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niveker

Fishing with the Nephew

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Took my 13 year old nephew out fly fishing this past Saturday, his second time on the water.  Ended up on a little, unstocked freestone in western Mass hoping for a few native brook trout, but alas it was not to be.  Probably could have picked a better location to guarantee a catch, but he enjoyed it nonetheless. Air temps were in the mid 50', water was much colder than I expected at around 46-8. 

He's got the cast down pretty well, although occasionally it goes all to hell, like his Uncle, LOL.  

IMG-20220423-110032a.jpg

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Probably the water was too cold for much activity. Another 10 degrees and I bet your nephew will catch some.

He's got a nice loop on that backcast!

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Having taken my Nephew fishing in the past, I would wager a bet you still had a great day even without the fish ;) Nothing better than time on the water with family.

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3 hours ago, Steeldrifter said:

Having taken my Nephew fishing in the past, I would wager a bet you still had a great day even without the fish ;) Nothing better than time on the water with family.

I agree. Started fishing with the wife about 50 years ago, then the kids and now the grandkids. Catching fish is the icing on the cake.

 

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Looks like one nice brook trout stream. The skunk has been caught by all of us and none of us ever stopped fishing because of it. My fishing roots are steeped in family outings. Nice to see you taking your nephew out fishing. 

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Thanks all. We had a good day.  He wants to go again, so he wasn't too disappointed in the skunking. We'll hit a stocked stream next time.  

21 hours ago, SilverCreek said:

Probably the water was too cold for much activity. Another 10 degrees and I bet your nephew will catch some.

Agreed. I was surprised at the low temp. 

I was pretty impressed with his casting.  Although, as the photo shows, he often watches his back cast unfurl behind, which takes a toll on his accuracy.  

 

 

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It's OK for a beginner to look at their backcast especially in a relatively narrow stream. The cast will probably curve a bit to the left of his target.

He will stop looking as he gets a "feel" for when to start the forward cast. He is doing pretty darn good. And you can tell him that for me!

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He seemed to be enjoying himself and as you said he was doing well, so I let him do his thing.  It will eventually all come together for him.  

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On 4/27/2022 at 9:41 AM, niveker said:

He seemed to be enjoying himself and as you said he was doing well, so I let him do his thing.  It will eventually all come together for him.  

Great looking water and it's a great thing that your teaching your nephew!  I think silver is correct about the water temps keeping the Brookies sluggish, I would add that wild trout are tough mark for anyone especially a novice.  I think you're correct about Stocked trout being his best chance and if you can time it to be there within a day or two of the stocking they will be better still.

 Just a thought (maybe you've done this already) but when the weather warms I'd bring him to some flowing warm water and target the Fall Fish and Bluegills.  They are far less picky about a perfect drift or flies.  The time I spent catching Bluegills early on was a great way for me to hone the fly fishing skills I needed to catch trout.  Still is,  I lost a couple of nice Browns last autumn after the reflex of setting the hook on down stream take came back out of no where.  I addressed the problem by fishing for Bluegills with a downstream presentation.  After catching 30 or so I felt I had trained myself out of that particular temptation and my first Trout of 2022 came on a downstream take.  I think everyone would agree that Bluegills are really fun on a fly rod and having fun will only increase his enthusiasm.  

 

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On 4/27/2022 at 9:10 AM, SilverCreek said:

It's OK for a beginner to look at their backcast especially in a relatively narrow stream. The cast will probably curve a bit to the left of his target.

He will stop looking as he gets a "feel" for when to start the forward cast. He is doing pretty darn good. And you can tell him that for me!

I have stood sideways to watch my cast, front and back.  Helps to iron out the kinks. No rule that says I can't.

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On 5/4/2022 at 6:38 PM, skeet3t said:

No rule that says I can't.

You are correct, @skeet3t, but he also need to work a bit on his fly placement, and I think always looking over his shoulder hinders that.  

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On 5/4/2022 at 12:51 PM, DFoster said:

Just a thought

Water temp was definitely a factor, as was the rather remoteness of the stream.  I don't think it gets much traffic, so the fish are easily put down.  Not the best choice for a new guy.  

I'm in complete agreement regarding bluegills on the fly, its a great way to learn or re-learn, as you say.  I was just down at the like last night doing exactly that, practicing my strip set on those little guys, a hard habit for me to remember on the stream for some reason.  I'll get him out onto the Ware wet wading if it ever warms up.   

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On 5/7/2022 at 11:18 AM, niveker said:

.  I'll get him out onto the Ware wet wading if it ever warms up.   

I've said for years that spring in New England is just a less severe version of winter.  This wind needs to stop.

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