I am hopeful (or my misadventures at Puddingstone on Sunday)

[zenmic]

I finally had a chance to get out for a few hours on Sunday, April 29th to Puddingstone at around 2:30 to see if I can put into practice any of the things I learned about fly fishing. To see more about how my day at the lake started, check out my last post in the Annual State Park pass going up Thread (http://fishingnetwork.net/forum4/showthread.php?63368-Annual-State-Park-pass-going-up-35-70-on-May-1st&p=603113#post603113), anyway I got to Sailboat cove, took a place between two docks, and broke out the fly rod. After advice from forum members on what I did wrong last time, I put on a Thingamabobber on my leader to make my bead-head nymph more life-like and presentable. I managed to hook one little bluegill (less that the length of an iphone) on my 2nd cast and strip so I must have been doing something right. I did not have a lot of space behind me so it was a lot of roll casting. However, after that one, nothing, nada, zip. Like I sad I had to do a lot of roll casting, so I could not make it to the far edge of the docks. My leader and tippet got tangled back on itself a few times, and I had a bear of a time removing my Thingamabobber from my line, and it seem to have caused a lot of twist and currling of the leader.

I do not know if I caught it because of proper technique or just dumb luck, but like the title said, I am hopeful. I am going to try and take the free one-day course on May 5th at Orvis of Pasadena and hopefully learn some more.

Any more advice to give to a novice fly fisherman?