I will be having a son shortly in June. I often think about how much i love fly fishing and archery. I do not want to push my loves on to him. I plan on teaching him to bait fish first then working in fly fishing.

Anyone else have to go back to bait in order to teach your child. If not can you give some advice on starting them with flies and what age to break them in.

I want to teach him to read water and work in knowledge of aquatic insects. I feel you can really get the hang of reading the water with bait first and not get as frustrated with the casting, tangles, and snags :(.

Mike I can't help you with techniques just yet as my son is merely 3 weeks old. I know that for both my sanity and his enjoyment, he'll be starting out with a snoopy pole (actually diego as they don't make snoopy poles anymore) on a farm pond with lots of bluegill.

As you stated I'm not going to push it on him as I don't want him to hate it. But I will start with bait and work our way up from there.

We have a few years until this really comes to fruition anyhow so don't sweat it just yet. Just enjoy the little man when he comes as my wife and I are doing now. It won't be long before he'll be running around like crazy.

Good luck to you and yours.

I started my daughter - and then grand-daughter - fishing with bait when they were like 2-3 years old.
Pretty tough to try to teach FFing to a kid at that age IMO.
And they caught fish rather quickly - which is very important - and had a great time

Mike, I taught my son on bait. He will be 8 soon and will be getting into fly fishing. He already ties his own flies.

I started my son with bait before he was 2, but that summer (his birthday is in May) he told me he wanted to fish like his daddy. I took him out with only a fly rod, left him land a few bluegills than taught him to cast it a few feet. He now says "back stop-front stop" every time he casts and can get a fly out about 15 feet at three years old (soon to be 4).

On a brookie stream he just kinda flicks his streamers upstream with a roll cast(ish) and lets it drift and swing. He does pretty well. He has a lot of learning to do, but there was no need to over complicate it and teach him everything there is to know. Just getting a fly in the water is enough for him.

I guess my point is that to a kid who's never fished before a fly rod is no more complicated than a spinning rod, if it isn't more simple. Just let them learn at their own pace and they'll be fine.

Boyer

PS If you don't use barbless, now is a good time to start.

cool deal steelhead. Are you also checking your watch to countdown til thurday after work. LOL

tough slope not to push them to do something you love. My nephew is 8 and i plan on taking him to catch ralph on sunday after noon. I may put on a trout magnet bobber and fly to try and not get him deep hooked but i would be happy if he got him and wanted to eat him

I started my son with the Spongebob rod, what a POS that thing was, it was difficult for he and I to cast. Then I bought a better bait caster and taught him how to get a decent drift. With that rod he is able to cast ok. When he would use that rod I set him up with corn and a thing-a-ma-bobber.

Within the last year he has shown interest in fly fishing. I knew that he would benefit from a very slow rod, so I purchased the ugliest glass rod you have ever seen. It is an ugly puke orange Cortland with a Higgins reel on it. He has a hard time with the classic nymphs but can do ok with SS. This is becasue he doesn't react quick enough yet and I believe the SS gets caught in their teeth a little. When we go out I still bring a can of corn just in case.

He did pick up two habbits though from learning with bait casters. He doesn't like the reel handle on the left and he became used to the way a drag system works on non-fly reels. The drag thing becomes very evident when I take him Steelheading. You think he would learn when his little knuckles get the snot beat out of them.

Lately I have been working on wading with him. He has rubber hippers with rubber bottom. I found that it helped a lot when I added some sheet metal screws to the bottom. He still likes to hold my hand, but I am trying to break him of that habbit.

I started him when he was four and he is now eight. When we go out I only bring my rod about half of the time. Good luck with everything.

I got my kids these when they started out,. They work pretty well.

Mike,

First Congratulations! Secondly, Be Patient. Remember the short attention span kids will have. When they get bored, just let them go awhile and then bring them back around. You want them to have fun and look forward to the "Fishing Time" not to look on it as a task or something being forced on them.

My bet would be that if you can get a short rod, or make one and you start them out fly-casting they will pick that up as easily as spin or bait casting.

Best of Luck

Dave

Started my three sons on bait at ages 2+, 3. I bought short (4 1/2') trigger spinning reels outfit. Got permission to fish a local pond for bluegills and bass. At about age 4-5, took them to kids only trout sections and they were successful. Be patient and allow them to explore. Through high school and college they were busy with sports and studies, but to this day they love to fish. All three have been to NY for salmon, brown and steelhead fishing. Two are still in college and can't wait for summer break. My oldest is going to join me and several friends for our annual trip to the Little J. He is tying flies for the trip and this will be his first true fly fishing trip.

I started both of my kids off bait fishing. My son who is now ten does fairly well with a flyrod. He started around the age of 8 with a flyrod just roll casting streamers and nymphs. He will be shortly begin his venture into fishing dry flies. Two words of advice, bring your patience along with you, leave your rod in the car, they do have a short attention span and bring plenty of food with you.

Good luck and best of all have fun, you are about to make some of the best memories that you both will ever have.

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I just started teaching my 7 yr old daughter a basic roll cast. Not sure I want a hook on there just yet. But I've taken her spin/bait fishing with me since she was 3 ish...I'll call it fishing but it was more letting her develop her interest at her own pace. Some days there was fishing involved, some days it was a walk carrying fishing rods. It does take patience. But now she can't wait to go.

My 4 year old son is more of a challenge, but he's getting there. They've both had the "kiddie" rods (the Princess one is still my daughter's "go to" rod) The Zebcos don't cast near as well as the Shakespears IMO.

Have fun and just enjoy the time.

Everything everyone else has said I agree with especially Matt. I did not push any of my hobbies or interests on my children but they all wanted to do what dad was doing. But for me I did a little of both bait fish and fly fishing. I think it comes down to if they learn some fly fishing right from the get go, they don't develop some bad habits that they will have to unlearn later.

What I am doing with my 2 year old grandson is just flicking a fly from down stream to up stream, let out about 15-20 feet of line and flick. Now I am helping him but he is really into it.

The key imo is to make sure they are attentive to what is going on, kids do have short attention spans, heck I know adults who do too. So as long as they are attentive we stay with it, when that time is over it is all good.

Up until now we had gone to a local state park lake here in Perry county to catch bluegills, but he will be going this Saturday with me for trout. I have a few holes that there is never anyone around where we can stand directly below a hole and flick the fly up and see what happens.

I am sure since he likes to stand in the yard and flick the fly around he will really enjoy the addition of moving water to what we have been doing for the last two months.

I say start them as soons as you see the interest, you'll know when.

Im kinda in the same boat....My girlfriend has 2 children, one 8 (boy) and a 6 year old daughter. Right now All I can do with them is Bait fish (which they love doing). I am also not too sure when to start teaching the FFing. They are getting into fly tying (by their request) so I think I peaked their interest. But i am clueless as to how to go about teaching them so they dont hate it....

My sons first trout of the year on a lightning mcqueen fishing rod. He was really excited.

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