"riverman" wrote

Too many kids ...... spend their time playing video games or shopping
in malls and not making a relationship with the natural world


give them some reason to want to
preserve healthy, green natural places for life. So I get to take 17
kids to the North Island in March for a 5-day canoe/fly fishing trip





This is absolutely wonderful ....applause, applause


My only thoughts are to make sure the camping and relationship with the
natural world remain the priority and don't get buried under too much B.S.
about casting and mechanics. This might be as much about picking an exact
destination as classroom instruction. The kids that fall in love WILL
learn to cast, you won't be able to stop them, be a match maker not a task
master.

--------

Last summer while fishing the Firehole, a woman without waders or fishing
vest and waving the rod in a manner that suggested no previous practice
worked down towards me. When she got close she asked, "How long is your lead
line supposed to be?"

Being nearly deaf, I asked her to repeat, which she did, and I then realized
that "lead line" was leader. I got out and as I walked to her she explained
that she had just bought a "fly fishing kit" at the Old Faithful store but
didn't know anything about the knots and how to rig it. She had simply tied
an overhand knot in the fly line, leaving a couple inches of tag, around a
piece of fine level mono for a "lead line."

I dug out a new Rio 7 1/2 ft 4X leader, undid her efforts, and tied on the
leader with a nail-less nail knot. Then I looked at the #12 EHC she had been
sold and replaced it with a #18 Entjes Emerger. I gave her a tip or two on
what tippet to get and how to tie a surgeons knot and then some brief
instruction on down and across wet fly swinging, encouraging her not to try
to get it out too far and to worry about fishing, not casting.

I took her a short distance to some good water to fish from the bank, told
her I'd be right downstream if she had questions and went on my way.

Within minutes a yell turned my head and she was fast to an 8 inch Firehole
Brown Trout, her smile wide as the Yellowstone sky.

--------

The purpose of that little story is to point out that she was an absolute
newbie, but it took very little "teaching" to get her into fish and have her
hooked probably for life, because the Firehole in early June is a generous
river. Find the kids a generous river.