Fly Fishing Versus Regular Fishing, What Is The Difference?

By Harry Baldwin

I love to fish and always have, and based on the popularity of the sport many others do as well. The last few years I have been fly fishing a lot, and although it is not difficult, have found that there are a great many misunderstandings and mystery involved. Any kind of fishing can be complicated or easy depending on how you approach it. Here are the main differences between fly fishing and regular fishing.

With regular fishing, when you cast, the weight of what you are casting out pulls the line off the rod and reel. This may be a bobber, hook and worm, an artificial lure, or anything else. With fly fishing, the weight of the line is what is cast. The back and forth fly casting motions are to get the thicker fly line moving and out into the water, and the fly on the end as well. The fly needs to be relatively light and small as the line is dragging it through the air.

With regular fishing, you may be using bait, like a worm, clam, or insect, or you may be using an artificial lure which is intended to resemble something fish eat like a minnow or worm. With fly fishing, you never use bait. So called flies are actually artificial lures usually made of feathers, fur, and sometimes artificial materials like various plastics and other synthetics.

Want to pull your line in when regular fishing, perhaps to check the bait or because you are casting and retrieving an artificial lure trying to make it appear lifelike and alive? You simply turn the reel handle and the line is spooled back onto the reel. A fly reel is not used this way. Instead, to retrieve the fly, you pull the line in by hand. It doesnt wrap back onto the fly reel spool, but usually falls on the ground or water in front of you. Some fly fishers use a casting basket which simply is a basket strapped to their waist where the line falls when it is retrieved, or stripped in fly fishing language. This basket can help keep the line from tangling or getting caught on objects on the ground or in the water.

There are many types of fishing, and the popular stereotype of falling asleep under a tree while dunking a worm can be fun, although many fishermen are very active, continuous casting and retrieving. With fly fishing, there really is no option: you must be continuously active. You have to keep working that fly, which can include varying the retrieve so it looks lifelike, or possibly continuously casting upstream and letting the fly dead drift down current like a fly or fly larva that is being swept down stream.

Fly fishing is not for everyone, but everyone who loves to fish should give it a try. It does not have to be expensive, difficult, or complicated, although it may involve a bit more difficulty and complexity than your current form of fishing. Who knows, you just may find you love it like I do!

About the Author: For much more on fly fishing, please visit

Fly Reel Review

and also

Billy Pate Reels

and

Saltwater Fly Reels

. Fly fishing is not difficult, and if you have any interest in fishing hopefully you will give it a try sometime.

Source:

isnare.com

Permanent Link:

isnare.com/?aid=718739&ca=Recreation