by Keith Hamburger

Created on: March 08, 2010

The first step to get started in fly fishing, after you have obtained your equipment, is to attach the backing and fly line to the reel.  A good outfitter can guide you on the proper size of equipment for the fish you wish to target but most beginning fly fishers will start with trout, panfish and the like.  A good size rod for such purposes that will give you lots of versatility would be a number 5 or 6 medium action rod with matching reel and line.

The taper and density of the fly line you choose will depend on the type of fishing you will be doing.  Most beginning fly fishermen select a weight forward taper, as it is easier to cast and learn on.  The density will depend on whether you will be doing top water fishing with dry flies or deep fishing with wet flies.  As the designation implies these are available as floating or sinking lines with other, more sophisticated options available.

For this size of equipment you will want to use 20lb test high visibility Dacron backing.  This backing serves several purposes but probably the most important is to give additional length for playing a fish beyond the approximately 90 feet of the fly line.  Depending on the size of the arbor on your reel you will use from 100 to 200 yards of backing with smaller arbor reels requiring more.  It is better to use less rather than more as, if you overfill the reel such that the fly line wraps to the rim of the reel, you will have to take off the fly line, remove some backing, and respool the reel.

To attach the backing to the reel you will use an arbor knot.  This is a simple knot that consists of an overhand knot around the standing end of the line looped around the arbor and another overhand knot on the tag end of the line to ensure it doesn’t pull through.  Pull the knot on the tag end of the line snug against the knot around the standing end, snip off the tail and pull the loop tight around the reel.

With the backing attached to the reel roll the backing tightly, smoothly and evenly onto the reel.  The line should feed to the bottom of the reel.  That would be by cranking the reel clockwise for a right hand reel or counterclockwise for left hand.

With the backing on the reel use a Albright knot.  Fold the last inch or so of the fly line back on itself so both parts are aside one another making a loop.  Pass the backing through the loop and pull a few inches through.  Hold the backing and the fly line between two fingers and make several wraps of the loose end of the backing around the fly line.  Pass the loose end back through the loop in the fly line and, pulling the standing end and the loose end of the backing work the wraps toward the end of the loop and tighten them.  When the knot is smooth and tight snip off the tag ends.

Your fly line and backing are now loaded on your spool.  You are now ready to move to attaching leader, tippet and fly and then you can start fishing.

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