Brand New to Fly-fishing

[Johnnyboy]

Hey y'all,

In addition to being new to the forums here, I am brand-spanking new to fly-fishing. I have been fishing with regular (?) tackle since I can remember growing up in Texas. My father-in-law is from Wyoming, and is apparently a fly-fishing Jedi, and he was interested in seeing me join the fold, so he outfitted me with a rod, reel, vest, and a few other trinkets. And upon opening his Christmas present to me, I found a great assortment of flies that he tied for me for a variety of scenarios (or so I gather). So my dilemma is that I have all of this awesome tackle, but I have absolutely no idea what I'm doing. I took my stuff out to a lake to try and see how naturally the cast would come to me, and I pretty much just embarrassed myself...

So I gather that this workshop at Lake Rim is probably a good place to start to learn the ropes, but I was curious if anyone could clue me in to good places to throw a fly here around Fayetteville. Just as an aside, I've been stationed here for a year and a half now, and have tried to get out with my standard tackle as much as possbile with only minimal success. I gather that most of the best places to fish hereabouts requires a boat, but are there any good places where you can walk the shore?

Thanks for your wisdom in advance!

Johnny