Hello, I'm new to the forum I was posting on the Hazard forum about fishing and was told about this one. looks like a good one. I've fished for about everything over the years and love smallmouth fishing.I've fished with live bait and all types of artificial . But several years ago I started flyfishing,and I have to say it is my favorite way to fish. the last couple of years I have concentrated mostly on the North Fork of the Kentucky River.I knew that there were fair size smallies in the river but I didn't realize the amount of big samllies that were in this river . they are not just consentrated in just one strech of the river Ive caught large smalies from Hazard to Blackey. Ive caught smallies on everything from night crawlers to rebel craws , but there is nothing in my opinion like watching a smallie take a fly of the top of the water and running, it's a thrill a minute . If you have fished the north you know what I mean,if you haven't I suggest you put some waders on or jump in a john boat or canoe and try your luck. Also if anyone else fly fishes let me know I'm eager to hear about other people that fly fish in the area.

Welcome aboard Fisher

Over the last year I have made several trips down past the North & Middle Fork of the Kentucky. Each time down I find myself looking (peeping) over the bridges as I drive by,.. always wondering how the fishing was on these two rivers.
People would never dream there was such beautiful rivers in East Ky until you have floated or waded fished one of our many rivers.

Fly fishing I have never done,..but I love catching fish on ultra light tackle.
If you could recommend to me what to buy, rod type & length, line weight and etc.
Hopefully Wally World may have what I need, so it can be easily purchased.

Jim Dandy The Hazard wally world doesn't stock any flyrods, but some of them do. You can find them sometimes in k-mart or Magic mart, (if you can't find them try the internet they have great sites). Some even come with a complete package rod,reel ,and line all in one. But if you can find it try to get a rod(preferrably graphite) between 8' to 9' in length, the shorter is easier to handle in tight areas but the longer rod gives you better control. On the rod shaft near where the reel mounts will be the line weight #5 or #6 line weight will do if you can find one #7 or#8 it will do better but both will do fine. For the line I use a weight foward floating line, matching any of the line weights marked on the rod. The reason that I use weight forward line is that the first 10 or 15 feet of the line is heavier than the rest and since you casting with the line this help your casting control and distance. I hope you get a flyrod and give it a try, it's a blast, if you ever decide to fish the north let me know we could meet and try our luck. also if you need any help gettign started I would be gald to do what I can to help. I'm a novice but i have been flyfishing for several year and would love to get other people involved in the sport.

Experience is always the best teacher and you are my teacher. Just printed what you wrote,...I will check and see what Wally World & others has tomorrow. I hope to be fishing on the North Folk soon

What type lures??

I use poppers a lot,I have as of this year taken up fly tying. I've spent most of the winter tying up flys. I be glad to let you try some of them. Ive only went once this year and it was way to windy to flyfish, so Im heading out in the morning . you will find that fly fishing flys are limited here. but you can find them at wal mart and kmart any popper or insect type will work. I have a web site that I belong to, I will get back on here and give to you the adress to in a few minutes. when you go to the first page scroll down and click on warm water species I have some of the popper that I have tied on that page. PLus you can get lots of info on fly fishing.I' ll post as soon as I get the adress i( I don't want to give you the wrong address) . I go by smfisher on that forum the site is flytyingforum.com

When over and checked out the site ,..found a couple lures you had tied.

Found this one that looked really nice,..have you tried it yet ?

No Ive not tried it yet but I probably will tommorrow. I've tyed over 100 flies, and Ive been waiting all winter, so I'm going to have a delemia trying to decide what to try first but I will let you know how it turns out. There is lots of info on sites like the one I sent you to that can help you learn more about the sport. I think you will enjoy flyfishing it is a wonderful sport. If you have troulble finding a rod and reel let me know I have several rods and would be more than gald to let you use one to go fishing. Ever since I started taking the sport somewhat seriously I feel that other people would enjoy the sport as much as me if they would give it a try. Also I trout fish and that is a blast and a good way to learn the sport, they stock the tailwaters of Carr Creek once a month and it's fun to go catch them on a flyrod.

Well looks like a decent fly rod will have to be ordered. I went to Magic Mart,..K-Mart,.and two Wal-Marts and only found one $19.00 Shakespeare Fly Rod Kit. This I didn't buy because I felt it wouldn't be what I wanted.

I have been reading on the net and most recommend that first try casting someone else's fly rod to find the right size that fits you best.

I read one article written by a long time fly fisherman who started his children out on a 8' #6.

Think I'll do some more reading,..but have already seen that a GOOD entry level fly rod & reel may run a couple hundred bucks.

Fisher did you get a chance to fish any today???

I went to check out the norht fork today, the water was fairly clear but the water was still up a little to much to wade . so we decided to go to Carrs fork and fish for trout, the water was a little murky but we caught 18 they seeem to be fish that had been in the river over the winter because some were in the 16' range and extremely fat(A good fight). Hopefully if we get no bad rains this week, next weekend will be better. as far as the cost of a fly rod and reel I don't have a hundred dollars in any of my flyrods. I've found that it's like any type fishing equipment, you can spend three hudred dollars on a bait caster from Bass proshop or get a midrange one for a hudred or less and catch just as many fish and be just as good a fisherman. some of these flyfish sites have people that are purist (for a lack of a better word),they tend to think that spending that type of money for a flyrod is a must. but I have found that my $39 scientific angler rod with my $29 eagle claw reel does just fine for catching 3 lb bass as well as the big of bluegill. Your flyline to me is just as important as the rod and reel and you will pay in the Range of $20 to $40 for it(but it is important). I would much rather keep that extra $200 in my pocket for gas to get to use my flyrod(just my opinion). I go to some of the sites and look in the clearence dept and find good deals sometimes. let me know when you decide to purchace one and I will tye you up a few poppers, so you won't have to go looking for them. If you like I can get on some of the sites that I go to and look or I can get you the adresses.

