Hiya
Told you, you were opening a can of worms!!!
Salt Water Fly Fishing. Up until fairly recently, maybe the last 5 years or so, fly fishing was mainly a fresh water sport. Then Salt Water Fly Fishing boomed!!! With such a large variety of fish that'll succumb to a fly, its amazing the sport didn't become popular sooner!!
I'm HOPELESS at Salt Water Fly Fishing. Tried it on a handfull of occasions, but some-how lost interest. What happened here: most anglers here start out in freshwater lakes or dams or rivers, then moving onto estuary and tidal rivers before finally moving off to sea fishing. As the angler grows in the sport, so does his need to challenge himself. Once you've mastered the art of catching a certain fish on certain tackle, you start trying different approaches. You start fishing lighter lines, just for the fun of it. Finally, you switch to Salt Water Fly Fishing. You need LOTS of experience to be a succesful fly fisherman. You need to be able to "read" the water, know which tides work best, for which area's. Your casting distance in very small. I've seen guys casting 40-50m+, which is AMAZING, with a fly-rod. Your normal distance would be anything from 10-30m depending on your casting prowess. Your days are also limited to good weather conditions. Pretty difficult casting a deceiver into a strong head wind. Then there's tackle!!
Rods are classified in a WEIGHT system. I use a 9wt rod for general salt water fly fishing. Its a bit heavy for estuary use, but we often get fish well over 20kg's, so i'd rather be over-powered!! The tuna guys use 12wt+ rods, whilst the freshwater trout anglers use 4-6wt's. The reels are also different from fresh water fly fishing reels. In freshwater, the reel only holds the line, much line a spearfishing reel. For salt water, the reels have drag systems and the handle/s don't spin backwards when a fish takes line!! (OUCH!!) Then there's lines. The BASIC lines are the floating, sinking and intermediate lines. There are some more, like shooting heads, lead core, etc........becomes quite technical, some-one with more experience than me is sure to chip in!!!
After all of this, when you actually hook and land your first fish on fly tackle, you'll KNOW what the fuss is all about!!
If you're really keen on trying it out, start off catching small easy to catch fish. Like mackerel. You'll get to learn how to use your equipment as well as build up confidence in your ability!!
Now the BIGGEST trick is to decide, WHEN are you going to buy that BIG 4x4 to cart all your gear around. Its now your kayak, spearing gear, spinning gear, rock and surf gear and now also fly fishing gear!!!
Regards
miles
