Avoid These Common Fishing Mistakes!

Don’t even think about it! Perhaps Matt Dillon said this to the new gunslinger in town warning the young Turk that he’s not near as good (or fast) as he thinks he is. Maybe it’s Mom warning her son or a Father warning his daughter’s date before they head out the door for an evening on the town. It could even be the point of this seemingly endless series of articles about fly fishing and casting. Sure enough, our aim in all of this about practice is aimed at helping us so we don’t have to think about it. If we train our aging muscles properly, using our practice time wisely on things that will improve our fly casting instead of simply re-enforcing bad habits (see “HOW to Practice”- it can work) we won’t have to think about it. The better our muscle memory, the less we will have to think. And that’s a good thing.

Hence the list (gracious to the core) is meant to help us avoid catastrophe, great aggravation, and the gnashing of teeth because no one told us.

1. Don’t put you reels to bed with the drags engaged! That was an invitation to disaster back when drags were made of cork. But it still applies. It is like leaving a spring compressed all the time, such as leaving a gun cocked or a magazine loaded all the time. Let the spring relax when it is not in use. Keep your drag set on the lowest setting you can when it is not in use.

2. Don’t go poking holes in you cork handles by burying the hook in it when you are moving from one place to another. Far better is to hook your hook on the support (legs) of one of your stripping guides (NEVER EVER hook a hook in a stripping or line guide since it can rub against the inside of the guide, cut grooves in it and eventually rip your expensive fly line or leader to shreds as it passes through the guides, most likely just as you are fighting a personal best, even world’s record fish!). Then take the leader and loop it around the reel and snug the line up a touch. This has two benefits. First, obviously, it keeps the hook from messing up the cork and stripping guides. Second, unless you are using a very long leader, you will keep the tip of the fly line outside of the rod tip so you won’t have to work real hard to be able to cast. (With a 9’ leader with about 2’-3’ of that leader going up and back each way from the reel to the hook on the second stripping guide so there is another 5’to 6’ from the reel to near the tip of the rod, with about 2’-3’ of fly line outside the tip top.) If this doesn’t make sense, I will be glad to demonstrate when next we meet.

3. Never ever try to walk through the woods (or anywhere for that matter) with your rod pointed ahead of you. Carry it butt- first. Or, even smarter, don’t even put it together until you get to where you are going to fish. See Steve Moore’s confessions in this regard in his Hacking Fly Fishing or in this video (Steve even suggests counting the pieces of rod before, during and after the hike.)

4. Don’t lean your fly rod against the side of the car or SUV, particularly near a hatch or door that is open. That door will blow closed or you will hit the button to close you rear hatch and crush your rod. There are magnets made to hold rods against the side of the car SUV or pickup truck. Use them.

5. Don’t make a back cast without looking behind you to make sure someone isn’t walking or drifting or wading behind at the wrong time. If that is bad, even worse is catching their dog with your fly. Talk about flipping out!

6. Never store your reel if the line on it looks like it was put on the reel by a two-year-old. You want your line on the reel to be stored in good shape- nice and even with no coils out of place. If you reel in your line fighting a fish, it may pile up on one side of the reel. At some point, this pile will start hitting the frame of the reel and the reel will not be able to turn. That’s not good. In this regard, there are two tricks:

A. Teach your line hand (thumb and middle finger work for me) to guide the line back onto its spool as you reel the line back onto the reel. Some folks are very good at this. In many ways, your line hand needs to serve as a level wind feature on a bait-casting reel. It takes a bit of practice. But after a while, you won’t even have to think about it!

B. At the very least, after you have cleaned your line after a day on the water make sure it goes back on the spool evenly and smoothly. At this point, you won’t be fighting a fish so take your time and do it correctly.

7. Never store your rod or reel in a rod tube or reel case. Keep them out in the open, with the rods standing upright and broken down. Keep your reels (and their line) out of direct sunlight. Don’t give mildew and rust a chance. An additional benefit is that when left assembled for prolonged periods, the rod can be much harder to break down without breaking it.

8. As Bobby Sands suggested/commanded, never put you reel down in the dirt when you are setting up your rod. Throw your hat on the ground, set you reel in your hat and continue pulling the line through the line guides. You don’t want dirt and sand on your line or in your reel.

