Is there a place to buy a starter kit? Or what would you guys recommend as essential gear & flys?
Would you have a seperate fly box for trout & bass?

This has probably been discussed. If you have a link that would be great. I appreciate the help.

I would head down to your local fly shop (in your case Tailwaters would be a great place to check out). Ask them what they recommend, I would pick out a few woolly buggers which will work well for both bass and trout, a couple of poppers which are great bass flies, and a few nymphs and dry flies to go after trout (pat's rubber legs, san juan worm, egg, and copper john are my four go to trout flies).

A lot of fly shops have plastic containers they will give you for free to hold your flies. Or you can invest in a fly box that keeps them separated. I have several fly boxes, one for bass, one for trout, one for carp, one for saltwater, but that has more to do with my OCD than with really being essential.

A five weight rod, reel, line, and some tippet is all that is really essential. It doesn't have to be expensive to get you out there fishing and catching a few. Echo is a great company makes a great starter kit which has everything you need. Everything you buy after that is about convenience and comfort.

Cabela's offers the Prestige Flyfishing Collection Outfit that includes rod, reel, line backing, line, leader, a selection of trout flies, and the usual accessories such as retractor, nippers, etc. The total outfit is currently priced at about $120.00. Cabela's also offers several varieties of fly assortments for trout, bass, panfish, etc. If you are looking for a simple turn key way to get started this is a pretty good deal.

Larry

I second the woolly buggers, good all purpose pattern. Bass, catfish, sunfish, trout, and others will take a bugger. Size 6 through 10 are the work horse sizes for me.

There�s nothing wrong with bass assortments, but it seems like the ones I�ve gotten as gifts always have a lot of flies that I just don�t like very much. Beware of large deer hair bugs and rods like 5 weights. Not a lot of fun for most mortals to cast.

Get some extra leaders or learn to roll your own. Leaders and tippet get messed up in many ways.

I�ve never bought an Echo rod, but Tim Rajeff makes a lot of sense on the stuff I�ve seen and Echo is his vision.

http://www.ginkandgasoline.com/fly-fishing-gear/graphite-vs-fiberglass-with-tim-rajeff-video/

Tim Rajeff on fiberglass and graphite rods.

We need a little more information to give good advice -- what are you planning to target and your budget being the most important things.

There�s about a million paths into fly fishing and ask a hundred fly fishermen and women
and you might get 200 different answers. Working it all out on your terms is a good part of the fun.

I�m reading �The History of Fly Fishing in Fifty Flies� and it�s very clear to me that everyone in the past and today borrows ideas from others and then adapts or tries to improve upon whatever they learn.

Thanks for the info guys. Good stuff here. I�ve got a cheap rod setup and a few flies. I�m mostly wanting to get a fly box and some reliable flys, but had no idea what to get. I�m gonna go next week and try to catch a few stocked trout, but mostly bass fishing. I still need to get a pack, hemostats, net, all that kind of stuff.

I definitely have a separate fly box for bass and for trout, but starting out that's not necessary at all. A lot of flies, especially streamers, can be used for bass or trout. Wooly buggers are a great place to start, I have caught a ton of bass and a ton of trout on wooly buggers in olive, black, or white, both weighted and unweighted. The flies suggested above are all great as well.

When I started out I didn't have a pack, and I didn't really need one. I kept the plastic box I bought my flies in and put it in my shirt pocket with a spool of tippet and some extra leaders. I clipped my locking hemostats to my shirt, and mine are the scissor clamps so I didn't even need nippers. I didn't have a net starting out either.

Obviously things like a net and pack and separate fly boxes make things better later on, but I think keeping it super simple starting out helps you focus on the more important stuff like casting, line control, getting your fly where you want it, reading the water, etc. So go grab 5-10 flies that have been suggested here and hit the water.

Pretty early on, I decided I'd rather tie my own flies, but that is not a cheap way to go these days...flies are cheaper these days, especially online. What I didn't do early on is tie my own leaders, and being cheap myself (not saying you are), I would recommend doing this so you can spend your bucks in better ways. I'd get Altoid tins, put a little styrofoam in them, and use them as fly boxes. My point is there are lots of cheap, common things that will serve you perfectly fine (nail clippers as nippers) but some items (a decent FF vest) are worth the money. A 5 Weight is fine for trout, bream, and crappie, but those larger bass flies usually require an 8 Weight, so I'd recommend that as a purchase target before too long. I also live in Rockwall, so if you want, and we can figure out how to connect, we can tie up several leaders together (you don't need to for big bass flies...straight mono), I'd be happy to hook up for an hour.

This is a great comment - I am a newbie and all I can tell you is that if you are out to target trout it matters in a huge way what fishery you are going to attack.

The fly recommendations I got between bodies of water have made a huge difference in my success....for example the flies on the San Juan had to be size 22 or smaller - on the pine 16 was fine.

Bass will not be as picky I would not think.

So, I think you can catch almost everything with wooly buggers and/or Clouser minnows.

Buggers in Olive, Black, and white from say 12 to 4 will catch trout, bluegill, and bass. Bead chain and dumbbell eye Clousers in white/chartreuse and some darker scheme from 4 to 2/0 will get the job done for pretty much everything except trout. Both of those are relatively easy to tie or cheap to buy.

I'd add some foam or deer hair poppers for bass and bluegill.

If you plan to do a lot of trout fishing, that's a whole different ballgame which depends a lot on season and locale. Buggers will work at least OK in most places, though.

Cory what wt. starter rod did you get and what brand? You mentioned fishing mostly bass and gills(warm water). Depending on where your fishing for bass makes a huge difference in my setup. When seeking trophy Florida bass the game changes.popular spots they are highly pressured as well as highly educated. When in that situation I go 7.5� tapered (mono) 12# I cut ten inches off and add 2.5� of seaguar invisible floro(yellow box never the red)10#. I attach it with triple surgeons loop. The mono gives a little so you get just a little stretch floro sinks to help get down faster. That invisix is hands down the toughest most invisible line Ive ever fished. 20 buck for 200 yards beats the 25yd tip pit spools. If your fishing a stock tank that hasn�t been fished in a year mono would be fine as they will hit anything. I personally run floro 100 percent of the time. If you mentioned bass and trout where you got the rod I bet they steered you to a five wt. 9�. Versital rod gills won�t be near as fun but doable. As mentioned buggers and clousers for sure must haves. I would add olive damsel nymph look a bit like a bugger but way smaller gills and trout will kill them stripped slow. I would also get a few small poppers and a crawfish imitation(work really well on river bass). It�s a lot and your just stepping in. Let us know when you need to join our support group lol. You will know when you get there you�ll have a bag for your rods that looks like a giant suitcase with spare reels with different lines 30 fly boxes with regional patterns for certain trips or is this just me haha.

PM me your address and I'll send you a few flies.

Great offer turf dawg hope he takes you up in it

Lots of good info here. Thanks guys.
@RobertHunter - it�s a 5 wt� rod. I bought it at the hardware store in Kerrville.
@Turfdawg - thank you. PM sent.

I�m going to try to go to Tishomingo in the back half of February. .