I’ve held beginner classes in fly tying for several decades but only for participants of high school age
and adults. Now I’ve been asked to try one with kids as young as eight.
I would really like to do things more practical than just tying some marabou on a hook.
I was considering a plain black foam beetle and a two color synthetic hair streamer.
My choice of the beetle was that a youngster could simply “dap” the fly near the shore for sunnies.
The streamer could be used with a sinker or droppered off a heavier lure using spinning tackle.
A Christian group of fly fishers that i am in tie at the Oklahoma wildlife expo we take on all comers. The kids line up 10 deep and stand in to get a chance to tie a fly. The older kids we coach through and the younger ones need a little more hands on like maybe holding on a tail while they wrap it. I generally let them pick out the colors and tie buggers unless the child has something in mine. We have business cards with a small foam square stuck on it to hook the fly in. the kids just beam when they get to hold the fly that they made.
We do it one on one with 6 to 8 men with vises set up. I would say recruit a few helpers
I’ve done public fly tying presentations at a number of our state parks. I have a sign explaining small children may have problems tying the wooly bugger but, the parents insist on sitting four and five year olds at the table. They become perturbed when it doesn’t look like the samples… Eight might be old enough but keep each group small so you can help a much as necessary. (Be prepared to tie many of them when the children become particularly frustrated.) It is fun to watch them try and when the walk away with a treasured souvenir. I wonder how many of us first got our interest piqued at a public fly tying demonstration?
Our club conducts free fly tying classes for kids and adults every winter. We tie two flies per session and have 8 weekly sessions. First class is the Woolly Worm and Wooly Bugger. Final class is the Grey Ghost streamer, and a Catskill style dry fly. We take kids as young as 8, but find that, until age 10, kids generally lack the attention span to learn without constant supervision. We also do one “familiarization” class yearly, at an area university, and find that the 20 year olds there catch on very quickly, although most of them have never seen a fly before. Best of luck with your efforts.
We purchased a camera, tripod, and projector and show closeups of the tying process on a wall. Using this method we can handle 40 students with a demo tyer and a half dozen volunteers.
My son is 9 and has been tying for over a year. Kids are sponges and can learn far more then you can imagine. I bought him the Tyler Bufus Fly Tying for Kids book and he just goes one fly at a time.
Wooly Buggers, San Juan Worms, Chironomids are all easy and fun ties we use when teaching other kids.
