Back in April 2014, my wife and I opened our home to 4 kids in need of a safe place to live. It started off as a temporary arrangement, but it soon became clear it was going to be permanent. That wasn't a bad thing, the kids had been through hell, and they deserved to be happy. Anyway, long story made short, August 10th 2016 we finalized the adoption of Caleb, Emma, Leland and Jada. Making us all one big happy fly fishing family.
Now to the fly fishing part....Anyway, we saw early on that Caleb in particular had a natural talent for fishing, and really had the desire to learn as much he could about every aspect of the sport. He was 5 when he came to live with us, but by the time he was 6 he had quickly learned to cast a fly rod and was taking it upon him self to tie his own flies. The best part of this, was it was obvious he was teaching him self, I gave him guidance when he asked for it, but he pretty much did his own thing. This even included spending time in the river next to our house doing his own research on what insects lived in the river. Now here we are 3 years later, he's up to 3 fly rods, including 1 glass rod.
Not wanting to be left out, over the last 2 years Emma, Leland and Jada have all been bitten by the fly fishing bug as well. Emma is now 8 does pretty good on the river, but truly excels at the fly tying bench. She's earned herself the nick name Fly Girl around our house. Leland struggles at the fly tying bench, but on the water he is a predator! If there is a fish any where around, he will catch it. Jada is still little, but she tries. She learned to fly cast Easter morning this year while waiting for dinner to cook, and even at 4 years old was able to lay out 50 feet of line after just a few minutes of instruction. For what its worth, all 4 kids learned to cast with a glass rod, and I truly believe that helped. Earlier this year, I published a book called Teaching Kids to Fly Fish on the cover is my daughter Emma at 7 years old, doing her thing with a glass rod. Gota love it!
Posted: 12 Oct 2017, 19:31 • 
