Newcomer to fly fishing.

[mosquito]

Jacob

Do you have any poppers, IF someone made me pick only one fly to cast it would be poppers. 30+ years ago they were the fly I was taught to cast with for Bass and I may have caught more on other flies probably but poppers have to be about the most fun and can be very effective even in water deeper than you would think they would work.

Epoxy minnows gave me the wildest fly fishing on Ladyfish that are kind of like the Fallfish, I had been down the beach early in the morning and as usual seen bonefish but caught nothing. As I came back there had been a rain earlier and there was a small stream runnnig out of a brackish pond and the Ladyfish were going nuts. I lost track of how many I caught during the chaos and even got a small Pompano and Barracuda... until Barracuda cut the leader twice and it was time to get back to the hotel for breakfast. They weren't big but with their speed and triple flip jumps it was fun! Being flexible is often the best way to have fun with a fly rod so if someone gets snobby on you listen to their advice before and after the "a real fly fisherman wouldn't" and you will have lots of fun.

Now as for poppers I have three sizes and probably 10 colours in my one box and use them many different ways, a few weeks back there were some bass on the mayfly rise. Most were small and when it got too dark to see the fly I put on my smallest popper that is a bit larger than a large mayfly fly and before the mosquitoes drove me in I caught 3 more small ones in a few minutes. They weren't keepers but are a good example of being flexible. On poppers I have caught sunfish, pike, lots of bass etc and the visual part where that fish hits the popper is great... even though seeing them come up and stare at it and swim away is frustrating.

If you use poppers for pike try to keep the rod tip high so the wire leader doesn't hang down and hang on! Pike will hit sometimes hit like they are trying to imitate the great whites on a seal on shark week. That will get the heart pumping! :-)

Poppers, epoxy minnows and leech patterns are the must haves in my box, there are a wide variety of others like muddlers, deceivers, clousers, crawdads, mayflies etc etc. but a few if those in different sizes are what I would say are must haves on the water.

I would suggest that Orvis has some good videos if you want to get some tips.

[Jacob McD]

Thank you everyone for all your help it has done wonders to my fishing experiences this summer. I have a new question to ask everyone I was recently gifted a Fenwick HMX 9Wt rod and I am looking to purchase a reel for this rod, I am wanting to use this for bigger game more focused towards Steelhead fishing I am looking for a good reel without having to drop 500$ on it. So if anyone knows of a suitable reel in the 150$ range please let me know.