Hooking youngsters on fishing

By V. Paul Reynolds

The Penobscot Fly Fishers have been around more than 30 years. One of its missions is to promote fly fishing and fly tying. PFF also exists to encourage fellowship among  those anglers who share a common bond. Over the years, PFF has taught numerous kids and parents how to properly cast a fly rod and create a hand-tied artificial fly.

Recently, during PFF’s annual Cabin Reliever Show at the Brewer auditorium, I was surprised to see no young people gathered around the Kids Fly Tying table. In earlier years, when I was an active member, I recall an altogether different scene of youngsters gathered around the tying vice, visibly excited to be learning the skill of fly tying by a seasoned PFF instructor.

“Is your group still conducting fly tying and fly casting classes for youngsters and their parents?,” I asked one of the members.

“Not any more,” I was told. “For some reason, a few years ago, we just stopped getting any response. We discontinued the classes for an apparent lack of interest,” I was told.

“I wonder what is going on?” I asked myself.  “Why are youngsters seemingly no longer interested in learning how to catch a feisty fish on a fly they tied themselves?”

What do you think? 

There is probably more than one explanation of what  sociologists would label a “cultural shift.”

For one thing, we know that the COVID pandemic era interrupted multi-year traditions. Parents stopped enrolling children in in-person programs and some families never returned to structured activities. Participation in outdoor recreation did go up during COVID, but interest in instructional programs declined.

Fewer parents fish, so their children don’t follow suit. Also kids’ schedules are much more hyper-structured than a few years ago. It is hard for fly tying classes to compete with pee wee hockey, video gaming and, yes, social media time — the everpresent  Iphone!

We also know that more than ever our children, not unlike their parents, live in an era of instant gratification with short attention spans, fast feedback and shorter learning sessions. Fly tying is a detail oriented undertaking and tends toward slow gratification (catching a fish later on a fly the child tied himself).

We also know from recent debates about banning Maine fly fishing only waters that there is a popular misconception that fly fishing is costly and the exclusive domain of the sporting elite. Nothing could be further from the truth.

It saddens me that in a state like Maine with an incomparable sport fishery, that includes remote trout ponds that are habitat to priceless wild brook trout, the younger generation is missing out. For me and my family, casting a small dry fly to a rising brook trout in early June is the ultimate angling memory.

All I can say to parents or children looking for an experience that raises the bar of wonderful fishing experiences is this: casting a fly rod on a fly you tied yourself is a skill accessible to all.

Catch the wave, baby.

The author is editor of the Northwoods Sporting Journal. He is also a Maine Guide and host of a weekly radio program “Maine Outdoors” heard Sundays at 7 p.m. on The Voice of Maine News-Talk Network. He has authored three books. Online purchase information is available at www.sportingjournal.com, Outdoor Books.