A list of tips that will prepare you for your upcoming fly fishing trip and help you catch more fish in the process:
They sell them at nearly every sporting goods store that has fishing gear, not to mention every fly shop in town. You also can pick up licenses online in some instances. Check our State Fish and Game Agencies page for more license information for your particular state. Licenses typically go on sale in December. Some states even offer a lifelong fishing license, although it's going to cost you.
Another way to keep track of where you fish is with a handheld GPS unit. Garmin is my personal favorite, in terms of price, quality and usefulness. My favorite is the Garmin eTrex Legend, which allows you to mark all of your favorite fishing spots for later reference and plot future fishing trips at the same time.
An additional way to track your catches and capture that trophy catch forever is with a new digital camera. The key to purchasing a camera for a fly fisher is to get one that is tiny, easy to use, turns on quickly and takes good photos outdoors with the possibility of adding a mandatory flash to light up that smile underneath the lucky fishing camp. My recommendation is any of the Cannon PowerShots. I use a SD 600 Digital Elph, which can fit in my wader pocket but takes high-resolution photos in a split second so that Mr. Rainbow can be released in a hurry.
When you’re not monitoring your favorite fishing hole or logging your recent trips, study up on fly fishing. There are hundreds of quality fly-tying and fly fishing books on the market. Take your pick. You can never have enough books on tying or techniques. Regional fishing guides are always useful as well. No Nonsense Guides is one of the top regional guide publishers out there (editor's note: Milne wrote the Fishing Central California guide for No Nonsense Fly Fishing Guides). If guidebooks and resource guides sound too academic, there are plenty of entertaining books out there on the favorite pastime. Try A River Runs through It and Other Stories by Norman Maclean or John Gierach's Death, Taxes and Leaky Waders.
1. Get a license
They sell them at nearly every sporting goods store that has fishing gear, not to mention every fly shop in town. You also can pick up licenses online in some instances. Check our State Fish and Game Agencies page for more license information for your particular state. Licenses typically go on sale in December. Some states even offer a lifelong fishing license, although it's going to cost you.
2. Get a year pass to your favorite fishery
Now that you've got your license, don't forget to pick up a year pass (one for the vehicle and one for the boat) to your favorite pay-to-play fishery. Where I live, for example, there's an entrance fee to fish my favorite lake. Some agencies even offer yearly passes for multiple lakes in a region for a few more bucks. Save money now by getting the pass early in the season.3. Keep track of your fishing trips
Keep a fly fishing journal, either a hard/print or digital copy, and keep track of all the details from each of your fishing trips. Details include date, time, weather, fishery, area of the fishery fished, water conditions, temperature, level, turbidity, along with the details of the fish caught and what pattern was used.4. Plot your destinations
Another way to keep track of where you fish is with a handheld GPS unit. Garmin is my personal favorite, in terms of price, quality and usefulness. My favorite is the Garmin eTrex Legend, which allows you to mark all of your favorite fishing spots for later reference and plot future fishing trips at the same time.
5. Get that trophy shot
An additional way to track your catches and capture that trophy catch forever is with a new digital camera. The key to purchasing a camera for a fly fisher is to get one that is tiny, easy to use, turns on quickly and takes good photos outdoors with the possibility of adding a mandatory flash to light up that smile underneath the lucky fishing camp. My recommendation is any of the Cannon PowerShots. I use a SD 600 Digital Elph, which can fit in my wader pocket but takes high-resolution photos in a split second so that Mr. Rainbow can be released in a hurry.
6. Read up on your craft
When you’re not monitoring your favorite fishing hole or logging your recent trips, study up on fly fishing. There are hundreds of quality fly-tying and fly fishing books on the market. Take your pick. You can never have enough books on tying or techniques. Regional fishing guides are always useful as well. No Nonsense Guides is one of the top regional guide publishers out there (editor's note: Milne wrote the Fishing Central California guide for No Nonsense Fly Fishing Guides). If guidebooks and resource guides sound too academic, there are plenty of entertaining books out there on the favorite pastime. Try A River Runs through It and Other Stories by Norman Maclean or John Gierach's Death, Taxes and Leaky Waders.