How young to Fly fish.

[Oregon_OwlII]

My daughter asked the same question of me. I told her 12 was a good starting point with a fly rod, that her son (my grandson) should be fishing for bluegills with bait to start to get some success. I did give him a FF lesson at 12 and he, his father and I took an overnight trip to a small river out here in Oregon last year where he caught the first, biggest and most fish of the trip. But to give you perspective, his 'big one was @ 7 inches, his 'most' were 2. It was tough fishing and I'm sure he enjoyed it, but without question his first passion is music (trumpet and piano).

 

[Bruno]

I started both my sons at a young age and they both were able to catch fish. I will thank my fishing partners and a big shout out to Albatross for helping me teach my kids to fish. However, I think a fly rod is much easier for a kid. There are less moving parts. I am fortunate that we have a "youth only stream " near camp. Both my kids really learned to fish on that stream. After opening day and the fish rodeo it is mostly empty of people. I just really gave them a dry dropper rig and let them have at it. Kids are smarter and more adaptive then we give them credit for IMO.

My 13 year old goes steelhead fishing and trout fishing with me often. As Drakeking said sometimes its just time to throw rocks or build a fire. Let them dictate the day and dont put your expectations on them.

Albatross put my then 12 year old son on to this salmon a few years back. The other pic is of Albatross with my son when he was very young helping him fight a steelhead.

 

[moon1284]

https://youtu.be/6TxGVSw6Ayw

I think it depends on the kid. The kid in the video was 9. He probably could have been taught to cast a fly rod when he was 4.

 

[hunter1]

Thanks all again. I and their fathers will keep them on bobber fishing for awhile longer.

 

[ryansheehan]

Late to the party but figured I would share. Got the older of my two boys(12) out on the river the last two days. I was fly fishing while he was bobber and worm fishing. I hooked up a few fish for him on a fly rod and would hand it to him, that really got him going. He landed a 21 inch rainbow and a wild 18 inch brown yesterday and today. Today he said leave the spinning rod in the truck!(yesssssss!!!!!!) He had a blast with the fly rod, he was chucking a nymph rig and some dries throughout the day pretty well. He came home and told his mom that was so much more fun because he was always doing something.

 

[afishinado]

ryansheehan wrote:
Late to the party but figured I would share. Got the older of my two boys(12) out on the river the last two days. I was fly fishing while he was bobber and worm fishing. I hooked up a few fish for him on a fly rod and would hand it to him, that really got him going. He landed a 21 inch rainbow and a wild 18 inch brown yesterday and today. Today he said leave the spinning rod in the truck!(yesssssss!!!!!!) He had a blast with the fly rod, he was chucking a nymph rig and some dries throughout the day pretty well.

He came home and told his mom that was so much more fun because he was always doing something.

Yup!! I took my niece and nephew fishing when they were age 8 & 10 I believe. They were bored watching a bobber and worm. They asked me to bring out the fly rod and we messed with that. They loved trying to cast the rod and that was more of a game to them than actually catching fish although we ended up catch a bunch of panfish on poppers. They were thrilled!

In the fall the family came over to our house for Thanksgiving. If the weather is good, we usually end up throwing a football around the backyard before dinner. You may have guessed it.....they asked to get out some fly rods to cast them in the yard instead!

I've found a lot of kids get bored watching a bobber and find the challenge of fly casting and fly fishing more challenging and more fun.

 

[nomad_archer]

I too am late to the party. But my experience is as soon as they can hold the rod. Ponds are great places to start. I'm starting all of my kids on a fly rod. The sportsmans club I belong to stocks trout and is C&R FF only from October until mid April when the kids trout rodeo happens.

I used that pond to teach my now 9 year old to fly fish and am now working on the 2 and 4 year olds. We went out to the pond on Saturday, my 9 year old caught 4 fish my two year old caught a fish and the 4 year old was the net master. It was a great time.

I cast for the younger 2 and my 9 year old does it all herself. My advice is to just let them kids have fun and don't get too serious. This year my 9 year old graduates to moving water. Don't underestimate what the little kids are capable of.