9. Don’t hesitate to use a stripping basket when your line will fall to a dirty floor or ground, get trampled on by your feet and, being wet, pick up all sorts of dirt and grime. Stripping baskets aren’t perfect, but your line will stay in better shape if you use one. I have even started taking one to put between my legs (when seated) or around my waist when standing in a drift boat. If the line is on the floor, you will step on it, ruining your cast and doing wonders to the complexion of your pristine line.

When fishing on your own boat or the boat of a friend, there are numerous things you can do to control the line that lies at your feet but, as if by magnetic attraction, finds its way into the most awful places where it will get caught on snags, stepped on (some anglers fish barefooted or with socks and no shoes so they can feel the line and avoid standing on it), or otherwise get in the way and make a mess. For instance, get a fairly tall trash can. Find a friend with a lot of old cast nets. See if you can get a torn-up cast net, the kind with all those weights around the bottom. Pull off those weights, string them on a cord long enough to wrap around the inside of the trash can with one curl of weights that will keep the trash can fairly stable on the deck. Or throw a worn-out cast net over the stuff in the boat that could grab your line. This may keep some of the line from getting stuck and ruining your casting.

10. Don’t wear shoes or boots with laces while casting. Your fly line will catch on the laces and ruin that once-in-a-lifetime cast to the largest fish you have ever seen. By the way, Murphy always intended to write a book of laws regarding fly fishing problems. The problem was his editor didn’t think a 12,000 page book would sell. Suffice it to say, all of Murphy’s Laws regarding fly fishing were variations of the original: If anything can go wrong, it will and at the worst possible moment.

11. When flying to a distant location (if it weren’t distant, I assume you would drive just to be able to carry more junk as well as not having to go through airport security) don’t even think about thinking you understand all of the TSA rules and regulations. Instead, prior to going to the ticketing area to turn over the luggage you are going to check, stop and ask a TSA officer about carrying flies, fly line, and broken down rods in carry-on. One time, flying back from Canada, I was asked three times by the same TSA agent if I had any hooks in my carry-on. Each time, I affirmed that I did not. Finally, he asked why I was so sure I didn’t have any hooks in my carry-on? I told him I had heard about their rules against flying our of Canada with hooks in carry-on and did not want to be an arrogant guest of their country so made sure there were no hooks in my carry-on. With that, I was passed on. Now, it’s fine to fly into Canada with hooks in carry-on. But makes sure TSA isn’t going to change the rules by asking while you still have time to put offending objects in checked luggage.

12. ALERT- a double negative is coming up. Don’t miss it. Don’t even think about not buying something when out of the county so you can declare it to the customs agaents. Not knowing how important this was, I bought a magazine in the airport in Canada as we were heading home after a week-long trip out in the wilderness where there was nothing to buy. I bought the magazine to have something to read on the plane. One of our group just in front of me got held up several minutes while the customs agents tried to get him to admit that he bought something while in Canada that he was bringing home. They must have asked that same basic question with a growing sense of intensity a dozen times. When it was my turn, I said I bought a fishing magazine which I happened to have on top of my stuff since I had just bought it. The agent looked pleased and welcomed me back to the USA, even though we were still in Canada. In Winnipeg, you go through American customs before you leave Canada and the waiting room is considered America soil.

13. Speaking of flying, there are two ways you can deal with your fly rods, reels, etc. If you are taking three or less rods you can put them in their tubes and lash the tubes together with masking tape so they will be one item instead of three. Personally, I have found a nice rectangular case that will hold up to 6 rods in their socks (but not in their cases) plus a number of reels in reel cases, a few flies and assorted other fishing tools. Make sure you remove any knives or lighters (for melting the glue needed to replace a tip top). A number of manufacturers make them: Orvis, Patagonia and Simms. One of the zippers on my Orvis version is about shot after 10 years so if I ever fly on another trip, I will have to get a new one. They run about $200 and you can get them to hold 4-piece 9’ rods or a slightly larger one that will hold 9’6” rods. These cases are wonderful in that they will fit behind carry on luggage between the skin of the airplane and said luggage in the overhead bins. Yeah, I know this isn’t a “don’t even think about it” point- it’s a freebie.

12. Don’t even think about putting your meds in a bag in checked luggage. Don’t take a chance they will not get lost. I always carry extra underwear and a clean shirt in my carry on, as well as meds, toothbrush, razor and deodorant.

No doubt there are many more Don’t even think about it rules of fly fishing we could add. But this is enough to get you going. Don’t hesitate to hit reply all and include your own. This is such a wonderful sport!

Don’t forget to check out the resources of Fly Fishers International at www.flyfishersinternational.org.