I realise ive never fly fished in my life before, but ive fished several different technique for the last 25 years, and I can cast a rod.
Ive done allot of homework regards fly fishing on the Internet, and I think ive worn my youtube out with looking at casting etc.
So has everyone had lessons on fly fishing, prior to taking up the sport as ive looked into them after being advised to have them, then had second thoughts due to the price per hour, half day or full day lessons.

Bernie,

I think you will end up making that decision yourself. You will wander down to your local river or stillwater fishery with your new fly fishing gear and start casting or trying to cast. It will either go swimmingly or you will make a complete hash of it - you will know which and then you will make your own decision !

Either way, enjoy.

Nigel

Lessons certainly aren't a necessity, but I think you have to look a beyond "necessity" to understand what I'm really saying here.

I fly fished from the age of about 13 to 30-something without the benefits of formal lesson. Note the use of the word "benefits", that's intentional. I spent a lot of time not fishing as effectively as I could have because I didn't know things like how to single or double haul, etc.

While lessons didn't stop me from fly fishing, they did extend the learning curve greatly when it comes to casting. I think it's also important to keep in mind that lessons when it comes to fly fishing, seem to be largely focused on casting. Casting is important, but I think knowing how to fish is much more important.

So you have to decide for yourself really. I've often said that lessons should not get in the way of fishing. They're great if they are available to you, but I wouldn't' spend the day on the sofa just because an instructor wasn't available.

Grouse

Ive fly fished since I was 10- now 17 and after a couple of years I could cast a single hander well enough. Never had lessons and would say if you just need to overhead and roll cast then lessons ren't necessary as they are pretty easy to get right- espescially overhead- whats that hard about bringing it up to 1 oclock, pausing and firing it back out again to 2 oclock for a basic overhead single hand cast?
However if you want to learn spey casts (usually with the double hander) like snap t etc. then lessons are good. I have only been shown briefly how to spey cast and with a wee bit of practice I can chuck out an OK line with the double hander- even if it is mainly just single and double spey.

Grouse good post.

Bernie, in reality its a question of how you would like to spend your money.


Average C/R fishing cost around £25 a day, the average cost of instruction is around £25 per hour. You have to decide will you learn more in an hour with an instructor than you will in a day by yourself on the bank side. My experience say that you will learn more with an instructor, so in long run you will spend less money and time if you get some professional lessons. This will lead to more time effectively fishing rather than thrashing the lake/river to a foam.

My one piece of advice would be if you decide on lessons do it sooner rather than later, its much more difficult to over come a well ingrained casting fault than it is to put someone on the right track at the beginning of their fly fishing career.

As a slight aside I have met very few people who have had no lessons that can cast really well. you always get the odd person of course but when you speak to most people who claim to have had no lessons when you actually did a bit deeper then have actually had a lesson or two in an informal situation or had a few conversations with good caster where they have picked up hints and tips, personally I would consider these informal situations as lessons.

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Id love to wet my line, I can only make a hash of it, but I don't want to be waiting round for instructor lessons or even saving up for just a half days lesson if its not exactly necessary, when I can be out there learning myself and enjoying it, I know I can learn casting on some land I shoot on, so that's not a problem. The only places I'll be fishing is my local 8 acre still water quarry and maybe the odd trout farm and reservoirs for starters.

Never had a lesson myself. Trial and error plus reading and practice and I can cast to an extent now.

It's the old golf and fly comparison though.

Many people can hit a ball around a course without ever having a lesson. They aren't the best but can enjoy the sport. The best in the world will have had lessons though. Same with the fly.

I've been fly fishing for just about a year, all on still waters; I had never cast a fly before and decided with a mate to give it a try (bushyleaze) i had the initial hour or so lesson with the basic kit provided. The lesson was part safety part casting part fishing, to be honest for my first go at fly fishing i thought was good value for money. So, i then spent a few months improving my basic casting and could get reasonable a line out albeit not well presented. Then I worked on turning the fly over and that helped "calm down" my efforts. a couple of weeks ago, I booked an hour lesson with a local instructor to lechlade and was quite surprised that a few tweaks to my technique could achieve the same distance with greater control, for much less effort.

my advice for what it's worth is try some basic fishing / casting before you fish and then spend some time sorting the basics yourself; by basics I mean simply getting a line out 10-15 meters which is easily achievable with a little practice and it's more than enough to catch fish. roll casting is a very good cast to try and it'll stand you in good stead in a lot of situations

When I started out I had a number of casting lessons with an AAPGAI instructor (Henry Lowe), and years later I still recognise it as the best money I have spent in the sport. I have also had fishing & casting instruction from Stephen Cheetham (SteveC) and Roger Beck, absolutely invaluable. I have been very lucky with the instructors I have met, who have been very personable as well as knowledgeable, and will continue to 'top up' whenever I am able.

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[I]"The fish and I were both stunned and disbelieving to find ourselves connected by a line." William Humphrey in "The Armchair Angler"[/I]

By that comment bernie, i assume you mean spinning rod or simillar.
Fly fishing is a bit different as you probably already know.
If you cant put the fly where the fish are, then you are wasting your time!
£25 invested in an hours casting practice, with trout/salmon rod, will repay you tenfold in catch returns! Never mind the pleasure of putting the line out correctly!
regards
bert