I had to chuckle at this but its kind of a heart warming story so thought id share it.

I fish a small resevoir in yorkshire and as I work in a school have been down most days in the summer holidays. Its an easy venue, you know the kind, where you find yourself using the place to try out new techniques and flies as it gets a bit easy using normal methods.
At the start of the holiday I saw a young lad (turned out he was 11 I later found out) float fishing with worms. He wandered over to me, had I caught anything? "Yer about 10 or so, they are just under the surface taking buzzers as they hatch, and you?" I replied. "Nope Nothing".

I took a look at his setup, lowered his float depth, tied a couple of foot of flourocarbon to his nylon (which must have been 15lb), removed his size 6 hook and replaced it with a size 14 from a buzzer I broke down for him.

"There ya go try that, cast in next to where im fishing if ya want". Well the water was boiling with fish and his float just sat there for the next hour whilst my flies landing next to it were been hit the second they hit the water. Poor kid I though as he informed me he had to go meet his mum.

Over the next few weeks I kept seeing the same kid. By now he had progressed onto using a small mepps. Surely this would catch him a stockie. Turns out he had still caught nothing. Towards the end of the holidays, he turns up with a fly rod (GRXi of all things!!! better than mine) and starts doing a good impression of a lion tamer next to me.

Once again I set him up and gave him a 30 min basic fly fishing lesson and a handfull of buzzers. (During which time I hooked 2 fish just whilst showing him how to retrieve).

By now Im thinking this is the unluckiest kid alive, his buzzers are landing 2 foot from where im fishing with the same buzzers, im bagging up and apparently he hasnt even had a pull. I go on to explain where in the water his buzzers need to fish and mention on the offhand how some of the bait fishers fish a single buzzer under a bubblefloat and let it drift about, to keep in the productive area of water.

Next time I see the young fella, hes extatic, hes caught 2 fish on a buzzer!!! at last. I setup next to him and start fishing and when I realise how he is fishing I physically have to walk away and have a good old chuckle. SOoo using his lovely new fly rod he has a whopping great bubblefloat tied to the end of his floating line, then under this he has a piece of nylon and a small buzzer. He is pulling off a decent amount of flyline at his feet then launching the bubblefloat out! I didnt have the heart to explain bungs to him. Needless to say I Cringed everytime I saw his rod arc over under the force of having to cast a bubblefloat.

The kid has to learn. Pity he hasn't a dad to show him the ropes. The fact he keeps coming back show he's keen.

BK

Cute story Guppy ! Feel sorry for the little guy -- at least you took the time to try and explain things.
I wonder what the Fly Shop will say when he takes it back in pieces ??

MD

__________________
"The two best times to fish is when it's rainin' and when it ain't." ~ Patrick F. MacManus ~

Hehe

Hope I get to him before he needs to send the rod back in pieces.

Tied up a bunch of minilures, buzzers and boobies as im going down this weekend and tied a few casts of flouro with a booby on a short top dropper and a buzzer on the point.

I will leave em with the Baliff/one of the regular old boys to give to "a young un fishing a bubble float with a flyrod" if he isnt down there when I arrive.

I could always go the other route and swap him his nice new flyrod for a knackered old worming rod that would "handle his bubblefloat better" hehe but alas, I aint that much of a b..stard!

well he caught 2 fish and that's all that kid was worried about .. He can only learn more from now on ...

better an abitious kid looking a bit of a wally as a starter on the bank than him scrawling graffiti on walls or worse..

billy

It will be wonderful if the kid takes to fishing it may help to keep him out of trouble in his early teenage years until he discovers other pleasures like drink and girls.

BK

Guppy,
What a great story. Thanks for your time and patience and generousity to the youngster.
Neil.

My vote for post of the year!

Well as I see it, someone took the time to eductate me when I was fishing my local canal with a size 6 meat hook with maggots for bait :O as a kid.

The only way our years of info gets passed on and new people join the sport is by helping and sharing our info with youngsters.

Beginners will only take so many failed attempts before giving up at something and what good are all your best kept fishing secrets after you are dead? Number one priority with this kid was to get him to catch by any means, after that taste im sure finesse will come later!

On a side note there is a fine line between helping someone out and been one of those busy bodies you get that stands next to you imparting every bit of "helpfull knowledge they have".

We all know the type ..
Hehe we have a bait fisher who has never held a flyrod in his life in our club. Hes a nice enough bloke but he will insist on standing next to ya and saying "oi fella, fella, what ya need is an orange goldhead on" whilst "helping you" by throwing handfulls of casters next to where you flies land!! "There ya go mate, got em on the top for ya now, get yer fly in there!!!" just as you watch that specimen brown youve been stalking melt away and end up replaced by a feeding frenzie of stockies, so preoccupied with caster they wont touch anything else!!!