These things are all very important and crucial for fly-fishing. However, they will not help you at all if you do not know how to use them. Streams come in all shapes and sizes and some are better than others. For a beginner, I would recommend a smaller stream because they are more manageable and can help you learn a lot about how to read a stream. When fishing it is very important to be stealthy. Avoid wearing bright colors and keep your shadow out of the water. When a fish sees your shadow come over them as they swim they will know that something is standing over them and out of instinct will take shelter at the bottom or simply swim away. Now that you know this, find the stream where you want to fish. What you are looking for are sections of the stream where the water is deeper and the current is not too fast, this is called a pool. Just before this pool you will see a section with small rapids or fast current, this is called a riffle. The riffle oxygenates the water and helps churn food like small nymphs, Scud, or caddis larvae into the water. This oxygenated water full of food will then flow down into and slowdown in the pool and the trout will be able to feed without exerting much effort. This is the perfect setup for the trout and this is exactly where you want to fish.
If using a wet fly, simply make a short cast into the riffle and let your fly drift naturally into the pool. Letting the current guide your fly into place. You may need to slowly let out line from your reel so that the fly can drift the full length of the pool. Keep the tip of your rod high so that there is only about a foot or two of the floating line in the water. As the fly drifts, you may see the floating line quickly sink down or you might feel a slight tug. At This point you need to quickly, but gently, lift the rod pulling the line and sinking the hook of the fly into the trout's mouth. If you are using a dry fly the procedure is similar. Do a nice gentle cast out into the pool and let the fly drift on the surface with the current. The only thing that is different is you need to watch the fly intently to see if a fish grabs it. This is one time where a good pair of polarized sunglasses might come in handy but it is up to you if you want to spend the money or not. When the fly dips below the surface quickly set the hook and begin to try to land your fish.
9