Chadd:

There are a few pieces of info that would be helpful to have in order to answer this question. The most important thing you’ve left out is the weight of your fly rod. It would also be helpful to know what kind of flies you’re going to use and the size fish you’re anticipating. It might help to know if you’re going to be fishing from the bank, if you’ll be wading, fishing from a driftboat, etc.

I’m going to make the ASSumption that you’re on the beginner end of the flyfishing skill spectrum. I mean no offense by this. If I say anything that’s really obvious to you, I apologize. Also, under that assumption, all my advice will be really basic — again, I’m assuming that you’re not doing anything really fancy or complicated.

Basically, you want fly line in the same weight (or the within one weight) of your fly rod. I’d guess you’ll probably be fishing with a 5 or 6 weight rod, and if that’s the case I’d recommend an ordinary weight-forward floating fly line in the weight of your rod. Based on the assumption that you’re not an expert caster (yet), and less able to take advantage of the high performance of top-shelf line, I’d shop for a brand name fly line (Scientific Anglers, Cortland, RIO) in the $35-50 price range. If you buy it at a fly shop, they’ll usually supply you with backing and put it on your reel for you. Ask them to put a loop on the working end for you leader while you’re at it.

Onto the end of the fly line you’ll attach a leader. You’ll probably be using both dry and wet flies, so I’d get an all-purpose 7-9 foot leader that tapers to no smaller than 6X. This should cost you no more $8 and will probably be closer to $5. Get an extra one for back-up.

You can probably get away with just a few spools of tippet. This is the lighter, expendable line you tie to the end of your leader and use to tie your flies on. Get some 5X and 6X mono, and maybe a spool of 6X fluoro. The mono is for dry flies. Use the 6X for smaller flies and the 5X for bigger ones. The fluoro tippet is for wet flies.

This tackle will handle trout and bass up to 5 or 6 pounds and maybe bigger if you’re careful. It will do very well for fish in the weight class I’m guessing you’ll see — up to 2 pounds.

No, in general, you don’t need a lighter line for trout, unless the trout are much smaller than the bass you’re after. I suspect most of the fish you’ll be catching will be close to the same size, though the bass will probably be a bit heavier and they might fight harder. If you’re fishing for something bigger than 6 pounds, just beef everything up a notch. If you find the fish are very shy (and trout can be), you can try lighter and longer leader and tippet so that you show less tackle to the fish. Also, fluoro is effectively invisible underwater, so always use that when fishing nymphs, streamers, wetflies, etc.

irish angler:

nooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo just a long florocarbon leader