I've been thinking of ways to give back to this great activity of fly fishing, and how to maybe to make my living doing this (since fly fishing makes me come alive). One of my fellow Canucks is Ian Colin James, a transplanted Scot also known as the Carpfather, but equally brillant as a fly tier and a fly fishing guide/instructor/former Canadian National Fly Fishing Team member. Ian's book Fumbling With a Fly Rod is a great read. Ian said on a podcast (on Utah-based Fly Fish Radio) in January 2006 that we should get kids involved in fly fishing. That we need to get them out with a fly rod as the kids are our future. Ian spoke about getting a young guy or girl out first with a spin rod, catching fish with a fly rod on small ponds for bluegills or sunfish (for 30-45 minutes at most), and maybe even teaching them how to tie simple flies that they can catch fish on. The need is to give them success. To get them to catch the bug. That we need to get kids involved since the average fly fisher is getting older and we need to do so if this sport is to survive. Ian also spoke about keeping it simple (the K.I.S.S. principle), that the usual equipment seems so mystifying -- that we should keep it basic. I've thought that it would be a great idea of set up a foundation for fly fishing for youth -- to be able to provide free or low-cost workshops or camps to young people to get them out fly fishing -- even to include families. I'm always impressed when families fly fish together -- and in my case, I got my start as a fly fisher through my grandfather. There is Family Tyes, a USA based proram geared to getting children and families involved in fly fishing. The Federation of Fly Fishers has a great Junior program. And there are fly fishing badges for Boy Scouts in North America. Even some youth fly fishing camps already. On top of all that author/artist/fly fisher Kirk Werner has created a series of children's books around a character named Olive the Little Wooly ******; these books teach chilren about fly fishing as well as simple life values too. Finally I just saw that Echo has a line of fly rods for kids called Gecko, made so they can handle them properly (not just cut down adult rods either). So I think it's important to get kids involved in what can be a lifetime activity. That could be the future of our sport.

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"Fly fishing is solitary, contemplative, misanthropic, scientific in some hands, poetic in others, and laced with aesthetic considerations. It's not even clear if catching fish is actually the point." -John Gierach

http://tippetsandleaders.wordpress.com/

Bit of a niche market, I would have thought.

iv spent a lot of time with youngsters teaching them and encouraging them in all aspects of fishing freshwater and sea and its fairly easy as they are more then eager to learn, but then they get to 15 -16 and find out that the thing hanging between their legs is not just for peeeing through.

the next time you see them on the bank with a rod in hand is when there 35+ with their kids, that's why there is a void between the young and the older fisherman.

still that time spent with them when they are young will hopefully stay with them forever.

this is just a general rule some do stick with it

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I will arise and go now, and go to Innisfree,9 bean rows will I have there and a hive for the honey bee.