Archive for the ‘Youth’ Category

Yesterday, the Winnipeg Free Press published a short article on a couple of opportunities to get youth more involved in the sport of fly fishing.  The article entitled “A reel opportunity for kids,” reports that a program called “Reel Solutions For Kids” founded by Doug and Janice Leroux targets youth “at risk.”  Originally founded in Lac Du Bonnet, Manitoba, the program hopes to expand and be involved in other communities throughout the Canadian Province of Manitoba.

As well, in May 2010, Fly Fishing Canada is holding a Youth Fly Fishing clinic in Roblin Manitoba, in conjunction with the Canadian Fly Fishing Championships being held at the same time in and around Roblin.  Canadian youth between the ages of 13 and 18 are invited to attend where they will learn about loch-style fly fishing.

There is more information about the youth clinic on Fly Fishing Canada’s website.

More information about “Reel Solutions For Youth” here.

I received a very nice email and photograph from Trevor Northan, Business Development Manager of Total Sea Fishing Magazine.  Trevor writes,

“I just came across your article (ed. Snowbee Classic Junior Fly Rod) purely by accident, and I gave the same Snowbee rod to my Granddaughter who started fly fishing at 7 years of age. Having been a keen fly angler myself for many years I was amazed at how quickly Poppy took to the sport, and not only managed some effective short range casts, but landed 3 fine rainbows on her first outing. I have attached a picture for your perusal.

As you say this rod is light and very easily put to great use by a young beginner to the sport, and casts beautifully. Like you I agree that it is best suited to a 6wt line. Whenever a product is aimed at the “ child market “ there is always a huge shortfall in it’s usefulness: not so with this gem of a rod. To an adult, as you say, you are restricted by its’ length: but a child is not. This is the finest rod that you could ever give a young fly fisher and 100% fit for the purpose!”

The image Trevor sent:

Trevor’s granddaughter Poppy caught the fish in the photo with the Snowbee Junior fly rod at Heathcote Lakes near Warwickshire, UK.  Warwickshire is located in the West Midlands region of England.  Trevor writes that the area has some hard fighting fish that take savagely and provide good sport.

I’m looking forward to posting some photos of my son David with some fish caught on his Snowbee Junior rod – crossing fingers he’ll be into some later this spring.

Thanks for the note and photo, Trevor! And congratulations, Poppy! I hope you continue to enjoy fly fishing with that rod your grandfather gave you.

That’s the “wee man,” smiling his little heart out after tying up our Copper Oval Tinsel Chironomid pattern.  This time, David did just about everything on his own.  He was pretty proud of himself as well he should be.  We went over our materials list first and  he recalled just about everything we needed.  He set up his vice on his own.  He put the bead on the hook on his own, and then tightened the hook into the vice.  He then started the thread around the shank of the hook.

He tied in the oval tinsel and wound it up to the bead where he had a little problem securing it, but he fixed that up. Then, he tied in his three peacock herl and secured them. The only thing I did was finish it for him with a few half hitches.  I didn’t hold anything for him and didn’t have to tell him what to do or how to do it. He’s getting to be an old pro at this!  Well.. we still need to do a wee bit of work on a few things:

It will still catch fish, but we need to work on getting some things tightened up a bit with David getting used to using a bit more tension.  But this fly is not far off what I tied, all by myself, the very first time, and I was an adult – not a 7 year old kid.

He enjoyed using his new bobbin – a smaller 3″ size that I picked up the other day – a Dr. Slick with ceramic insert. He seemed more comfortable holding and manipulating the smaller size bobbin in his wee hands than the larger one that came in his fly tying kit.

I think I’ll have him tie up a bunch more of these – it will be a good exercise for him to practice his tension while he wraps tinsel around the hook. When he gets it just about right, which I expect he will soon, we’ll move on to tying up some streamers. Then we’ll move back to the woolly bugger and see how well he does completely on his own with that. Of course, David has a say in all of this too – what he wants to tie will be pretty important!

Related:

Chironomid Patterns

Our First Fly Tying Video