By Bob Popovics

RODS
Graphite, 9-11wts., 9ft.length. Best quality affordable

REELS
Salt water resistant, 200yrds. backing capacity or more. Less critical than the rod. retrieve hand is personal preference.

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LINES
Full length lines at first to better learn a good casting discipline. Floating-Intermediate and Sinking lines are ALL necessary to fish most conditions. Shooting Heads are very versatile and cast well. Buy the line that corresponds with the rod suggestion as 10 wt. line for a 10 wt. rod, etc.

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LEADERS
Keep it simple ... For most instances a straight piece of 20 lb mono will do just fine. 9 ft. for the floating lines and as short as 4 ft. to 6ft. for the sinking styles. If a constructed leader is desired, a simple 4-3-2 configuration is easy to remember and make. Soft 40 lb. to fly line, then 3ft. of 25lb. followed by 2ft. of desired tippet, 16 or 20 lb. Sinking lines are all one piece and generally short- less than 6ft.

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KNOTS
Loop knots are very useful. The perfection or double surgeons loops are the standards. But the mono-loop knot is much stronger and becoming more desired by most serious FF. The blood knot for joining two lines together is often necessary. A good knot to tie the fly on is either the mono loop or improved clinch. But there are many more which you may find desireable to you later. Wire tippets are important and generally are made using the Haywire Twist. The nail knot has a few ways to construct them, it is very necessary to learn at least one way! The Bimini Twist is invaluable for serious FF and very useful for the beginner as well. There are many more knots to learn but these should suffice for now.

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FLIES
Deceivers, all white, red and white, yellow, red and yellow, all black. Sizes: 1/0's to 4/0's. Clousers- Chartruese and white, olive and white, yellow and white. Sizes: 2's to 2/0's. Bangers- silver/red/white, 2/0 to 4/0's. This selection covers a good portion of this areas baitfish and are proven producers year after year. There are many, many more flies that are important, but if you make a variety of those mentioned in different colors and sizes, you should be all set. Check out the fly patterns on this website as well.

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