Today I had my first go at casting a fly into water. I've practised in the field at the back of my house for "grass trout" until I felt confident enough with my Fladen 3 piece 7' AFTM3 rod and Greys GLA 80 reel with hardy #3DT line.
The river is the Upper Don at Thurgoland, between Barnsley and Sheffield, South Yorkshire, maybe 100 yards from where the grass trout are so difficult to catch.

Stood on large "stone beach" with a right to left current on a big bend, river two or three feet deep, fifteen feet across.

I had carefully superglued the braided loop to the fly line exactly to the Hardy instructions, slipped on the plastic tube and put it in boiling water to make it shrink.

Hat on, glasses to prevent me losing an eye, first cast....maybe ten feet, the fly landing in the middle of a coil of fly line, 6' Worcester floating polyleader attached to fly line in a loop to loop knot, Allbright knot attaches thin end of leader to the "tippet" which was Ultima Xtreme maximum strength precision diameter 3.0lb hi-tec etc at 12 ".....small midge fly....
Tried again, cast 11am - 2pm position, steady, felt the line, got it going, let it go....ten feet, fly lands in the middle of a mess of line, how the hell is this supposed to land delicately in front of a fish like a gently settling midge?
Luckily, I had expected a nightmare and was mentally prepared.

Reeled in, third cast was missing the leader. Found it behind me on the stone. The Hardy braided loop was no longer a loop, it had simply come apart. Tied a simple knot from braided remnant to leader. Continued. 11' cast, fantastic floating sedge fly looked the business, very natural. A passing bird squirted white stuff into the water all over the fly. A lucky sign! I reeled in and saw the fly continue with the current. It had parted company with the tippet. So much for the unimproved blood knot suggested in the Ultima leaflet.
Continued with 11' casts in 6" water with improved blood knot on some exotic fly.

Tried upstream. Caught a tree. Tried further upstream. Lost another fly. Finally a dry fly floats mid stream, out of coils, looking good. No bites. Caught another tree.

Realise I'm down to the final 2" of the thinnest end of the leader, having lost five flies, not a single bite or any encouragement from fish. Decide to go home and have a cup of tea.

No fish, very frustrating, haven't a clue what I am doing right or wrong...BUT the woodpeckers sounded great, the wild trout again showed they aren't stupid, the river sounded beautiful and I still have both eyes.
I don't know how anyone else's first day on a small stream went, but mine was special, if only because I didn't hurl my newly bought equipment into the river screaming and crying, but came away humbled and realistic.

If you have read this so far, and are further along the path than I am, please tell me. How do you get the fly to land in the water without being surrounded by coils of fly line, leader and tippet, within easy spitting distance?

Courty

crikey well detailed account there!!! i remember going through all that too, but honestly you will learn from it. It will go right honest!

dont rush your cast, make sure your back cast has unrolled bfore comencing the forward cast.

try watching your back cast. helps me settle in if ive been off the game for a while.

Dont try anything too courageous, simple short casts are best, especially on rivers.

Try something a long the lines of a north country spider, or some form of nymph, but stick to single flies for the time being.

when i first started, i used a poly leader, with 3 feet of tippet. looks good, but not really a good idea. poly leaders are not very stealthy, they are meant to be a transistion from the fly line to the cast or leader, rather than the leader itself. if i may, i suggest you buy a few tapered leaders, these will be more suitable. around 4 or 5x should do the trick.

for such a small rod and small rivers, you will gain better control and indication from a 9foot or less leader, rather than the 11' and more you suggest. this will turn over much better.

hope this helps

1): Firstly the braided loop on the fly line if put on correctly is extremely unlikely to come apart particularly if superglued on . The fly line has to be pushed up inside the loop as far as you can get it and the small rubber tube is slid back down the braided loop until it covers the join between the end of the loop and the fly line (where it covers the fly line ). Are you sure you did this properly .Are you sure it WAS a shrink tube as none of the ones I've got have shrink tubing .
2) Perhaps you should consider some casting lessons to help .
3) See 1) above
4) You might consider fitting a small tippet ring to te end of your leader and then tying the tippet to that .That saves you needing to cut any part of the thin end of the leader ..you just renew the tippet .
Finally don't get depressed ..everyone has to learn. Good luck .
Do you know wanyone near where you are that fishes and they might help you out by showing you where you are going wrong .

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Previously known as molley
and
Don't call me "mate" .

Some good advice already, and I agree that 11` leader is too long for a 7` rod first time out. Get some 7 foot tapererd leaders (Orvis super strong) and either add a ring as suggested or add extra tippet with a water knot as req.

Keep at it, at least you are thinking about what you are doing and trying to achieve.

Good luck and have a great season.

__________________
My spelling is wobbley.
Its good spelling but it wobbles
and letters get in the wrong places.

www.monnow.org

Courty - some help could be available to you...

First of all - I am duty bound to check which bit of the river at Thurgoland? (i.e. whether its the UDFF water!)

Secondly, the UDFF are running what will be their third "beginner's tuition day" hopefully in May this year. Last May - every one of the 10 participants caught fish.

PM me for details and we'll see about getting you amongst some fish.

P.S. the club will be doing several working parties on the river (the next one is on Sunday) including a rescheduled one at Thurgoland. These are a great way to get to know the river, pick up tips and get on the membership list. Details also available via PM.

Paul

And also - the trout are out of season at the moment - but not for much longer.

I think thats the last thing he needs worry about ..

13 ( maybe 14) days to go.+ 1 month on Tweed

__________________
Previously known as molley
and
Don't call me "mate" .

ha ha ha yes,

...a very good argument for getting on the beginners day......

I'm only slightly further along the path to enlightenment than yourself, with only 3 sessions under my belt (two of which were in terrible weather), but I'll pass on some of the tips I've found here and elsewhere that have helped me the most.

First, try to cut down on the false casting as much as possible. I started doing at least 4 or 5 false casts to each one real cast, I felt I needed that many to get line out, shooting a little bit at a time. What happened nearly every time is that I would cast an absolutely beautiful loop on one of the false casts, then think "right,next one is my real cast" and then mess it up totally. If I had just let the previous one go I would have had a perfectly presented fly. I now try to do just one false cast, maybe two, and I get much better presentation (well, compared to what I got before )

Second, cast as gently as possible. I read somewhere about an instructor telling his students to cast more gently, then more gently again, then more gently again, and to keep going. So I tried this for myself and it's true. I think this is because the more gently you try to cast, the easier it is to get the timing of everything right. Now the gentler I cast, the further I cast.

Third, try a backward drift. Someone mentioned above making sure you allow time for your back cast to straighten out, I've found a backward drift is a great way to ensure you do this. The technique is described at http://www.sexyloops.com/flycasting/tdrift.shtml

(in fact that whole site is very helpful)

Sounds familiar

Personally i would recommend a first season on still water to gain confidence in casting and line control.

Or get some lessons on the river

But remember " That which doean't kill you makes you stronger"

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" If you stand by the river long enough the bodies of all your enemies will float by"