wh2004:

Lots of good questions here, many of which would be answered for you at a good introductory fly fishing class. Local Orvis stores offer a Fly Fishing 101 class that I believe is free, so you should check into that.

Another option is to show up with your new rig at a meeting of a local fly fishing club. One that's fairly close to you is the Ft. Worth Fly Fishers. See their website at fortworthflyfishers.org for details on their meetings, casting clinics, etc.

There are also lots of good beginning fly casting and fly fishing videos on the web. Go to YouTube and search for beginning fly fishing or beginning fly casting for helpful tips. Often watching is much easier than reading someone's explanations.

All that said, if you bought or were given the outfit as a set, then yes, your line is likely a five weight floating line. The backing sits behind it on the reel spool and the tapered leader in front. You'll probably want to pick up a couple more leaders and some tippet material to replenish the leader after it's been cut back a few times as you change flies.

Rod weights are determined by the materials used in the rod and the taper given to those materials, they range for very light (down to 000 weight) to very heavy (14 weight or more). A five weight rod is the typical weight for a starter rod and can be very versatile, good for bass, panfish, trout, white bass and other fish of similar size. The weight of the line is determined by the weight, in grains, of the first 30 feet of line. There are charts to give the details, but suffice to say that the line weight should match the rod weight in order to effectively load that rod for the cast.

So, yes, you should strip line off the reel to the approximate distance you wish to cast the fly, then play the line out to that length with series of false casts [this is one of those places where a video is much better than a written explanation, so find one that shows someone learning to cast a fly line].

Regarding your flies, you should also take them to a fly shop or a fly fishing club and have someone go through them with you, naming them and describing (a) whether they fit your rod's weight; (b) what they are designed to imitate; and (c) given the above, how they should be fished, whether dead drift (no action), twitched, or stripped (by pulling the line in a bit at a time). Most bug imitations would be fished dead drift or stripped, while baitfish imitations would be stripped to simulate a baitfish darting thru the water.

That's about it for now. Go find yourself a willing mentor or visit some websites and YouTube videos to give yourself a feel for how to get started.

And enjoy!

Thanks mickfly. I got out and casted about 50 times just now in the yard. I didn't find it overly difficult except I don't pause long enough a lot of the time and it causes the fly to pop like a whip. Ended up stopping for now because it broke off. Looking up false casting now.

Also, notice that the rod is stopped high. It is not stopped when it is pointed at the water. If you rotate the rod to where is feels like it is pointed down, then the fly line will go down into the water similar to throwing a dart at the floor. You want the fly line to go out straight ahead of you, so stop the rod high. (This is important to remember on the back cast too. The backcast and the forward cast should be symmetrical.