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Starting a Fly Tying Class for Middle School Students -- Need Advice

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At school this January, I will be starting a beginning fly tying class for students grades 5 - 8 (10 - 12 year olds), and would appreciate any advice. I'm particularly looking for simple patterns that these kids can use in their farm ponds, creeks, and rivers. Species to target will be primarily sunfish, bass, crappie, and other warm-water fish.

 

If you have any advice, patterns, or questions send them my way! Especially if you've taught a class like this to younger kids before.

 

Thanks!

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My son is 6 and loves tying with me. We usually do a mini hopper pattern. We use it all the time and it works great on bluegill. Maybe an ant pattern?

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First, thanks for taking this on.

 

I'm involved with Boy Scouts (ages 11-18) as a merit badge counseler for the fly fishing merit badge. One of the requirements for the merit badge is to tie 3 different types of flies(wet, streamer, dry)

Depending on the number of students, you will probably want to enlist the help of at least another tier or two, This will enable you to give each student more individual instruction. That's really important with a group that is going into this absolutely cold. The closer to one-on-one you get, the better.

Start at the beginning - show them how to put the hook in the vise and attach the thread to it. Have all the materials need for that fly together for each student in a zip-loc bag. This will speed things up greatly.

Demonstrate the steps in tying the pattern you have decided on, then walk them thru it step by step, with the other instructors roaming around the group helping the students. This is where a few other tiers are a big help. If possible, give each student a finished fly of that pattern as a model. Make sure everyone completes each step before moving to the next one.

 

Have a plan for each session, and for the course as a whole. This makes it much easier to gather tools and materials before hand, and avoids a lot of last minute rushing around. I keep all the vises, tools, and materials in one of those Tuperware tubs. All I have to do is grab it and go.

 

Vises - I've found that the cheapie C-clamp types work just fine for this. I think I bought 12 vises for around $12 each, and they work fine.

Tools - Bobbins - All the tiers I know have several bobbins. Borrow some, or buy some cheapies. They'll work fine.

Scissors - same deal, or use the small fingernail scissors from the drug store. Two students can share one

pair.

 

Have spares for everything - bobbins, thread, hooks, materials.

 

I don't know if you are doing this for a school classroom, but you might check to see if the school can come up with a small budget to help. If not, don't be shy about asking suppliers for small donations of material and even tools. My experience with the big box stores is they need a lot of lead time, and you have to fill out a formal request to the main office.

 

Patterns - Keep it simple. A good first pattern is the Wooly Worm. Very simple to tie, few materials, and it always catches fish.

 

Remember how it was when you started tying. Don't try to impress them with your tying skills, you are there to help them get started. Get them busy tying as soon as possible. You'll have kids that are all thumbs, and some that take to it like a duck to water. Try and get the kids who are doing well to help the ones that are struggling.

 

Have a good time with this, and good luck. I'm sure you'll do fine.

If you have any questions or comments, please PM me. I'd be glad to help in any way possible.

 

Wow, my $.02 worth turned out to be $1.00. Sorry.

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umm lets see. i started by learning from a friend of my dads in about the 8th grade... the first patern i tied was a wooly bugger. i tied about 20 ofthose before i moved on to anything else at all.just a simple brown marabou chynnell and hackle. the hardest part of that for me was the hackle wrapping. i also didn't understand how long of a tail i should be using. and didn't understand that i should be using the tips of the feather i was always trying to conserve the feathers before i realized tht i wouldn't ever run out of them. but uh you could even just have them tye a little beatle for sunfish it would be a quick tye and its hard to mess one up real bad with the foam already cut for them. also, i broke my first hook by putting too much pressure. so itd be a good idea to have extras of lots of things, because somones bound to break a feather or two. id go with a thicker thread too because i broke about 3 threads nd was very discouraged on my first few flies.

hope this could be of some help,

Brad

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I taught my nephew to tie when he was 10. Patience is a big issue at that age, so keep it simple. As suggested buggers are a good start. I went with the SanJuan worm, wolly bugger, and bluegill spider in that order. The first let's them grasp the basic skills without too much fuss, the second has all the obvious benefits already discussed. The spider let's them play with rubber legs, and even a poorly tied spider is a gill catching machine.

