Fly fishing isn't an elitist sport nor is it expensive or difficult. It is merely another way to catch fish. Any kind of fishing is fun but thousands of anglers think fly fishing is the most fun of all.

It does require a little dexterity and at times, even calls for a modicum of skill, but so does any other worthwhile activity.

Fly casting is easy once you understand that, unlike other kinds of sport fishing, the weight of the line is thrown and it carries the lure to its destination.

In order to work properly, the rod and line have to be matched. All that means is that the line must be of a weight that the rod can throw well. Rod manufacturers specify the line size recommended for each rod. The sizes are designated by numbers.

The simplest way to cast a fly line is to toss it backward first, let it start to straighten behind you, then throw it forward. Keep the back cast high so the line can start to straighten before falling too low and you're fly casting. See, it isn't difficult at all.

Now with just a little more concentration you can release extra line (held in loops in the other hand) on the forward cast. This is called shooting line. Practice this until it becomes second nature.

False cast only to dry the fly, not to extend line. All the while the fly is on or in the water it is working for you. It can't catch fish sailing back and forth in the air.

Now all you need is confidence. This comes with realizing that fish really will bite on artificial flies. Nothing is so confidence building as catching a fish on one.

The easiest way to do this is with a floating fly. If ever a myth needed debunking it is the notion that it takes some kind of a genius to successfully fish dry flies.

Hits on sunken flies are notoriously difficult to detect and just as hard to hook. On the other hand, it would be pretty difficult not to recognize a take on a floating fly, and since trout normally return to their lies before even checking to see if what they took from the surface is eatable you have a few seconds to set the hook.

Remember two things, stay as inconspicuous as possible and try to get a drag-free float of the fly as it passes over a feeding fish.

Drag is when your line or leader makes the fly move at a different speed or in a different direction than the current on which it is riding. Any unnatural action of the fly will put down fish.

The normal technique for minimizing drag is to cast upstream and retrieve line as the fly floats downstream. Try to keep as much line off the water as possible.

Now, if you really want to look like an expert, you should be able, when someone asks what fly you're using, to say: "Oh, just something I tied up myself'.

Here are two simple dry flies that will consistently take trout from spring until fall on Wisconsin streams.

Anyone coordinated enough to tie their own shoe laces can make them and here is how it is done.

The first, a may fly imitation that has been around since long before my time, originated in the Winona, La Crosse area. The name of the originator has, as the saying goes, been "lost in antiquity".

To tie one you need a mallard drake flank feather, a hackle feather of the desired color, brown or ginger are popular, and a light wire hook besides tying thread and fly head cement. Size 12 or 14 regular or lx long hooks are the ones you will have most use for.

Clamp the hook in a vise and coat its shank with fly head cement. Clear nail polish will work. Make a base for the material about a quarter of an inch wide, half-way up the hook shank by wrapping it with tying thread. Make a half-hitch and saturate the winding with fly head cement.

Now, starting about a third of the way from the tip of the mallard flank feather, reverse its fibers by stroking them towards the butt. Still holding the fibers reversed, tie this, concave side up, on the thread base previously made. Do this with a couple of thread wraps and a half-hitch. Cement this knot. Now you should have a detached body and a wide fan tail extending to the rear with enough fiber tips projecting forward to make a wing.

With a sharp scissors cut off and discard the center stem just ahead of this knot leaving as many fibers, (previously stroked forward) as possible. Now to make the wing, lift the fibers, wrap thread ahead of them to hold them upright, half-hitch and cement the knot liberally.

Cut a V out of the fan tail leaving a fiber or two on each side to simulate the may fly's long tails.

Prepare the hackle feather by trimming the soft webby fibers from each side at the butt. Tie the feather, concave side out, to the hook at the base of the wing with a couple of thread wraps and a half-hitch. Cement this knot.

Grasp the tip, and winding on edge, wrap hackle behind and ahead of the wing. Tie off ahead with a wrap or two of thread, half-hitch and cement.

Make several more winds to form a head, complete with a whip-finish or several half-hitches and cement thoroughly.

The second pattern is even simpler. It is called a "Hank of Hair" and that is actually what it is. Originating in the west and deservedly popular there, it's just a clump of deer body hair on a hook. Since deer hair is hollow it is an excellent floater.

It may be tied sparse or full and can be used to suggest caddis or stone flies and terrestrials such as moths or hoppers. It has no body and no hackle.

Cut a clump of deer body hair, even the tips, tie on like a streamer wing with the tips projecting only slightly beyond the bend. Secure with a couple of thread-wraps and a half-hitch. Make several wraps ahead of the butts and push back to make them flare, half-hitch and complete with a whip-finish. Make sure all the knots and wraps are thoroughly cemented. Trim the butts to make a head.

See, you are a fly-tyer too. Kind of fun wasn't it? Now you know what the fellow meant when he said he tied flies "for his own amazement".

Of course there are other reasons for making your own. For one thing you can have the flies you want when you want them. For another, and that is why I keep emphasizing half-hitches, cement and making bases to tie material to, you can have flies that won't slip on the hook or come apart in service.

If you can buy unwaxed tying thread, use that. It makes much more secure flies. Fly-tying cement won't penetrate wax.

You should dip the flies you tied in "dry fly flotant" before using. This will make them float higher and longer.

You can buy flotant at most tackle stores or you can make your own by dissolving paraffin in gasoline.

My friend, Roger Boeck of Butternut, Wisconsin uses "Prepsol" as a solvent for the paraffin. Prepsol is a cleaner auto paint shops use. I haven't admitted it to Roger, but it does work a lot better. There is practically no odor and it is much less flammable.