We are blessed to be in the heart of the finest trout fishing east of the Mississippi. It is likely that the subscribers and regular readers of The River Reporter are within an hour’s drive of the most outstanding cold-water fishing opportunities imaginable. Besides the countless streams and tributaries, we are blessed with being in the heart of the Land of Little Rivers (see the splendid book of that title by Austin McK. Francis, The Beaverkill Press).

I am referring to the Delaware River and its East and West branches, the cold tailwaters of the Cannonsville and Pepacton Reservoirs, and the many Pennsylvania tributaries, such as the Lackawaxen River. The lore and literature spawned from these waters is extensive. So even if you have never fished for trout, your appetite to do so may very well have been whetted. Perhaps you have wanted to get started trout fishing, but have found the notion of starting a career in fly-fishing a daunting task. Seasoned veterans talk endlessly about hatches, entomology and exotic sounding gadgets and equipment in such detail that the art of fly-fishing begins to seem like a mysterious insiders’ game.

So how do we get started? All anyone needs are a few basics. You can save yourself a lot of time by hooking up with a mentor who has already been through the travails of getting started and getting the equipment right. If you do not know a trout fisher, you can certainly meet some through Trout Unlimited (TU), and there are three local chapters that would welcome you: the Upper Delaware River TU, Beamoc TU (Roscoe area) and Pike/Wayne County TU. Another great alternative is to visit a local tackle shop and have them set you up.

Clearly you can begin catching fish with any properly coordinated fly-fishing outfit, but if you are going to fish for trout, you don’t want one designed for bonefish or bluegills. A nice setup would be a five- or six-weight rod with matching line (five or six-weight line, although I overweight my five-weight Thomas & Thomas with a six-weight line, specifically for the longer casts sometimes called for on the Delaware). You probably would like to have a nine-foot leader with two or three feet of four-, five-, or six-weight tippet material. You will have a choice of either monofilament or fluorocarbon, and both work equally well in my view.

But if all you had was a rod rigged up properly, you would not be too successful, as you need to get into the water to get close to the holding spots and feeding lanes. You are going to need a set of waders and boots unless you plan to do a downstream drift in a boat or canoe. I recommend that you spend a few dollars more to get one of the better quality brands for your chest waders. Simms and Patagonia are perhaps the premium choices, followed by Orvis, Cabela and Hodgman. Some are more durable than others over a season or two of heavy fishing, but none of them can be subjected to rough treatment and all should be thoroughly air dried after use.

Any fishing vest will do, as they all contain multiple pockets designed to carry everything else that you eventually come to find as indispensable, including floatants for your fly such as Gink, an aquarium net, a fleece patch to dry your flies, fly boxes for your mayfly, streamer, stonefly, nymph and caddis imitations.

But how will you know what fly to use? Aha! That’s where the aquarium net comes in. Even if you have not taken a course in entomology, you can simply net the insects flowing by you in or on the river, examine them carefully and find the fly in your box most closely imitating what’s hatching or floating on the river. And finally, when you successfully hook up and bring your fish along aside you, you’ll need a landing net, hopefully fitted with a soft plastic bag. Brodin Ghost Net is a wonderful choice, as it minimizes damage to the fish you are about to release. Stonecreek and Cumings are other soft net brands.

These may be the essentials, but given a season or two into this endeavor, your vest will be bulging with gadgets galore (forceps, nippers, tippet materials, “Thingamabobbers”… and the list of helpful gadgets goes on.