When did you start fly fishing?

[riffleriversteelheadslayer 0]

started tying in 78 for my dad then figured out I could either con him into buying me a fly rod or charge him for my flies he chose the first and I been hooked ever since now dad is dead so I have to buy my own gear but I still love it and in some way it makes me feel close to him

[Zarabanda Fly 0]

Living in right by the Gulf Coast in Tampico, Mexico, it was real hard for a youngster to find fly tackle, so... I started using panfish poppers on a cane pole at age 12 to catch pumpkinseeds & other small panfish. Also, I started tying my own poppers with small medication bottle cork stoppers, my Mother's sewing threads and chicken feathers from feather dusters.

 

It was until 1971 tht I bought my first fly rod, reel & line and started teaching myself to use it by reading everything flyfishing related magazine I could get my hands on (Sports Afield, Outdoor Life, Field & Stream) in Mexico City.

 

Today I have dedicated over 35 years to expanding this passion among my friends and neighbors.

 

[Fly Tyer Guy 0]

Started tying at 12,

 

Fishing at 14,

 

Now I'm 15.

[madkasel 0]

Started fishing about 2 years ago right now... but the heat came in a crushing wave the day my rod arrived, so not a ton of fishing happened that summer or even fall. I got it out quite a bit, but didn't catch much.

 

I started tying the following spring, which led me far deeper into the hobby.

[madkasel 0]

Started fishing about 2 years ago right now... but the heat came in a crushing wave the day my rod arrived, so not a ton of fishing happened that summer or even fall. I got it out quite a bit, but didn't catch much.

 

I started tying the following spring, which led me far deeper into the hobby.

[sulfernut 0]

Started fishing with fly-rod and reel seriously,around 1971...Started tying flies several years prior to that!! Fished them for a few years on a spinning rod,behind a clear "bubble"...slayed many a bluegill this way!

Sulphernut

[flytyingscotsman 0]

 

I started fly fishing when I was 12 years old, some 35 years back.

 

A childhood friend of mine's Father was an avid fisherman, he taught us how to cast

and took us along on every outing.

 

I still have the 9ft 3 piece bamboo rod I started with to this day.

 

 

 

[Frogfish 0]

I started fly fishing about 6 years ago...I taught myself.

[crappiekid24 0]

I started a few years ago but never did it much. I hope to start doing it more seriously this year.

[Sagittarius62 0]

This is only my fourth season fly fishing. Like many others I spent countless hours of my youth flinging bait and lures at warmwater fish. Girls, college and work got in the way for many years. then I just thought I would give the fly rod a try. Started tying just this past winter. My spinning rods collect dust now. Recently my wife expressed and interest in fly fishing, she was a dedicated worm fisher until then. Now, I am spending most of my time helping her learn. Boy is she starting with a handicap.

[British mike 0]

Hi all ,

I feel like the grandfather here................ :hyst: I have been fly fishing since 1964 and tied my first fly the year before after standing next to John Veniard for 4 hours in London watching him tying at a fishing show. He gave me some left over materials (some of which I still treasure and keep safe)

 

Mike.........................

[British mike 0]

Hi all ,

I feel like the grandfather here................ :hyst: I have been fly fishing since 1964 and tied my first fly the year before after standing next to John Veniard for 4 hours in London watching him tying at a fishing show. He gave me some left over materials (some of which I still treasure and keep safe)

 

Mike.........................

[danathan 0]

i started when i was 8 and started tying flies at 8 1/2

[Isonychia 0]

My grandfather passed away when I was six. I inherited his fishing tackle, which included a fly rod. I remember reading Corey Ford's "Tales of the Lower Forty" in Field & Stream when I was nine or 10. Unfortunately, West Virginia isn't exactly a fly fishing hotspot so it wasn't until age 22 that I finally took up the long rod. I've been at it for 30 years now.

 

John

 

 

[Guest]

Sometime about the third week of June I entered both my sixth decade of long rod flailing and the half-century point of spitting out airborne feather tufts, sticking my fingertips with and breaking thread on hook points. Names such as Gladding, Horrocks-Ibbotson, Pflueger, Wright&McGill ( Eagle Claw), Shakespeare, J.C. Higgins, Abercrombie, Montague, Cortland and the like- and I'm sure the second I post this I'll remember others equally as important, evoke long-treasured memories.

 

As I entered high school I acquired a large (complete) collection of Outdoor Life magazines dating from the time toward the end of WWI, late 1917, to the early Sixties and a large collection of fishing-related items, mostly fly-fishing related, from the widow of a couple with whom my family was friendly prior to the husband's death. The incredible journeys and places I visited and experiences I enjoyed through those magazines helped solidify my love for the sport, even tho' it had only been a decade or so between my initial experiences and that time.

 

Further, it was a good thing I tried to ingest every piece of information I could from those magazines because by the time I returned from my first year in the service my siblings had managed to mangle or destroy almost the whole irreplaceable collection as well as most of the tackle.