Markbob 0 Report post Posted August 27, 2012 Hey everyone! My little guy is about 6 1/2 yo now and I think it may be time to put a long rod in his hand. I intend to start him out with some bream on a 3wt. My first instinct is to take him to the pond and I'll cast and then teach him how to retrieve a popper or other small surface bug. My hope is that he will catch a mess of them that way and then be hooked and want to keep learning. If you are a parent who has taught your kid to fly fish or if you learned from a parent at a young age, how did you do it? Any tips? Any ideas on how to teach a 6yo to cast a fly rod? Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
gpd4 0 Report post Posted August 27, 2012 Mine's about the same age. I usually do the casting and let him retrieve it. I'll probably work on casting with him in the spring... Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
dreamcaster4639 0 Report post Posted August 27, 2012 My oldest is 9 and he started a year or so ago. I let him practice casting in back yard. I put a small (bb) splitshot on instead of a fly so it was a little safer he was using my old 8' 5wt Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Lance Kekel 0 Report post Posted August 31, 2012 I started my daughter out when she was 7. We kept it short and fun. As soon as she wanted to try something else out we did it, I made sure that I never forced the fly rod on her. I bought a 4-5 4t 8' rod and it served it's purpose very well. When they are young they have a tendancy to kind of flail with the line no batter how hard you try to teach the timing thing. Don't wory about it, if you keep them interest it will come around. My daughter got her first steelhead on the fly rod when she was 9 and she was still flailing with the rod a bit. She didn't touch the fly rod for about year and a half and picked it back up this summer. She's 13 now and said "dad I need a refresher on casting" Spent about 10 minutes with her and POW her casting took off. After about 30 minutes of fishing she was pulling out more line and really trying to load the rod. By the end of the day she was trying to figure out mending the line. It was very cool and has COMPLETELY made my summer. My point is be patient. There will be times when you may feel they are making no progress and as long as you keep it fun and maintain their interest it will get there. Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
SNOWOLF 0 Report post Posted August 31, 2012 I chose a little different approach. Instead of teaching them with a fly rod I continued to let them use there closed face bait casters. I bought some of the clear torpeido shaped bobbers that you run the line through the middle and then filled them with water. You then put as much line out the bottom end as you want and tie a fly on. This way they where fly fishing with me and not having to deal with tangles and such and they caught just about as many fish as me. I don't think they thought there was a differance since we where all using flies they helped me tie. Today they both (1 boy an 1 girl) tye their own flies and fish with flyrods. What is fun they will continue to do. Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Mike1958 0 Report post Posted August 31, 2012 Instead of a fly, if you want to lessen the odds of ending up at the emergency room, use a small piece of ladies pantyhose (ASK before cutting them up!!) Bluegills will hit anything and it's a fun, visual, almost-the-real-thing experience for the kids when the bluegill's teeth get stuck in the nylon. You can experiment with different colors too to demonstrate how 'matching the hatch' is an important aspect of fly fishing. P.S Chicken livers wrapped in a strip of pantyhose often translates into a bunch of eels for supper... their teeth are very fine and get stuck in the material and all you do is pull 'em out when it's time to go home Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
