I am sure this has been asked a million times before but......

I am a newbie when it comes to fly fishing and would appreciate anyones suggestions to help me not make any mistakes when it comes to purchasing gear.

Also what kinds of dry flys you like the best.

Favored KNots and leaders (this is where I am a real rookie)

Thanks guys

For tying on a fly I have come to rely on the Davy Knot. Dirt simple, so simple it's hard to tie almost!

For leaders I am hopelessly biased towards the furled leader.

Dry flies? For warm water or trout?

Dry Flies, poppers, grasshoppers, frogs, that sort of thing.

Exclusively warm water for Bass and panfish.

Thanks

Generic poppers of whatever sort you can lay hands on. Dry flies are gonna mostly be whatever you can lay hands on, although there will be rare cases where the hatch may need to be matches. Bream are not all that picky.

Hopper patterns, try to approximate the size/color of whatever is hatching.

Probably anything brown, fuzzy and floating will be eaten.

Fly rods for bass range from roughly 6wt to 8wt. The higher the weight, the less fun it is to catch smaller fish. For instance catching a 2lb bass would be a fun fight on a 5 or 6wt but not much fight on an 8wt. Temple fork outfitters makes solid gear at a great price with astounding warranty support and customer service. It not all that is out there, but its all I own.

As far as leaders Robins Leaders are where its at. Bass don't tend to be leader shy. Robin makes some great 4 ft heavy duty furled leaders. Of which I have 8 or so.

Flies include streamers of all sizes, poppers of all sizes, gurglers, plopsicles, you name it.

Grey

Ok - my $.02 worth on fly rodding for bass:

Rod - Decent 8 wt., 9'. I'm thinking TFO or Orvis Clearwater.

Reel - No need for a saltwater class drag, keep it simple. Again I'm thinking TFO or Orvis Clearwater.

Line: Any big bug, i.e. short fat forward section line. My favorite is Orvis Bass Bug - but I think I might have bought the last of the clearance 8 wt. in their tent sale ($23.40) but it's worth looking for.

Leaders - Don't have to break the bank here either. Store bought tapered are fine with the minimum test being about 12 lb. Buy some tippet material to tie on with a double surgeon's knot when you cut off a few inches after tying on a few flies.

Tippet to fly knot - I like the "Orvis" knot - simple and I've not had it fail me yet. Non-slip mono loop for tippet to fly with a loop for better fly action.

Flies - I'm partial to poppers since the topwater hit is such a rush. Big fat gaudy deer hair and foam are my favorites. In particular big ants and ant looking buggy flies. But the big guy will take a bluegill fly too. If you are not tieing, check out the bass flies at http://www.flydealflies.com.

Have fun!

Almost forgot - leaders - a 7' section of over the counter 15 lb test fluorcarbon fishing line works pretty good too.

Almost forgot redeaux: Flies - get a bunch of them as you will need to make the appropriate sacrifices to the fly fishing god of trees, brush, weeds, underwater snags, etc. - i.e. where the bass hang out in the first place.

I'm gonna say, I've got a 5 wt TFO BVK that I've been using for my bass rod. Put some 6wt bass bug line on it and can throw the big bugs with ease.

Don't rule out clousers...the bass whack the [censored] out of em and give a pretty good rush of a bite.

I use a Sage VXP 4 wt were I go in SA. I've pulled a 3.5lber in with it and it is my main rod to fish that area. There isn't a ton of room to run there, so I wouldn't be pressed much with a larger fish. Back in Ohio though, I used my 6 wt TFO Axiom to tackle 5-12# hybrids and it was great. If I wast going to buy a bass/brim rod then I would go with a 5 wt. I haven't uplined a rod that I own yet, but have casted some that way and depending on the rod, that may be the way to go. TFO make quality gear and the same 6 wt axiom had a broken snake guide(my fault) that I mailed on a Thursday and it came back on Monday. That is service in all aspects.

I like to use the lightest tackle possible, but you never know when that lunker is there and going to take your fly and a) send it back to you after a min or two

This is where picking a rod gets complicated. I think you'll find that most people use different rods for bass and panfish. Something in the 3 wt to 4 wt range for panfish and a 7 wt or 8 wt for most bass fishing, but a 9 wt or 10 wt will often be used in heavy brush and timber in places like Fork.

If you will only have one rod and want to fish for both panfish and bass, then a 5 wt or 6 wt is a good compromise choice.

For the most part, the size of the fish does not dictate the size of the rods to use, but the size of the fly that you want to cast is important in rod choice. Smaller wt rods do not cast large flies very well, but smaller fish are not much fun on larger rods.

Italy is not that far from Dallas. TFO will be at the Dallas Boat Show this weekend and next. They will have their demo rods and you can cast several different rods to see for yourself what we're talking about and what you like. I'll be there Saturday tying flies with Russell, "Trout Bum" on TFF, From 1 to 4. Stop by and we'll try to answer more of your questions.

Good luck,
Rex

I like using a 8wt to throw the bigger bugs and only catch 5 lbs+ bass....lol. Seriously, though it depends where I'm fishing. I like the extra back bone to pull them out of cover when they hit. But for most situations, my 6wt works just fine.

Thanks guys I really appreciate your help.

I caught a 24" LMB last weekend at my Dad's country place with his fly rod and a sponge spider, but I forgot to get the rod and line info and am starting from scratch.

ANYTHING that gives me a rush like that experience did I want some more of.

To recap what others have said, the bigger/heavier the fly you're tossing, the bigger rod you need.

I've caught healthy bass on 3wt and 5wt rods before ... lighter tackle + bigger fish = more fun.

Here's a nice bass I caught a few weeks back at my local on a 5wt.
On a clouser. (Topwater is a lot more fun, but it was a little chilly out that day).



Here's a healthy bass caught on topwater with a 3wt late last summer:

FishTales remix to get your heart pumpin"