Garden State Trout

I am new to fly fishing and would like to take a casting lesson. Any recommendations, I'm in Morris county.

Book a half day guided trip through Shannon's Fly & Tackle Shop in Califon. The guides will spend 4 hours getting your casting and drifts down so that you can get out on your own and find success. Best $130 you will ever spend.

Many of our Trout Unlimited chapters hold intro to fly fishing classes, but most are over by now, I think. Check out the Hacklebarney TU chapter, as they might still have a class available and they are in Morris County (Whippany). They take their anglers to the Musky to fish.

Or, go out on your lawn and practice like everyone did in the old days !!

Jerzguy21 wrote: ↑

Tue May 01, 2018 9:37 am

Or, go out on your lawn and practice like everyone did in the old days !!

Which is exactly where I learned all of my bad habits!

Save yourself a lot of aggravation and have someone skilled show you. It could be a friend, a guide, or a TU group, but don't just flail around or you will likely learn lots of bad habits and never learn how to properly load a fly rod which is where the basis of all casting begins.

I am less than an hour from there, going to go to the shop and talk to them. An instructional lesson is KEY! Thanks all.

YOUTUBE...you can learn anything there, I fixed my dryer from a video, and learned a couple of songs on the guitar, and how to weave a basket, and tie knots, and many useful useless things...

just slow down a bit, wait to feel the rod load, and false cast as little as possible....

Thanks for the replies, I won't practice on the lawn yet for the exact reason RS said. Everything I have read and people I've talked to said to get a lesson

first. I have looked on YT and it seems like there are a lot of different techniques and or casting styles out there. Yeah its all accelerate to a stop,on

the backcast and accelerate to a stop on the frontcast, but the way they get there seems different to me. I watched a few Lefty Kreh videos and he seems

to have a style all his own, not saying its wrong, but it can be confusing. Like MikeB said, an instructional lesson is key. One more question guys, I have

an entry level rod/reel setup [ Cabela's three forks 5wt ] didn't want to spend a lot at first, I know some of the fly fishing tackle is wayyyy out of my budget,

I guess what I'm getting at is... do you I show up at a fly shop with this and they take me seriously. Tell me if I'm out of line for thinking this way.

I was waiting for Rusty to reply, but since he didn't, here is my take. The people that work in that shop are not the least bit pretentious. If they were, I would have only gone there once!! I have had a fly rod in my hand as long or longer than anyone in there and just don't deal with attitude. I own several nice bamboos, graphites, and a couple of years ago went back to my first love, 50 year old Fenwick glass. I've never gone there for lessons, but have always been treated with friendly, old world attitude and have been helped by people that seemed to treat everyone equally.

Get out on the water and practice.......dont be intimidated.....

dinomoso wrote: ↑

Tue May 01, 2018 6:24 pm

I guess what I'm getting at is... do you I show up at a fly shop with this and they take me seriously. Tell me if I'm out of line for thinking this way.

As long as you plan to take the lesson and learning to fly fish seriously they will not care what gear you show up with. We are started with some form of beginner gear. If you can learn to cast that well, the even better gear will be like cake! Shannon's is a great shop and will treat you well if you have a good attitude.

When I'm in Shannon's I see people new to fly fishing asking questions all the time and the staff is always very helpful. No snobbery. They are just glad to see your interest in the sport. You could not get more down to earth people than the crew there.

To: jerzguy21,Twins86,and barkeater, thanks for the input, I think I'll do it, also thinking of joining TU, Hacklebarney chapter;
their meetings are the nearest to me. Thanks for helping, Dean

Now is a great time for you to get into fish. swinging wet flies is easy on beginners, you just need to learn basic roll and flip casts, a little line management, some easy line mends, and you'll be into fish. The strikes are pretty obvious too so you won't be overwhelmed learning the sometimes Zen-like nymph tactics.

Where about in Morris County are you? I might run into you on the stream. Also FWIW I roll cast probably 90% of the time, unless fish are rising to eat on the surface I try not to lift my line into the air. Only bad things can happen in the tight streams around here.

The only snobby one at Shannon's is a guy named Brian Cowden,;) but he is hardly ever there..lmao...
I started with an Eagle Claw combo rod..it was a log....go on the river, in fact not this Monday, but next Monday I will be happy to meet you in the KLG at 10:30 AM, 11:00 and help..Don, if you frequent these forums, I will see you as well!!!:
PM me!