Hi, I am trying to teach the 10 year old nextdoor to cast a flyrod. He seems to be a bright little kid, no visible signs of head trauma or injuries. Course, one more person that fell out of their crib one to many times isn’t going to be noticable on this planet. Yet he doesn’t seem to be able to grasp casting. He seems to have it stuck in his mind that he has to use his whole arm fully extended to cast. Should I tie his forearm down to his body? I gave him a stick with a piece of string on it to pratice with and it has helped but he quickly regresses. How about some ideas? Thanks
My wife’s graandfather was a salmon fishing guide on the Miramich River for 60 some years. He taught me how to cast 35 years ago (and I have been practicing ever since).
He did exactly what you have suggested. He took his belt and mine, linked them together and put them quite snuggly around my body and upper right arm. It seems to have worked to some degree. I eventually taught fly casting to member’s spouses at a private fly fishing club.
Try the same thing with your little friend. You never know, and it beats the daylights out of a sting on a stick.
Cheers
Bob
I had thought of trying to ‘teach’ casting on here but gave the idea up as silly. We need a ‘video-game’ that lets them learn to cast with a joy-stick or thumbs.
Actually attempting somthing ‘outside’ is an alian situation and does not ‘compute’.
Why not just let him enjoy the whole experience, as he is, and worry about style later? It’ll come, when he’s not trying so hard.
Trouts don’t live in ugly places
Chubs,
Pat yourself on the back, you introduced
him to casting, it will come with time and when it dose where ever he is I’ll bet he will think of you!
Keep playing with him he will watch and learn.
Working with my 7 year old daughter, I am kneeling behind her with her hand in mine and we make the motions: lifting line, backcast, stop, forward, stop, backward etc. calling out each movement of this rhythm. I take a second to point her how to how the line bends the rod to explain the loading effect. Then I let her go at it for about 6 minutes and 38 seconds and we’re on to another activity. Oh, don’t use your bamboo!
God Blesses!
A wing & a Prayer! ----*<(((><~ ~ ~ ~
Quinn
[This message has been edited by Wednesday Caster (edited 11 June 2006).]
I once saw a very interesting/convincing demonstration of teaching to cast. It was done by George Harveys pal,the name escapes me, but in essence he demonstrated kneeling on one knee. He placed his elbow with rod in hand and about 15 feet of line out on the upright knee and advised to use wrist only. He only had to give the student a cadence count for the back and forth rod motion and within a minute or two, the concept of casting a flyline was firmly implanted in the student. It sure worked on the child he used in his demo.
Mark
[This message has been edited by Marco (edited 11 June 2006).]
The way I learned to cast was in my backyard, alone and wacking myself with the line till I figured it out. Give the kid a rod for a few hours and let him work it out. If he really wants to learn he will.
Steven
“Just when I’ve caught a nice trout and feeling very proud of my fly fishing ability, my feet fly out from under me and there I sit, wet, flustered and properly humiliated by the Fly Fishing gods.”
Jimmy Moore, “Taken Down a Notch or Two”
I would like to say thank you to everyone. You have come up with some really good suggestions. I’ll try them. Betty, I will even give the “letting it happen” a try.
J.C. we are out of this loop but kids today would sit and use a joystick to do this if we don’t get on them and drag them out there. You and I both know what a beautiful world it is out on the stream. I just got to drag this kid out and show him.
chubs, start him out on this game. He has to be quick to catch big ones. 
[url=http://flyanglersonline.com/about/sa/:21e93]http://flyanglersonline.com/about/sa/[/url:21e93]
I read somewhere that for teaching kids you can replace the book with a dollar bill, well these days you may have to go to at least a ten to get their attention, under the arm instead of the book can work well. If they can complete the lesson without dropping the bill, they get to keep it, if not they get to try again next time. Wish I could remember where I saw that.
Fish more, work less!
The ‘old way’ was , the kid stands in the water, book under arm.
You mean that if they drop the ten-spot, they get ‘another’ try at it with yet another tenner? Boy, how things have changed.
You pobably don’t like throwing kids off a dock to learn them so swim either.
One thing that helps is to have the young man do drills with no rod but with both hands. Start with both hands as if the boy was holding a pretend gun with the hammer down. In other words the first finger pointing and the thumb in line with the finger. The starting position is pointing at the water/ground, and the move is one motion of up,lateral,snap on the backcast then lateral,snap,down on the frontcast. Having him do this drill for a short while with both hands with ingrain the motion much better. When you use both hands you have to use both halves of the brain and learning is much quicker.
Even with all the good advise be advised of two things. All youngsters have a short attention span and it’s going to take a while for him to learn. Be patient and give lots of praise. Make sure he had fun and he’ll keep coming back for more.
I’m not exactly sure when to do this with kids but it has been a peeve of mine that the anatomy of the fly line is not discussed… taught… to the beginning fly caster…the simple…“now remember you are casting the fly line” just doesn’t hack it…MHO
[This message has been edited by ducksterman (edited 13 June 2006).]
Ive not found age to be much of a barrier to understanding, 8 to 80+ most if not all understand what an instructior is saying. Im also convinced that too many well meaning instructiors arnt considering what the student is hearing in the language instructiors choose. When ask to “cast” a fly rod and they give you their understanding of “cast” and their understanding of “casting” comes from other types of fishing tackle… well; you got what you asked for.
Captn. Paul Darby
Yo, Captain! Good to see ya buddy! Keep posting, making rods, teaching casting and fix’in reels. Stay in touch.
No JC, the plan was that if they make it through the entire practice session without dropping the bill they get to keep it. If they drop it they haveto give it back and wait for the next practice session to try again.
Fish more, work less!
So no real lose for failure. Keep trying as often as they want to. This puts on value on the instructors time, much like the tests in school these days. It’s the ‘responsibility’ of the teacher to ‘teach’; not the ‘responsibility’ of the student to learn.
I guess it all fits with today’s PC values and attitudes. Funnu how society advances.