I got my first fly rod as a gift in the late 1960's It is a 8 ft. 6 in. 8 wt. Fenwick fiberglass beauty with a shakespear purist reel. I still have that out fit. The clerk that sold my wife probably knew that she didn't know backing from BS and saw an opportunity to unload that eight wt. on her. Problemm was that there wasn't any water within a few hundred miles that required that much rod. I fished the small streams in the Seirra foot hills. I didn't know that an 8 Wt. was massive over kill for the small streams I fished, all I knew was that I was a very serious fly fisher wanna be and I had a brand new fly rod, then I tried to cast. I tried and tried and tried and it wouldn't work.
At the time there were no instructional videos. There was the occasional magazine article which I read over and over but it did little to help me learn to cast. I still don"t know why that rod didn't end up in a rummage sale, except that I had such a passion for fly fishing. Eventually I figured out how to throw enough line to catch a fish. It was frustrating and took a long time but boy was it worth the effort.
This post is mainly for anyone that has an interest in learning to fly fish. My advice is to hire an instructor. One on one instruction that includes equpment selection, assembly, casting, fly selection and actual on the water instruction and much more will shorten the learning curve tremendously. Anyone can learn to fly fish, it doesn't require special skills or athletic ability. Give it a try, I promise you will like it.
Tight lines, Ron