How young to Fly fish.

[hunter1]

I'm wondering how old a child, boy or girl would have to be to start learning how to cast a fly rod. Boy is 3 yrs old, girls 8 to 6. Also what equipment would you get them to start. Thanks.

 

[Lkyboots]

My boy loved to fish. He was 10 years old before he tried fly fishing and was 14 years old before he could fly fish solo. He would rather dunk worms and spin fish and liked to Bass fish more than Trout. I took him out to Yellowstone fly fishing when he was 14 and we did a couple float trips out of Jackson Hole and Cody Wyoming. That sealed the deal. He ended up moving to Montana right out of high school and guided a couple years. He moved back and married his high school sweetheart and doesn't fly fish at all now.

 

[hunter1]

I like this story. I thinkit's good to get them invloved early.

 

[ksherbine]

I started all 3 of my boys when they were 5-6, mostly on bluegills with poppers at farm ponds. WAYYYY easier and more action than on a stream for trout. I found that the 7' Eagle Claw yellow fiberglass rods are best to start with. They're cheap, indestructible, and the slow action makes up for a lot of mistakes. Plus they bend like crazy with a decent bluegill on them!! Roll casts are best for the first few years.

 

[poopdeck]

My father introduced me to fishing on a farm pond with a bobber and hand digging worms. I think most were introduced to fishing in this manner. it was a blast, especially the hand digging worms, and it stuck. A red and white bobber is a rite of passage. It was also something I could go do without adult supervision but I guess that's a thing of the past.

I personally don't understand why one would want to start toddlers out on a fly rod instead of a bobber but to each their own. Better to make fishing as fun as humanly possible for a child and introduce them to a fly rod if and when they ask.

Neither of my daughters took a liking to fishing so I just about stopped fishing when they were younger. I found it better to be involved in what they liked to do rather then forcing them into doing what I like to do.

Remember, when it comes to children, the days are long but the years are short.

 

[PennKev]

3 years old, nope.
6 years old, ehhhhhhhh, not really.
8 years old, she could probably start learning to fly cast but most 8 year-olds will just want to catch fish so have a spinning rod with you when you get on the water.

The number one consideration is to not pressure kids to do something past their level of interest (or ability). If your kids just want to whip the rod back and forth a few times because they see you do it, great, let them. But don't necessarily turn it into the casting lesson scene from A River Runs Through It.

 

[troutbert]

They can have fun trying to fly cast out on a lawn at a very young age.

But for actual fishing, the best thing for young kids is fishing for bluegills with a bobber and a worm.

I started as a kid with a long bamboo pole with the nylon line wrapped around it so there's not even a reel to deal with. Very simple.

 

[hooker-of-men]

I "started" my kids during the past year and they are quite young - my daughter is 3 and my son is 5. I use the term loosely, though, because they haven't yet caught any fish on a fly rod; we just bring their rod along with us when we go to the pond or out in the canoe. They'll cast and get used to it, but they also have spinning rods of their own to fish with worms. If we're doing something fishing related, I usually have both fly and spinning rods on hand anyway, so I let them do whatever they want. My son was able to pick up line and lay it back down straight with a single overhead cast pretty well by the end of last summer. I could see him catching some panfish or, in the right spot, maybe even some especially dumb stockies this upcoming year.

Getting them wading is not something I am personally interested in at this age. It seems stressful. I did bring my son along to fish a small, shallow trout stream on one occasion. It was mostly fishing from the bank or wet wading in a few inches of water. We both had fun getting skunked, so, to me, stream/trout fishing is really dependent on the size of the water.

I also occasionally do yard casting into a hulahoop or whatever just for fun. I figure it gets them some experience while playing a game that is also entertaining for dad in other ways.

For gear, I waited until someone was selling a crappy combo on Craigslist for $20. I think it's an Abu Garcia 5 wt and maybe the cheapest of White River reels. I could not give a crap if they smash it to bits, which seems perfect because that scenario is entirely possible...

 

[hunter1]

Thanks. I do take them bobber fishing, and they love it.

 

[ksherbine]

I should clarify what I meant when I said they "started" at ages 5-6... They had already been bobber fishing for several years and continued to bobber fish off and on for several years after that. What won them over was one of those magical days when the bluegills were either spawning or else really hungry and just crushed poppers on literally every cast. They've been hooked ever since... beats having to bait hooks too!

 

[drakeking412]

Huge Fly Fisherman on Youtube has a video regarding this, i watched some of it and it was decent. The big takeaway for me is if he wants to throw rocks then i guess it's time to throw rocks lol

 

[drossi]

.

 

[drossi]

A few things that I learned through experience with my son:

- Kids will pick up casting better with a slower action rod, they'll be able to feel it load and get the timing down. Plus it's more forgiving. Think glass.
- Don't be afraid to get them a 7' or 7.5' rod. A rod that length to someone around 5' tall is like a 9' footer to an adult.
-The bluegill pond is definitely your friend, especially if they already like throwing poppers. Get them into 'gills with wets as well. They can really hone their casting and presentation skills for when you move them onto moving water. Which brings me to....
-Moving water is intimidating to young kids. It brings a whole host of new issues for them. Of which line control is a daunting one, no longer does it curly at your feet, now the current will take it and create all kinds of gnarly tangles and whatnot.

 

[Canoetripper]

My grandfather took me to a friend of his farm pond when I was a very young boy(5-6). Bobber fishing with my very first fishing rod. A Zebco 202. I caught fish right a way and was a very excited young boy.

After that we moved to a a place within an easy walk to the Yellow Breeches Creek. It was in between Boiling Springs and New Cumberland but much closer to New Cumberland(Green Lane Farms in Fairview Township, York County).

