Teaching kids how to fly fish

[tjm]

I don't even like using 9' rods, they have too much leverage against me. For my oldest son, who wanted to fish more than I did, I made a 5' 6wt  rod for his birthday when he was five and never taught him any cast but  roll cast and  how to tie knots. His first outing he got two small 10" trout from a shady brook. He was soon managing 25' casts.  On a small to medium water it isn't necessary to cast 50'. 

I put the kids on blue gill in shallow ponds more than I did tough to fish waters or hard to catch fish, it has to be fun for a kid to learn.  The other kids started at later ages as they had desire to give it a try. Started them with what ever 7'-8' rod that i was using that day/week and for the ones that showed enough interest, made or got them their own tackle. Again I stuck with teaching just basic roll casting and knot making. The two boys and the youngest daughter sill use fly rods and the other girls don't fish. Even the ones that quit fishing as they got older really like the involvement of tackle making and fly tying as kids.

[Gavin]

A kid can handle a modern 9' 5wt rod & reel combo. They weigh nothing in comparison to what we all learned with. Think 12 is a better age. Have some 5'6" custom  spin cast poles that my girls have outgrown. One pink, one purple. Fuji guides, Fuji grips. Think I have $50 in each, but would take $ 20 for both, reals are shot but not Barbie poles. Long enough to cast, hook, retrieve. 9 and 11, using 6' spin rigs now.

[fishinwrench]

When my youngest was 6 she was doing pretty good catching bluegill on a spincast rig so I took her bass fishing, tied her on a topwater popper and took her back into a stump filled shallow flat.   She was getting bored and had started just flicking it out about 10 feet from the boat and reeling it back in.  As she was doing that a 2-3lber literally exploded on the dang thing about 2 feet from the boat and scared her half to death.   She dropped the rod and ran to the other end of the boat, luckily the fish didn't get hooked or else she would have lost her pole.    After she calmed back down she said she didn't like "those bass fish" because they were too mean, said she'd rather just stick to catching bluegill.  😄

She's just not interested in fishing now, more into girly things, so I don't push it on her.  I wish I could get her interested in it soon though because her coordination is getting really good now.  

[aarchdale@coresleep.com]

First step is teaching a kid a flag is hung from a POLE and a rod catches fish.   

[fishinwrench]

22 minutes ago, aarchdale@coresleep.com said:

First step is teaching a kid a flag is hung from a POLE and a rod catches fish.   

Not!   A rod is what pistons are attached to.  Flags are flown, not hung, on a mast.  And poles are for strippers....and stripers.  

It's ok for your daughter to hold a pole, but you don't want her hanging on one!!!  That's why we pay college tuition.

[CLoyd]

You might consider a few lessons with a professional casting instructor starting out.  I learned like many of you did, watching the old Cortland video and practicing in the yard.  It led to many years of bad habits.

+1 on an 8.5' or 9' rod  

[Flysmallie]

41 minutes ago, CLoyd said:

It led to many years of bad habits.

 

But that's my casting style. 

[fishinwrench]

1 hour ago, Flysmallie said:

But that's my casting style. 

Exactly.  The concept that there's only one way to properly cast is what's wrong with fly-fishing.   As long as your fly doesn't hit the ground (or the trees) behind you then the cast you just made has a purpose.  Time and experience will tell a person when to use THAT cast again.  My nymph casting isn't elegant at all, but the drift that follows is near perfect.

[tjm]

I guess it may depend on the goal, casting or fishing. While they aren't mutually exclusive and both can be fun, they are not at all the same thing.

[tjm]

1 minute ago, fishinwrench said:

As long as your fly doesn't hit the ground (or the trees) behind you then the cast you just made has a purpose. 

Good reason to begin with not putting the line back there. My kids must have picked up 10000 brand new flies from the grass a RRSP.

One of my major objections to rods over 8' is the number of times you hit trees with the top foot of rod. Or have to skip a hole because the only way to use that long pole is to dapple/tenkara with it.