My Daughter's First Fly Tying Session

[Jeff Clough]

alex-fly.jpg

My daughter Alex (six years old) this afternoon, spending a bit of quality time at the vise with her very proud father.

[nighthawk]

She is a sweet heart!

[Kerry Stratton]

Very cool.

[Lotech]

It's amazing how much concentration young kids have at the vise. It's like they have a deep desire to please themselves and their teachers. Kerry, I remember a picture of your grand daughter watching you tie a fly at your vise. Both your pictures are priceless.

[Jax]

What a lovely little lady. Look out trout! Jax

[Wes]

please tell us who had more fun, you or your daughter?

[Gandolf]

Hi Jeff,

That is so neat! Our daughters are grown, married, and have kids of their own, and the wife and I are enjoying our grandkids a huge amount.

Maybe someday I will have a picture of one of the grandkids at my vise. My kids were not interested in fly fishing or fly tying, even though I tried. The younger liked to fish, but had no desire to fly fish. With grandkids, two of them boys, there is hope!

Regards,

Gandolf

[Jeff Clough]

@Wes: Boy, it'd be tough to say who had more fun. I'll have to tie with her more and get back to you.

My daughter has been exposed to fishing and the outdoors from a very early age. I took her on her first fishing trip to the local river when she was four years old, equipped with a Disney Princess bait fishing rod/reel and her own tackle box which I let her decorate beforehand with stickers and sequins (Daddy looks so manly carrying that for her). We've also gone hiking on a nearby wooded bike path and spent time in a few of our local parks, trying to identify plants and looking for animal tracks. On those trips, she carries a "Woods Journal" I gave her so she can draw what she sees.

I'm pretty sure a lot of her enthusiasm comes from getting to spend time with me. On these trips she is clearly the center of Daddy's attention and we have to talk about everything we see (her insistence). But a big part of it, I think, is that I've tried to instill in her the idea that the outdoors is the world's largest classroom, and no matter how much you know, you'll learn something new when you turn over the next rock. Even in our backyard, we've gone out and turned over rocks to see what's there and talk about it. She plays "The Great Explorer" and I'm a reporter documenting her latest discoveries.

As for fly tying, Alex is really into craft-type things. A couple of years ago we made a "Crafts Box", which is just this Rubbermaid thing that I had her decorate. It's got Elmer's glue, glitter glue, sequins, safety scissors, crayons, markers, ribbons, etc. We dig that out fairly often and she loves making things. Fly tying just combines her love of crafts with the ideas of the outdoors and fishing.

I'm just delighted I have a tying partner!

[Flygal]

AWESOME!! Love the grin on her face!

[Wes]

well jeff that's a wonderful relationship y'all have with alex. from where i stand the aspect of keeping her horizon diverse is most important. thanks for the wonderful insight into that relationship.