5 Reasons Why Fly Fishing Is Great for Kids

If you love fly fishing it’s only natural that you want your kids, nephews, nieces, and other little ones you know to also enjoy it as much as you do.

If you’ve been fishing for a while I bet you’ve forgotten about the little things you had to learn at first, especially if you learned as a kid too.

There is a steep learning curve at first. But kids are like sponges and with the right tutoring they can pick up fly fishing in no time at all.

Best of all they are taking in the outdoors, appreciating nature, learning about wildlife, all while learning how to fly fish which may become a passionate hobby of theirs.

Here are some reasons why fly fishing is great for kids – outside of just the selfish reasons that you want someone to come with you and help of course!

Quality Bonding Time

What better opportunity to bond than spending some one-on-one time away from all the distractions at home and teaching your kids how to fish?

Kids, friends, family, whoever it is, there is a lot to be gained, both good and bad from spending some quiet alone time with another person.

Make the most of it, I’m sure you’ll agree it feels like such quality time away from gadgets and TV is hard to get without an activity like fishing.

Appreciation for the Outdoors

A recurring theme here is that fishing gets children out of the house, away from their gadgets and outdoors.

There is so much to explore and enjoy outdoors for kids. We often forget ourselves about the unique smells, sights, how exciting seeing a fish or a butterfly is.

It’s so much fun hearing kids talk about what they saw, the fish they caught what they learned, it gives them a greater appreciation for the outdoors.

Practical Skills

Fly fishing requires a lot of skills that can translate over into other activities and have some pretty useful universal benefits. So, it’s great for teaching kids some useful skills.

I’m not just talking about perfecting their swing and catching fish. There are knots, assembling the kit, navigating terrain, learning to read the water, and much more.

Patience

Almost all parents would say that their child could benefit from being more patient, right? Kids are energetic and don’t intuitively want to wait or earn things.

Well fly fishing teaches them that they need to be patient if they want the pay-off for their hard work.

That’s one of the main things that attract people to fishing. An incredibly valuable skill for kids to learn and I can’t think of a better practice to do it.

Responsibility

When fishing you’re not just responsible for your own actions and how you fish, you need to be considerate of others fishing or using the same area as you.

It’s an opportunity to teach kids how to be responsible for respecting the area you’re in, the fish, other wildlife, and so on.

Some important values that are easy to pass on as you’re teaching them the basics of fly fishing.

Final Thoughts

It’s fun sharing what you’ve learned over the years and teaching kids how to fly fish. Albeit a little frustrating at times too I bet.

Just remember to keep it ‘fun’ for whoever you’re teaching. If you need to kit out a tackle box make sure you check out this post covering all the tackle box essential items.