I am a newcomer to the fly fishing and fly tying arenas, and would like to learn.

What should I do to get started?

What gear and or instruction and skills do you, or have you already had?

where are you located?

...that's an easy one...nothing whatsoever. I am unmolded clay waiting for the eager hands of the TFFers to make me into a masterpiece.

...and may God have mercy on your soul.

My advice, as someone who still hasn't had one single second of instruction, is to find a casting instructor before you even pick up a fly rod. Do not pass go, do not collect the hundreds of dollars you're about to spend on gear until you have completed at least a couple of lessons. The different styles of fishing and casting that a good instructor can introduce you to as well as the selection of gear that most of them invariably possess will allow you to make much better decisions about exactly how you should proceed.

What gear do you have? What kind of fishing do you want to do? Bass, sunfish...salt water...what? I don't know if anyone is a masterpiece here, I certainly am NOT. I have been fly fishing and tying now for a little over a year.

Get some casting lessons if you can. Bad habits can develope without you knowing it and having someone coaching you can save you a lot of time and heartache breaking those habits later.

Watch "A River Runs Through it"

If you are in DFW I would be happy to meet up and give you a first lesson. I have a spare rod and could give you some basics. I have been fly fishing since I was 12, but I am still not an expert by any means at all. Be warned though, once you start fly fishing you will become a snob and you will thumb your nose at any other fishing method. Also, you will have an uncontrollable urge to spend a lot of money. And that is before you decide to start tying your own flies.

I got an instructor, ya can meet him tonight at basspro

lol

Thank you.

I am completely open to whatever is out there at this point. I want to learn more about it (what's involved, costs, fly-tying, etc.)

I hate to say it, but if you are committed do it right. You will be much happier in the long run. Go with a sage or g.loomis rod. It is a pricey way to get in, but crappy rods are crappy rods. If you buy a Cabelas Three Forks, you probably won't become a fly fisher. I am a big advocate of cheaping out when it comes to reels. If you are only doing freshwater fishing it is merely a line holder. I worked at Cabelas and got in trouble because I would tell people they really didn't need a $200 reel if they were bass fishing. Saltwater might be a different story...
Fly tying is great. You will spend a lot of money though. Get a good mid range vice. Start off with simple patterns and buy materials as needed. In Texas a woolly bugger will get so much done and needs a minimal amount of material and money to tie.

I'd say the bottom end budget for one outfit (rod, reel, and line) should be in the $100 range. From there the sky is the limit.

As for the sport of fly fishing as a whole, I have never caught fewer fish or smaller fish, nor worked harder at it than I have since I started fly fishing. That doesn't bother me because I'm not the sort of person to yank a nice bass out of the water, thrust it skyward and intone "BOOYAH". I enjoy the pace and rhythm of the fly cast and the rush of catching a bass the hard way. If you're more of a trout kind of guy, it is probably the more efficient way to catch them, but for warm water you'd better enjoy something than just bragging rights about who won the tourney that weekend.

Abandon all hope ye who enter fly tying looking to save money. The flies you can find online are usually of decent quality and are well worth the $0.50 to $4.00 you'll pay for them. I got sucked into fly tying to get flies that aren't generally available and because I could at least imagine fishing while I was stuck in a hotel somewhere. I spent about $120 to get my tying equipment and enough materials to tie a couple of patterns.

Welcome to the forum, there are some great minds here that are more than happy to help you spend the kid's college fund in pursuit of fish that could be caught much more easily on a cane' pole and bobber (know known to you as a strike indicator).