Like Father Like son, (teaching my boy to tie flies)

[bowmike 0]

Well I have been teaching my boy to tie for a little while now. He is four. Since last year and up until about 2 weeks ago I have always held his hand while he is holding the tools and such. I picked him up a regal Travle vise. I let him choose all of the materials and such that he ties with, and have mostly just helped him with the motions.

 

Roughly 2 weeks ago I started only coaching him on things, and he is holding the tools and such on his own. Now I may have to hold his hand and tool if he needs to go back over or lock something in better but I would say he is now tying 85% on his own.

 

This is a blast and he loves it. It gives us some one on one time that he doesn't get as much now that he has twin 2 year old sisters. LOL

 

I was tying up some nymphs, and he and his mom came home from visiting his grandmother. He told me he wanted to tie so I put vise and such away. He told me "Daddy I want to tie a big fly!" So I got out a size 4 streamer hook and he did kind of a bass sized bugger with some saddle hackle tail. I thought that would be good then he said, "NO DADDY! I want to tie one of the ones that have the really really big hook, and the fishy head."

 

So we went at it. He watches monster fish and told me that he wanted it to be red like an injured fish, like how thy Pyara like to eat. LOL

 

So we went to town, and came up with this one. Now I had to hold his hand when locking in the deer hair and such, but he tied in the feathers, and the chenille and such.

 

This is my favorite thing about tying now. He is going to be one heck of a tyer some day. The last picture is of his bugger, and my musky fly. LOL

[bowmike 0]

Forgot to mention that when we went to put the glue on my son dropped the head, I put the glue on and as he is picking it up the dye or something on the deer hair and the krazy glue had a chemical reaction. It started to his, and give of some sort of smoke, it then shot some sort of liquid and it hit me in the eye. I hollered and ran to the bathroom to flush it out.

 

I came back in and Corbin says, " Im calling this one the Fire Punch, since my fly punched you in the eye, DAD!"

[MuskyFlyGuy 0]

Great story and pictures. Thanks for sharing.

Tom

[Dave G. 0]

He'll have that vise and the skills for the rest of his life lOL !

[Flat Rock native 0]

Smile a Mile wide here, Loud cheers from Buffalo, WY.

[dflanagan 0]

Good stuff. Hoping I can get my boys to take interest and have the same experience.

[SILKHDH 0]

I remember when I showed my son fly tying. He got into it for a while. Put a booth at a local craft fair. He had the walk way blocked with people stopping to watch him tie. They had to scoot his booth over to make more room. We don't see a lot of fly tying here in Kansas y'all... LOL..Sold a lot of flies too. I remember he sold a lot of little foam beetles and Copper Johns. He was tying Copper Johns before they were being sold in stores and magazines. (A fisherman in Colorado showed me one while on the Eleven Mile Canyon spillway river.) It was awesome hearing him tell me the story when he was finished with the craft fair. He was so proud of himself. (Not to mention I was glowing proud of him too). MY SON!! THE HIT OF THE CRAFT FAIR!! Then he got a BMX bike and started racing it. (Following his dad's legacy) Game over- vise for sale. He'll get older and come back to the dark side some day. You'll see. Now he's in his thirty's and has a child. WOW,,Geeze, It's just now hitting me how long ago that was. Well, that's it... I'm depressed,, got to go.

[Streambum4trout 0]

That is so great! I tried to get my son into it and he has no desire🙁

[SILKHDH 0]

YO, BOWMIKE!!!!!!! You cherish these moments buddy. In the blink of an eye, you'll be like me looking back. I cannot believe how fast it went. Milk it for all it's got BOWMIKE. Milk it!!