Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Hunter's Campfire Who Takes Their Kids Flyfishing

Good on you for taking him to the outdoors.

I like to believe they are all "country kids" if you can catch them before they are ruined.

Riley has taken to spey casting, which is not something I have done yet... Tried it a tiny bit and failed so far. Having that hanging over me does not bum Riley out.

He did catch more silver salmon today than I did on flies and I think he considers that a major victory. Many here have fished salmon with me and likely understand what that means. It is a contest I have wanted to lose for a long time...

While many skills can be carried over to and from fly casting, most of Riley's fishing has been done with flies. Very little was ever done with hardware and much less with bait...
art

I have and still do. My 10 year olds have been casting since they were 5 (both fly and spin) and becoming acomplished at both.I guess you missed this thread ...

https://www.24hourcampfire.com/ubbth...me_random_pics_of_a_recent_f#Post3065020

Garrett and I will be heading out for his first backpack / fly fish trip labor day week end. They have both been camping and fly fishing and fishing with the hard ware as well for a while. Now we are taking to the next step.

Been awhile, but my youngest son could handle the long rod pretty well at age 8. Was invited to do demo tying the same year, at a well-known retailer. Think the trick was, we lived close to warmwater stuff at the time- bass/bluegill that were
pretty much unsophisticated made success easy. Also, a kid doesn't need a shorter flyrod than a grownup, but a longer one, for casting success.

one of my elk hunting partners came thru here a few weeks ago, while taking his wife and daughter on vacation. they wanted to go fly fishing. so the wife and i took em out for a day on the san juan.
they had a great day, all caught fish.
they found it mind boggling, that big fish ate such small bugs. (size 22/24 midge patterns!)

here's his daughter with her 1st fly caught trout.

Scott;
Hopefully this finds you well.

I tried to get our girls to try fly fishing and while one is somewhat interested, so far it appears they�d rather not fish that way.

I believe that most kids with average hand/eye coordination would be able to master it by the time they are 6-8, but they�d have to want to spend the time to do it.

As has been pointed out to me several times in life, if I can do it, then �it� can�t be all that tough to do, you know?

Have a grand weekend Scott.

Dwayne

Yep, my daughter is nine and began flyfishing this spring. She quickly picked it up and caught a few rainbows the first trip on a dry. She likes seeing the take. That the worm-dunkers nearby went fishless did not hurt her perception a bit!

Teaching a kid to flyfish makes going barbless a no-brainer....

My 8 year old boy can flyfish. He casts better than his mom for sure. He's caught a few on the fly but we haven't had a really good day yet.
Barbless is good--He is still a little shy of size 4 weighted wooly buggers! He didn't think my comment about him being too young for earrings was in good taste.

Maybe I'm just too chicken to teach my grandkids to fly fish yet.

I still remember when I was six or eight and still learning to cast a fly. I'll never forget the time when I hooked my dad right in the nostril and gave a good yank before I realized where the hook was!! Talk about a bloody mess.!!!

One of the problems is that most of the places I go are so bushy and the creek so small in there -- I guess I probably should get those kids to someplace more open like a mountain pond or an open spot on a bigger creek or river and get them started next summer. I'm gonna stand way back though.

Our two kids learned before we went to Alaska a few years ago, so they could salmon fish with me. They caught a bunch of fish and enjoyed it, but really prefer slinging a live shrimp with a spinning rod and catching an icebox full of specks to all the hocus pocus of fly fishing.


Like their old man.

A big part of that I suppose is location... Here, fly fishing is often more effective than bait...

the opposite is usually true here, although flies are effective on redfish in shallow ponds if the water is clear. Of course, the deep sea boys catch all kinds of stuff on flies out at he rip line, but I rarely do that and when I do I don't use a fly rod.

Yesterday I had a "weird" day. Riley and I took a friend and his new girlfriend fishing. I had zero idea who she was, but had no trouble recognizing "hot". Funny thing is she is a soap opera star and famous in lots of places. Folks kept staring at her everywhere we went and it could have been either "hot" or famous pulling the eyes.

Anyway, she insists she had never fished for anything, ever. Her first ten casts with a fly rod produced at least half that many humpies. I had her catch a bunch of humpies to get used to keeping her hands out of the line and doing whatever she could to keep from getting hurt. With silvers the real goal, after the practice.

Then the amazing stuff started happening... She suggested she needed to figure out how to remove her own hooks... Then she started unhooking MY fish for me! Amazed is not strong enough...

She caught silvers later and kept herself undamaged.

It rained like the proverbial cow versus the flat rock and it was chilly. The only thing close to a complaint was thanking me for firing up the heater in the rig while I was breaking down the rods because she admitted she was cold.

She allowed me to take photos but insisted they could not be posted or published... A real shame, that. Got home and checked the internet because I had no idea who she was and sure enough she is all over the soap opera stuff...

Amazing comment from her was how she found a long time ago that keeping her mouth shut, doing her work and never complaining made producers demand her...

Did I mention "hot"?
art

As with any sport some are going to like it and some aren't. I was taught a love of fishing since I could walk. If you are patient teaching her about fishing she will most likely learn to love the sport but just remember not everyone loves everything. My sister wouldn't touch a fish or fishing implement of anykind if you held a gun to her head. Me..I loved fishing of any kind from the first time I was allowed to hold a rod.

I was also brought up in the school of you catch em you clean em. Since I've got my hubby into fishing now I've convinced him of we catch em, you clean em and I'll cook em. Most of the time it works. But I don't mind any of the yucky stuff that goes with fishing like touching bait, etc. Just don't hand me a snake and we can get along fine when fishing.

Tom wasn't much into fishing when we got married but eventually he learned to like it (not as much as I do but he goes with me). I have to occasionally let him catch more than I do or he pouts.

I could go on for hours about women and fishing but I'm going to stop here. Just let her try it and praise her for what she does best at it and keep working with her and she will, most likely, develop into one [bleep] hot fishing lady.

PS. I only read part of this thread so if I missed the subject of the post as Roseann Rosannadanna used to say "Never Mind."

We tried fly fishing once, but the pilot was going too fast and the bait wouldn't stay in the water. We caught a bird and that was it.

I didn't see the first fly either.

I think we were doing something wrong.

JM

James has been catching fish on flies since before he turned two.







Of course that was using a spin caster with a bubble I'll get him on a fly rod when he expresses interest in using one. Figure that will be a couple more years.

Scott

I can teach anyone to fly fish so long as I'm not married to them......

The world is your oyster.

I can teach them to fly fish. Catching something while doing it is another matter.