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Mike Ormsby

The FUTURE OF Fly Fishing

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I've been thinking of ways to give back to this great activity of fly fishing. One of my fellow Canucks is Ian Colin James. 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. Family Tyes runs such programs in the States. The Federation of Fly Fishers has a great Junior program. And there are fly fishing badges for Boy Scouts. 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 Bugger; 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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  1. troutdancer's Avatar
    Good idea it will take a lot of involved thinking to get our younger fishers moving in that direction. I would like to see more things like fly tying. And along with that fish parks or casting parks just like the skate board parks. I think if we all (Fish Clubs) put these kind of ideas out there we could generate a good start to the future.