Teaching Kids to Cast

On Mon, 12 Oct 2009 09:52:55 -0700 (PDT), Family-Outdoors
wrote:

Spent some time teaching my youngest some basics. Started on grassy
field and worked about a half hour as he was pretty adamant about
wanting to get on water. He is 16. We tried this process several
years ago but he really was not ready. Did not have patience to
contend with various aspects of process and learning curve involved.
Also, like his Dad was (me) at that age, he was a little lacking in
the coordination department. It went much better this time.

He really wants to learn. He wants to guide some day and has the head
knowledge to do it, but knows he must learn to handle a fly rod in
addition to spinning gear. It seems like the hardest thing for me to
get across to him is the feel of allowing the loop to roll out behind
him. We got it down a bit, and then we went fishing. He'd go good
for awhile, then start regressing. He would then ask me to look and
see what it was he was doing wrong. Except when he asked, I tried to
not even watch him.

If anyone has any tips on this process I'd love to hear.

Paul

It seems a safe assumption, based on your question, that you aren't an
instructor, nor an expert caster yourself. If that is incorrect, pardon my
assumption. There are all sorts of tips, tricks, etc. in teaching another to
cast, but I've got to say, if the budget allows, get a pro. If not, see if you
can find an "expert" level caster to help him out. There are several reasons
for this recommendation, but two biggies are that often, a moderate caster has
"ingrained" deficiencies that they pass along when teaching, and those can get
magnified when passed along. The second is that, again often, not always, that
parents teaching children, one spouse/partner teaching the other, etc., be it
casting, driving, or similar things, doesn't end well. It's not the fault of
the people and/or lack of skill of either, it's the overall dynamic of the
relationship.

Long story short, you both might be better off having a pro or expert outsider
teach him casting. You can have the fun of teaching him fishing...

TC,
R