Great choice 15. Lots of wisdom from the posters on here!
Flies: 95% of the time, in warmwater fishing, I'm using a top-water popper of some sort, or a hopper pattern. Some short, Some long and slim, I usually gravitate toward yellow and grasshopper colors. Subsurface, baitfish colors work too. I even have a big hair frog that is deadly right at dusk. If you really get into bass fishing with a flyrod, with a chance of big fish, I'd add an 8 wt to your lineup as it gives you more backbone to manage a big fish, plus it allows you to punch out these big bushy (wind resistant) flies below even with some wind. but a 2-3 lb bass on a 5 wt is pure fun.
Other types of lures that work well subsurface are things like sneaky petes, various eel patterns (sort of look like plastic worms in the water), etc. If you go to a shop and can look at them, I bet you can guess pretty well which are good bets to entice bass to bite. There are different retrieve patterns with some of those too, some just a twitch, some faster, a few really fast, but most slower. I just have to try different styles until I find what they like.
After you learn to cast, you'll learn line management. Line management is uber important. To me, on moving waters it is even more critical than great casting. There are times I need three hands to do it right. On still waters, it's not so critical. A fun thing about flyfishing: There is always more to learn, another level of knowledge, skill and proficiency ....That's one reason I love it. Another reason is that trout have great taste in scenery. They tend to live in beautiful places.
I think of flyfishing like I do bowhunting: You can challenge yourself more, the details really matter, and it's often up close and personal.