I got that price on Cabelas site,..they have rod & reel kit that I thought would be decent outfit. Haven't checked prices on the rod & reel type you have,..but if they are good for you,.. they would definitely work for me.
http://www.cabelas.com/cabelas/en/templ ... hasJS=true

Man you had a good trip to Carr Creek. We have another member who lives near CC. -->Archer !!. He must be out atving this weekend, i haven't seen him on here,..he likes to fish also.

I'll do a search for the rod & reel type you have and see if I can find them online somewhere.

thats a good looking outfit. looks like it has everything you need I like the chest pack ,I couldn't see the type line it had for bass fishing and bluegill it needs to be a floating line weight foward. I also found one on fishusa.com it's a cortland 8/9wt salmon,steelhead,bass fly fish kit for $99. The trip to carr fork was actually a slow one on some days you can catch up forty,now thats a blast. What rivers do you fish and what speices do you fish for.

Found this Rod & Reel kit @ Dicks,..doesn't say what type line that it has pre-spool.

http://www.dickssportinggoods.com/produ ... category#1

that looks like a good fly rod also. can I ask you a question . do you plan to fish for just bass and bluegill or are you going to do a lot of trout fishing?

Haven't fished for quite sometime..As with any hunting or fishing we seem to have a buddy that we always go with,..well mine buddy moved away and so went my fishing adventures.

The bass fishing we did was floating the Tug on the borders of Ky & Wv. using top water plugs during summertime. Use to do a lot of trout fishing at the spill ways of Painstville, Cave Run & Fishtrap.

The fly rod I'm thinking about getting,..would probably be use for bass on the rivers and hopefully run down fish with you one day so you can give me pointers on how to use the thing

I've been reading this article,.. man there's a lot to fly fishing,..even down to the type of knots on the line.
http://www.glaciertoyellowstone.com/basics/index.cfm

why I asked the question what species you were going to fish for is that a lot of the deerhair and foam poppers that you throw for bass fishing are less than aerodymanic so you need a line and rod that can push that lure toward the target. A lot of the combos on the market are designed to trout fish and they are not capable of getting these baits to the target. My bass fishing rod is designed to do this and works well it is a 10 weight but 7,8,9, are fine as long as the rod and line is designed to throw the big baits( and as you probably know the bigger the bait, most of the time the bigger the reward). Not trying to tell you what to do but fishusa.com has a Cortland 8/9wt salmon,steelhead and bass flyrod combo that is designed specificlly for this purpose $99.00, if you want take alook at it and read the description( but there are many others that will work). Yeah I know that there's info overload out there and most of it won't apply to what you and I will be doing.I think the site is warmwatersflyfishers.com and it is geared more towad bass and blluegill fishing. Sounds like you live in the pikeville area? we could always meet on some river that is convenient for both of us to practice and I would love to try out some new waters . I'm going to start tying you some of the poppers this week and if I figure out how to downlod them I'll send you a picture .looking foward to meeting you and going fishing.

i love fly fishing...its the one thing i was actually good at almost as soon as i took it up.

and youre right...smallies on a fly rod...it dont get much better than that! i fly fish areas around here....powell, clinch, clear fork, tackett creek....for trout and smallmouth usually.

i tell you what else is fun is bluegill. on a hot summer day i can take my flyrod to fern with a few stoneflies and a few bumblebee poppers and catch 5X more fish than people using redworms or crickets.

id like to fish the north fork and middle fork....always heard good things about them. any good shoals or spots to wade? ive got a float tube that i could use if not. where is a good spot to put in at up there fisher?

oh and welcome to KY Outdoors!

Yeah I know what you mean about the bluegill they a blast and for their size they put up one heck of a fight. Glad to hear that someone else flyfishes.Yes in the spring,summer and fall months when the water is at somewhat normal levels there are lots of places to wade, when I wade I fish a strech for an hour or so and then usually move to another. there are lots of swift water to fish for the smallies,as for the bluesgill in the river last year I caught only one for some reason they are not that plentiful in the areas that I fish. There are places to put a johnboat or a conoe in (I use a canoe because in the extreme summer months the water in some of the shallow places you have to drag our johnboat . as for a float tube I don't really know that you would have much luck with that the smallies seem to be mostly in the swifter water in the hot months and it's to shallow to float . but that is the very time that the smallmouth seem to be at their peak. I would be glad to show you places on the river that I fish anytime that I can (the more the merrier) just let me know when and where. then maybe you could show me to some places that you fish ,I love trying out new water.

i tell ya what, next time i visit my girlfriend in virgie ky (south of pikeville), we may set up a trip for when I am on my way back. i go up there on the weekends sometimes and when i do i usually leave sunday in the AM, so one sunday afternoon in the near future we will try to get a trip together. ill let you know when im up in that area. like you, i love finding new water. i can show you some spots down here....powell is an excellent fly fishing river if you dont mind buying a TN license....cumberland river in bell county has some great smallie spots as well. if youre down this way in the near future let me know!

outdoorsman ,sounds good to me, just let me know and I'll get things ready. sunday is a good day for me I usually take saturday or sunday depending on the weather and go one of those days just about every weekend through the summer. lookin forward to it. and you never know I get a wild hair every now and then and I may be in your neck of the woods, I'll let you know.

sounds like a plan! i would say that I am heading up there this weekend coming up but I think the GF is coming home instead.