I spent a lot of time there with my Zebco. I am 62 and back than there were only 3 TV channels and kids played with balls, which is what I did when I wasn't fishing.

When I was 10 my grandfather took me on a vacation to a dude ranch in Wyoming and taught me how to kind of sort of fly fish. I caught a lot of trout.

I know that I can get a lot better at what I love to do with professional fly casting lessons, which I will do.

I am forever grateful to my grandfather for bequeathing me all of his fly rods and his membership in the R&G club in the Poconos that is now my outdoor recreational epicenter.

My late father also did the same thing for me.

I am going there this weekend even though I know the water is going to be too high to fish. I can play with my Garmin GPS watch while getting lost in the woods all day and finding my way back to my Jeep.

 

[Baron]

I’m 62. Had a Zebco 202 until 13. Caught allot of fish. Now I’ve been collecting old Johnson push buttons to fix and fish. They’re fun and rugged.

 

[larkmark]

About ten yrs old with lots of help. Grandson got pretty decent at casting and catching both sunfish and trout by 13. I started at 15 with no help and struggled along but managed a few trout mostly on crappy wet flies.

 

[tomgamber]

Not sure this qualifies as teaching someone to fly fish as a whole but I taught my 4 year old nephew to cast and catch bluegills in about an hour. Now all he had to do was cast and retrieve. couldn't tie on his own fly but was able to clumsily catch release some bluegills. Only had about 15 feet of line out. I guess it would depend on the degree of learning you wanted them to have. Some people are just better at stuff then others. If you start them off simply and progress, I don't think there is a limit on either end.

 

[JeffK]

I'm going to say 14ish.

My practice is to start off with a cane pole and bobbers for sunfish and then maybe a spincast outfit for bigger fish.

A few cane pole tips. Try to find 10x long cricket hooks (or as long streamer hooks as you can get) - the longer shanks really help taking the hook out of sunnies. Debarbing the hook helps as well. And don't forget wearing some kind of glasses for safety. Kids throw hooks all over the place. My bait phase lasted a very short time; I soon switched over to our "secret lure" which was a 1/64 oz jig with a few wisps of pink marabou tied to it (keep it sparse). No need to get bait and motion of bobber in waves will provide enough action to catch fish. Very soon kids learned subtle actions to catch tougher sunnies. When kids are small they want to catch any kind of fish with little effort. Don't worry about size or species. When my son was about 5 he hooked a 4 lbs pickerel. He took one look at the toothy grin and handed me the rod and moved behind me. Big fish can scare small kids.

A spincast outfit is an easier option when kids want to upgrade to trout and bass IMHO.

Can ease into fly casting early with sunnies, but trout maybe a little later. one issue is being secure in wading. Another thing is patience. My kids could focus on fly fishing when dry fly action was hot, but bored quickly when action died down.

good luck!

When kids wan

 

[Bamboozle]

I don’t have kids, but I have taken more than a few young ones fishing, many on their first time out.

I’m happy to report they always asked me to take them out again, I feel in part because of three rules I always adhere to for myself:

1. Fish only as long as they are interested and quit when THEY want to quit. If it ends up they prefer to throw rocks in the water, let them have their fun as long as it isn’t at someone else’s expense.

2. Leave MY fishing rod at home or in the car and focus purely on THEIR fun, tangles & snags.

3. Don’t try and make MY fishing preferences, THEIR fishing preferences unless they show a STRONG interest. In other words, if worms, a Zebco & a bobber works for them...

...leave it alone for the time being.

 

[JimKennedy]

Much good advice previously posted. Sunnies with a soft / slow glass rod to start; focus on roll cast; fish when they want to fish, goof around when they want to goof around. I've taught many kids, and these bits from previous guys really caught my eye.

Quick tip: Get a dowel about 2 feet long and have the kid fling a plastic bottle off the tip. If they can control flinging the bottle, they can control where the cast goes when they're using a rod.

Knots are important and kids do not have fully developed finger dexterity / fine motor skills until somewhere in the 6-7-8 range. It varies.

My dad started taking me at 4-5, but I was just pulling them in when we fly fished. Only on small creeks (mainly Rose River in Blue Ridge region of Virginia).

When the kid lets you know he or she is ready / old enough, action is still very important. If you're lucky enough to live near a creek with a hickory shad run, take full advantage. Hickory shad will swat a fly, and sometimes if you miss the first or second one on a single cast, you may get a third hit on the same cast.

Super important thing to remember: A kid who weighs 30 pounds is easily washed away, and it takes a lot less water than you might think to do it. A tiny trout stream will have a flow of 10 cubic feet per second. A cubic foot of water is just shy of 7.5 gallons. A gallon of water weights just about 8 pounds. When a 30 pound kid wanders into a fast-flowing spot (which they will do like a dog to something stinky) on that small 10 CFS creek, they're facing 600 pounds of water per second. It doesn't look dangerous, but it certainly can be, especially if the air temperature is under 60 degrees. They may not be swept away, but being cold and wet from an early season full fishing baptism is at best unpleasant.

To many of us, respect for water is so second nature, we sometimes forget about it, but when we're dealing with the little guys, we need to focus on the basics.

The most important thing of all: Take kids fishing, make sure they enjoy it, don't plan on fishing yourself, and be sure to point out the wonders of nature. Our time to enjoy fly fishing the streams of this earthly estate is limited to our time as mere mortals. We transcend this and fish on into the ages when we pass the skills and enjoyment on to the next generations. It makes me happy to think I'm fishing for my dad and the half dozen or so guys who taught him how to fish back in the 1940s when he was a boy.

I am hopeful my son and the other boys and girls I've taught to fish bring me along when they go fishing and I've moved on to the great beyond.