Fly Fishing Skill Builder #1| Simple Fly Rod Setup, Approaching Winter Water & Animating Your Flies

These SKILL BUILDER videos will help you along your fly fishing journey! We choose three tips and post them every week!
In this video Lance Egan will show you how to quickly setup your fly rod. He will also discuss approaching winter water. Finally, Lance will demonstrate how animating your flies will help you catch more fish!
Modern Nymphing Master Class:
www.modernnymphingmasterclass...
This video will show the following:
Chapter 1 - How to Setup a Fly Rod (Difficulty 1/5)
Chapter 2 - How to Approach Winter Water (Difficulty 2/5)
Chapter 3 - How to Animate Your Flies to Catch More Fish (Difficulty 3/5)
#flyfishfood
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Fly Fish Food
00:00 Introduction
00:21 Chapter 1 - How to Setup a Fly Rod (Difficulty 1/5)
04:10 Chapter 2 - How to Approach Winter Water (Difficulty 2/5)
05:27 Chapter 3 - How to Animate Your Flies to Catch More Fish (Difficulty 3/5)

[@JohnShelton-mh9ns]

Lance, once again you put together a great tutorial. Clear speaking, easy to follow & comprehend , direct precise instruction, and yet very humble with your wisdom. You’re a great instructor sir. Nicely done as always, but of course everyone at FFF are smooth dudes!! You all make a good team. Thanks for your time and devotion to your followers.

[@user-ij5oq7xr3p]

A skill builder series is a great idea. I'd love to see some techniques you've picked up since the release of modern nymphing. Or maybe one all about getting the weight of nymphs just right in different water types and casting distances without dragging across seams. Rod Assembly was just too introductory for me. Thanks for sharing all the same.

[@larrytullis241]

Thanks Lance! Even experienced anglers can benefit from a reminder of the basics and handy tips.

[@chrischapman2056]

Great video Lance. I'm excited for this on the water skill builder series. I'd love a video on dry fly fishing. I saw your video and info on your recommended leader formula set up, but I'd like to see something on what you're looking for and thinking through when you dry fly fish, how to mend or do line management for different currents, and how you're able to maintain accuracy with the cast while creating the necessary slack with that long tippet. As always, nice job on the video and thank you for your clear and concise instruction.

[@billabraham9622]

Thank you for the EXTREMELY useful tips. I used them on the Cohocton River in upstate NY this past week. High air temp was 23 F, water no warmer than 36 F. The sculpin olive poacher was effective but it took me awhile to pick up on the very subtle takes at these low temperatures. That technique of holding the line against the cork and stripping with the off hand put me in better contact. The slight rod lift also improved the strike rate. How about a trick to prevent severe line icing at these temps? Just stay home and tie flies? Nah!

[@laceywhite6792]

Looking forwards to the next ones

[@jeffbrown7220]

Love the explanation on animating the fly. Very helpful. I was surprised at how little the movements were, but it makes sense if I'm trying to stay in contact with the fly even on the drop.

[@timporter6424]

Great video guys! Lance is a rockstar!

[@jmikeq]

Id like to see a series on different dry fly presentations. Aerial mends, pile casts, reach casts, and understanding when to decide to do a downstream vs. upstream presentation. Single nymphing low water would be a good one too. Also a pool progression would be a good one. There are some videos on these but more examples and scenarios never hurt. One of my favorite videos you did last year was probably the dry dropper one. It was a cool video and showed how effective it can be during the right time of year

[@jeff8ham]

Outstanding - all those little things add up. Can’t wait to get out again this year!

[@tonystarksification]

Nice Diamondback Lance!

[@miket3268]

I like the loop when threading the line! Good job!

[@andrewmcdowell1291]

Well done Lance and team. Looking forward to viewing the rest of this new series as it is added.

[@allieone8518]

Fly Fish Food, yes, you should make the best use of the world-class fly fisher you have! What a great idea!

[@blackflycreations]

Great tips Lance! I'd like to see some mousing once it warms up here in Ut! Thx for sharing👌 Steve

[@paulcarter5731]

Brilliant! Keep these videos coming

[@scottnock5241]

Let’s go lance!!!

[@user-xi2wk3vl9z]

Really cool new concept! Great video!

[@jimholland1592]

Nicely done 😉

[@glencamblin]

Excellent work again sir.

[@user-vw8re5iz3m]

Great information. I would love to see how to take hook out of netted fish. What tool works best and demo how to use it/them. Thanks.

[@Lanceeganflyfishing]

Stay tuned, we filmed that segment last week. 🙌

[@jdigioia1130]

Love the new series! Do you guys have a video of Lance’s Poacher?

[@Lanceeganflyfishing]

Olive version is on KZbin, black version is coming soon.

[@jdigioia1130]

Thanks!

[@wvlongshooter3912]

I c he’s using a Diamond back Ideal Nymph rod. It’s a very nice rod and rod company to deal with.

