors, presents them with the challenge of outwitting and then fighting a fish, and possibly provides them with food.

At the forefront of this group of sportsmen are the Fly-fishermen. Fly Fishing is one of the most popular techniques of fishing. This technique is used to fish for the various species of Bass, Pike and a host of other species that put up a good fight when caught. Fly Fishing is also probably the most complex kind of fishing because of the wide variety of equipment such as rods, lines and fly lures available as well as the myriad subtleties of fly-fishing techniques. Fly-fishing rods are usually between 2.13 and 3.65 m in length depending on the venue to be fished such as a small stream, a reservoir, or a river.

Difference In Equipment

Fly lines differ from the nylon and Dacron lines used in other methods of fishing. Coated with various plastics, different fly lines can float, sink rapidly, or sink slowly. Once the fly line has been wound on to the reel spool, the fly angler then adds a nylon leader to the end of the line. Fly leaders are much lighter, with a smaller diameter, than the actual fly line. Their purpose is to let the angler cast easily and to give hooked game fish a fair, fighting chance.

To the end of the leader is attached a fly, which may imitate an insect that fish feed on. Made of feathers, hairs, or synthetic materials tied on to a single hook, the fly has virtually no weight. Insect imitations, which may simulate aquatic insects in their nymphal, pupal, or adult stage, may be as large as a golf ball or as small as a pencil rubber. Anglers choose flies according to what fish are feeding on at the time of year.

Technique

While fly-fishing, anglers usually use dry fly if trout are taking on the surface and a wet fly if they appear to be feeding below. Change the fly every 15 minutes or so until the correct fly is hit upon. When river fishing keeping control of the fly line in the current is the key to success. Follow the fly down with the rod tip and raise and lower the rod to allow a natural progression of the fly around underwater obstacles. Keep in touch at all times or risk losing a trout. Lake or Stillwater trout fishing often demands working with a team of flies. Using progressively lighter flies with the heaviest on the point allows the flies to work at different depths.

To cast a small offering, the angler whips the fly rod back and forth until a considerable amount of line is in the air. The fly-fishing angler's cast is dependent on the weight of the line. Casts are made to likely looking spots, such as pools and pockets in streams, where the fly is allowed to touch the water and then float, as in dry-fly fishing, or sink as in wet-fly fishing. If a fish bites, the angler pulls in line while raising the rod tip to set the hook in the fish's mouth. The angler fights the fish by pulling in the line by hand or by reeling line on to the reel.

Fly-Fishing with bait, lures, and flies involves many variations and subtleties. Serious anglers constantly search for new information about equipment and tactics that will help them improve their fishing. Many books and magazines are devoted to the subject, and novice anglers would be well advised to study their prospective sport in depth before attempting any of the basic methods discussed above.

Competitions

Many fly-fishing matches are held through the world in both salt- and freshwater angling. These range from small club events to large open events with hundreds of anglers involved. Many matches are team events run on a league or knockout basis. The finals of these are usually held in the US, Denmark or Ireland. Team matches tend to be prestigious events, and thousands of pounds can be won, although not as much as in many other sports. The games sought include

Salmon, sea trout, brown trout, which native to Britain, and rainbow trout. The latter are usually reared in hatcheries and released into artificial reservoirs and lakes for the angler. Coarse fish include roach, bream, dace, chub, perch, pike, and carp. Popular salt-water fish are cod, mullet, conger, eel, whiting, dogfish, plaice, and flounder. Salt-water and freshwater anglers often use the same basic angling techniques, though size of equipment differs.

There has been much development and improvement in fly-fishing equipment. Rods and reels are much lighter and stronger thanks to modern materials such as carbon fiber and new plastics. Nylon lines are much thinner in relation to their breaking strain, though in certain cases this may not be an advantage.