Fly fishing is a style of fishing where a weighted line, not a weighted lure, carries a nearly weightless artificial fly out to the fish. That’s the whole idea in one sentence. Everything else, the rod, the casting motion, the flies themselves, exists to make that one trick work.
If you’re just starting out, or you’ve never touched a fly rod before, this article will walk you through what that actually means. My goal is that by the time you finish reading, you’ll understand fly fishing well enough to start wanting to learn how to fly fish yourself, and to keep going from here into the rest of the fly fishing basics.