The first order of business in any kind of fishing is to ask what kind of gear is needed to get the fish from the water. We're going to start by looking at just one of the many forms of the fisherman's art: Fly Fishing and the basic gear to get the job done.
Most of the time the fly fisherman plies his skills on the edge of or in the water. Therefore his equipment needs are different than the bank or boat fisherman. His rod, reel and line are also unique in the angling world. Let's get started with item #1, the rod. Fly rods over the years have been made from a lot of different materials, i.e. bamboo, fiberglass, graphite and even steel! Today the most common of these is Graphite. They are engineered to flex and drive the fly line over the water with the fly following behind until the end of the cast when the line straightens out over the water. Both fly rods and lines have weight number ratings on them to allow the angler to properly match these two components. If mismatched, casting will be difficult at best and impossible at worst.
The fly line, in addition to it's weight number, will also be designed to float or sink at a pre-determined rate (feet per second or fps). This provides the means to fish the surface and down to the bottom of the water column. On occasion a lead core line is used to fish very deep or very fast water. Also the diameter of the line can be: all the same, taper equally at both ends making it heaver in the middle, or taper slightly at the front and the a very long thin tale end (this is known as a weight forward or wf). These are the basic lines used, although there are a lot of specialty types.
The fly reel is designed primarily as a storage unit for the line. It is not used to cast the line, as with a bait or spinning reel. The line is pulled out of the reel by hand, then worked into the air with the rod in a back and forth motion in order to cast it. It is then retrieved at the desired rate by hand until you're ready to lift the rod tip and start the casting process over again. Reeling the line is only done if the fish is large and/or runs far enough to start pulling line from the reel, otherwise you control the fish by hand stripping the line though the rod.
The last two items to complete the rod setup are leader (know as tippets) and flies. Tippets are now made of extruded material so that they taper from a large end uniformly to a small end. They can range in length from around 5 feet to 9 feet, although they can be longer. The test weight of the tippet is it's strength at the small end.
The other items on the need list should include: waders, vest (remember you're in the water and the vest is your tackle box), landing net (otherwise you'll be walking to shore to land fish), sun block, line clippers and polarized sunglasses (to see into the water better). Oh! Don't forget an assortment of flies, fish like choices too.
....For moor of information to get you started....