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There is a great resource associated with FFF, it's called The Fly Tying Group. Go to the FFF site then click in the Group. You don't have to be a member of either the FFF or the Group to access the information. They have a class syllabus, patterns for beginners what ever you need.

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There is a great resource associated with FFF, it's called The Fly Tying Group. Go to the FFF site then click in the Group. You don't have to be a member of either the FFF or the Group to access the information. They have a class syllabus, patterns for beginners what ever you need.

That's quite nifty! Here's the direct link.

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There is a great resource associated with FFF, it's called The Fly Tying Group. Go to the FFF site then click in the Group. You don't have to be a member of either the FFF or the Group to access the information. They have a class syllabus, patterns for beginners what ever you need.

That's quite nifty! Here's the direct link.

 

Thanks for posting, I'm not very savvy on such things, has to do with my age I think.

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First, thanks for taking this on.

 

I'm involved with Boy Scouts (ages 11-18) as a merit badge counseler for the fly fishing merit badge. One of the requirements for the merit badge is to tie 3 different types of flies(wet, streamer, dry)

Depending on the number of students, you will probably want to enlist the help of at least another tier or two, This will enable you to give each student more individual instruction. That's really important with a group that is going into this absolutely cold. The closer to one-on-one you get, the better.

Start at the beginning - show them how to put the hook in the vise and attach the thread to it. Have all the materials need for that fly together for each student in a zip-loc bag. This will speed things up greatly.

Demonstrate the steps in tying the pattern you have decided on, then walk them thru it step by step, with the other instructors roaming around the group helping the students. This is where a few other tiers are a big help. If possible, give each student a finished fly of that pattern as a model. Make sure everyone completes each step before moving to the next one.

 

Have a plan for each session, and for the course as a whole. This makes it much easier to gather tools and materials before hand, and avoids a lot of last minute rushing around. I keep all the vises, tools, and materials in one of those Tuperware tubs. All I have to do is grab it and go.

 

Vises - I've found that the cheapie C-clamp types work just fine for this. I think I bought 12 vises for around $12 each, and they work fine.

Tools - Bobbins - All the tiers I know have several bobbins. Borrow some, or buy some cheapies. They'll work fine.

Scissors - same deal, or use the small fingernail scissors from the drug store. Two students can share one

pair.

 

Have spares for everything - bobbins, thread, hooks, materials.

 

I don't know if you are doing this for a school classroom, but you might check to see if the school can come up with a small budget to help. If not, don't be shy about asking suppliers for small donations of material and even tools. My experience with the big box stores is they need a lot of lead time, and you have to fill out a formal request to the main office.

 

Patterns - Keep it simple. A good first pattern is the Wooly Worm. Very simple to tie, few materials, and it always catches fish.

 

Remember how it was when you started tying. Don't try to impress them with your tying skills, you are there to help them get started. Get them busy tying as soon as possible. You'll have kids that are all thumbs, and some that take to it like a duck to water. Try and get the kids who are doing well to help the ones that are struggling.

 

Have a good time with this, and good luck. I'm sure you'll do fine.

If you have any questions or comments, please PM me. I'd be glad to help in any way possible.

 

Wow, my $.02 worth turned out to be $1.00. Sorry.

 

 

You may also want to include hackle pliers, and check with the FFF for possible donations or help with your endeavor, they may be able to help with tools and materials and possibly assistants for your class.

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Here is something you may need to take into consideration. If you are teaching at a school, you need to check the regs on scissors and bodkins believe it or not.

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Thanks to everybody for quick and very useful information. I'd love to get the school to allow a field trip at the end of the semester to try out our new flies! Who knows...doesn't hurt to ask.

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