[@joeg5414]

My first fly rod that was my own was a fiberglass Diamondback that was custom built by a guy named Tim Damon. Pretty well known custom rod maker - made a fly rod for George Bush Sr. He had a fly shop in northern NY and my brother and I made his first website for the business. We got fly rods as part of payment. This was in 1997-98, I was like 16. That website became very successful. Should have asked for more than fly rods I guess🤣 From a local radio station article: "Potsdam's Tim Damon built a custom fly rod business into an online storefront success story. Then-Senator Hillary Clinton held him up as a model. The first President Bush bought a Damon rod and invited him to Maine to fish with him." He makes guitars now.

[@Lanceeganflyfishing]

Yes, using the Diamondback Ideal Nymph in this video.

[@dominiqueleblanc2193]

Great one right there. Not usable over here because we can't fly fish in winter here, lol. I'll be sure to use those techniques when fishing season opens. What rod and reel combo do you usualy use when euro nymphing. I have a old sage esn with some small sage reel that is not heavy enough to balance my rod.

[@Lanceeganflyfishing]

The technique works year round, so you’re good 🙌. I was using the Diamondback ideal nymph rod with a Lamson speedster reel.

[@dominiqueleblanc2193]

@@Lanceeganflyfishing Trout can't be fished in winter here. Only from may to octobre.

[@HalfInsaneOutdoorGuy]

Heres a thing to consider, everyone from Pete Kutzer to Tom Rosenbauer, to the newest noob to ever noob all over a body of water, that said line is too fragile. It shouldnt be that way, it starts cracking because its rubbing on that cross brace on the reel, why hasnt someone made a reel with a spring loaded cross brace that rotates backwards when the line pushes on it? Its totally alien and obnoxous to have 20+ feet of line all around your feet and legs when you're only occasionally casting all the line out. Of course it depends on which body of water you're fishing, but that said If I fish across the river I need ~20 feet of line, if I'm fishing up stream I need as much as I can cast to cover as much water without needing to walk around and spook the the fish, destroying line doing something that feels logical and natural is, to me at least, a huge short sided view, and discredits the line manufacturers, do they use their products?

[@Lanceeganflyfishing]

To me it’s incredibly awkward to pull line of the reel while casting. Also, it makes it so I cannot double haul. I’d guess many in the industry feel similarly, which may contribute to why they haven’t designed reels to work around a bad habit. 🤷‍♂️

[@HalfInsaneOutdoorGuy]

what is the difference between a down and up locking reel seat? why are there 2 types and why does it matter?

[@Lanceeganflyfishing]

Downlocking pushes the reel toward the rod butt. Uplocking pushes toward the cork. Each changes how the weight of the reel balances the rod in your hand. Way back, most rods were all downlocking. For the past 30 years or so most models have used uplocking. Just general trends imo. Currently, most euro rods use a downlocking seat to help balance the extra length. And most standard rod models use an uplocking seat. Both will catch a fish, but have subtle performance differences.

[@VTBullitt]

What leader and line was he using? Looks like a floating line

[@Lanceeganflyfishing]

It’s the SA mastery level floating euro line, with a braided core. The leader is an Umpqua Egan’s micro leader (4x).

[@blueridgeflyguy9551]

How does Lance carry water? Inside the backpack?

[@BonnevilleTenkara]

I’d guess so! I do that with a backpack or sling. You could do it with a belt and water bottle attachment too For longer trips from the car I take a water filter to refill the bottle to save weight and take a smaller bottle

[@peterfetzer7039]

I and many others like to carry a Sawer Mini Water Filtration System. It packs small and lightweight.

[@peterfetzer7039]

Lance what leader setup are you using in this video? Is it one of the versatile ones? A French leader type?

[@helok9]

That pack takes a water bladder.

[@Lanceeganflyfishing]

Yes, usually water is in the backpack portion of my pack. That day I left my water in the truck 😵‍💫

[@mauriziobenazzi7111]

That reel is overloaded with fly line. Bad idea to extract the leader by pulling like that. Sooner or later you will cut the fly line

[@FlyFishFood]

You sure? 😬😬

[@mauriziobenazzi7111]

@@FlyFishFood Very sure 🙂

[@FlyFishFood]

@@mauriziobenazzi7111 ok. Thanks for the warning. We’ll just keep doing it our way but we’ll let you know if we have any failures.

[@Lanceeganflyfishing]

No joke, I’ve loaded around 20,000 reels in the last 30 years. With that in mind I think I would have experienced the failure you’re claiming at least once. And I’ve yet to see it. Perhaps it’s something you’re doing wrong that ruins your lines? 🤷‍♂️

[@dankochanek8056]

You had me then you lost me...

[@Lanceeganflyfishing]

That’s what the fish said to you 😉

[@dankochanek8056]

@@Lanceeganflyfishing All the time..

[@Lanceeganflyfishing]

Me too 😵‍💫😬