My Fly Fishing StoreWe provide the gear you enjoy it!

Best route to get into fly fishing???

I am interested in getting into fly fishing because I have a vacation home close to the white river and I was wondering what do I need to do? What is a good entry level rod and reel combo? I have seen one by White River Fly Shop at bass pro for under a $100…. Also how could I learn? Books, DVDs, or Lessons??

Well let me say its great you want to start fly fishing, there are lots of OK fly rods and reels combos for the price you listed, its a great method of catching trout and your lucky to have the white river to fish, lets see how i can help you, firstly combos that i recommend, this is a little over budget but well worth it, it should see you good and happy fishing for a long time.

http://www.basspro.com/webapp/wcs/stores/servlet/Product_10151_-1_10001_96767_175001003_175000000_175001000_175-1-3

If you find out the area of the river your fishing you can figure the line weight, for small wild browns and small dries a 3wt or 4wt would be ideal. If your hitting the bigger rainbow trout then anything up to a 6-7 wt would be ideal, if you decide to look for a rod your self you need a medium to fast action, not a tip action as you’re just starting out. The rods mentioned by your self aren’t ad rods but if i were you and you can afford to go with the TFO rod. If you really don’t mind spending allot and want the best combo for a beginner then the sage launch is the way to go, i gave my son one of these to start with and it has a good tip action that will cope with an in-experienced caster.

http://www.basspro.com/webapp/wcs/stores/servlet/Product_10151_-1_10001_90951_175001003_175000000_175001000_175-1-3

Its easy to start fly fishing, buy your self a combo you cana fford and it will take off from there, this site is VERY helpful, read through the WHOLE of it and you will be started in no-time

http://www.sexyloops.com/beginners/index.shtml

You may also want to look at flies to use, you can get lots of info here, and if you want join the blog where you can ask angler in your local community how the fishing is going and what to catch them on at the white river.

http://www.virtualflybox.com/

You will need a fly line, a floating line will cover you for 99% of the time and you may want to move onto intermediates, sink tips, slime lines, DT, fast sinking etc later on. When you buy a fly line make sure its WF=weight forward, it will be easy for you to cast. One last thing i will say even if you only spend a little amount on a fly rod, buy a quality fly line, they may be expensive but you can tell the difference, after all its the fly line that takes out your fly and leader. Quality lines are RIO, Airflo, Sage, Orvis.

This was taken from a question i answered on the fly and tippet and leader, its important and you can learn allot from this, reading is the key to learning about fly fishing!
You might also like to look at this, taken from another fly fishing question very similar to yours.

From the end of the fly line down to the fly, follow these steps and you should catch. For tippet material you have a large choice because first there are leaders then there are tippets for general fishing tippet i use fluorocarbon as its invisible in all water and suitable for saltwater too, for makes i always go for airflo sight free g3 which i generally buy from cabelas, second are leaders these are tapered towards the tip and help yo achieve a better turnover (cast and presentation) these i don’t often use but when i do i use Cortland fine trout leaders in clear, these are good for a beginner such as your self as the dont often need changeing and help you cast further than before with a neat presentation what i will say is dont use flourocarbon for dry flies as it will make them sink, you can use it so long as you put a floatant on your dry such as gherkes gink or loon, aquel i buy lots of my gear from cabelas and bass pro
firstly airflo tippet

http://www.cabelas.com/cabelas/en/templates/product/standard-item.jsp?id=0043719317701a&navCount=1&podId=0043719&parentId=cat600599&masterpathid=&navAction=jump&cmCat=MainCatcat20431-cat20439-cat600599&catalogCode=IJ&rid=&parentType=index&indexId=cat600599&hasJS=true

Leaders and cabelas own brand is fine for this(helps your cast and presentation

http://www.cabelas.com/cabelas/en/templates/pod/horizontal-pod.jsp?_DARGS=/cabelas/en/common/catalog/pod-link.jsp_A&_DAV=MainCatcat20431-cat20439-cat602042_TGP&rid=&indexId=cat602042&navAction=push&masterpathid=&navCount=4&parentType=index&parentId=cat602042&id=0011215

gink floatant (better than loon)

http://www.cabelas.com/cabelas/en/templates/product/standard-item.jsp?_DARGS=/cabelas/en/common/catalog/item-link.jsp_A&_DAV=&id=0011254310859a&navCount=7&podId=0011254&parentId=cat600029&masterpathid=&navAction=push&catalogCode=IJ&rid=&parentType=index&indexId=cat600029&hasJS=true

Dry flies that should work in your area

http://www.cabelas.com/cabelas/en/templates/pod/horizontal-pod.jsp?id=0030430&navCount=10&parentId=cat20528&masterpathid=&navAction=push&cmCat=&parentType=index&indexId=cat20528&rid=

* when you use a tippet for freshwater i generally go for about 5lb but as a beginner you can use up to 10lb with airflo g3 and still catch.

I would try mainly nypmhs however if you arent confident in dry fly fishing or if the trout arent rising, some great flies to try for a beginner like yourself would be
The Pheasant atil nymph, anything from size 12-14
hares ear nymph same sizes, also a gold bead head version can work equally well, when fished closer to the bottom.

http://www.cabelas.com/cabelas/en/templates/pod/horizontal-pod.jsp?id=0018101&navCount=15&parentId=cat20530&masterpathid=&navAction=push&cmCat=&parentType=index&indexId=cat20530&rid=

These can also work well fished very close to the bottom on a floating line, try a co-polymer leader

http://www.cabelas.com/cabelas/en/templates/pod/standard-pod-wrapped.jsp?id=0030347&navCount=19&parentId=cat20530&masterpathid=&navAction=push&cmCat=MainCatcat20431-cat20441-cat20530&parentType=index&indexId=cat20530&rid=

The san Juan worm is one to try, fish it singly with a almost static retrieve, twitching it every minute or so.

if all else fails you may want to try a woolly bugger like this
(it has built in flash to add a little more appeal)

http://www.cabelas.com/cabelas/en/templates/pod/standard-pod.jsp?_DARGS=/cabelas/en/common/catalog/pod-link.jsp_A&_DAV=MainCatcat20431-cat20441-cat380001&rid=&indexId=cat380001&navAction=push&masterpathid=&navCount=23&parentType=index&parentId=cat380001&id=0023260

Hope this is of help.

Fly Fishing Lesson at Bass Pro