8. The Fly-Fishing Outfit (8 of 19)

You need a rod, a reel, and line, just like any other kind of fishing. But a fly rod bends in a specific way, so that you can put the fly where you want it, but also to play a fish without breaking your leader. For much of fly fishing, the reel is simply a device to store line, and you retrieve and otherwise manipulate the line with your hands. Sometimes, when a big fish is hooked, the reel takes over to provide a mechanical drag and to retrieve line between runs. A fly line has weight, because the line is what casts the fly. A fly line can float or sink, but for now we'll stick with a floating line, which is by far the most common type. Between the line and fly is a leader, made from regular monofilament fishing line that has been specially tapered to present the fly properly.