by Chris Scalley
I have learned during my 24 years of guiding on the Chattahoochee that you should never force a child to fish. I had a child one time who really had no interest in fishing. This kid loved sports, especially golf. I immediately told him there were tons of golf balls in the river along the many sand bars. His dad looked at me like I was crazy, but I told the boy if he did not mind wet wading, he could search for golf balls with my fish net. The boy collected golf balls from the streambed while his dad and I fished within sight of him. After about two hours, the boy was wet and cold and decided to try a bit of fishing in the warmth of the drift boat with some great success.
I think trying to be creative and to ease a child into the fishing or hunting experience is the key. Keep it short in small doses, starting with a half day ration. Set them up for success by simply monitoring the river/weather conditions. Avoid harsh air temperatures. Too hot or cold will ruin the experience. My general rule on attention span is basically that their age is the number of minutes you have to get either a bite or a fish on the line. If you don’t get a bite or fish in that length of time, change which side of the boat they are fishing or maybe change flies or give them a snack and then get back after it.
My personal “ahah moment” was fly tying. Kids naturally love arts and crafts and often have a keen interest in building something out of natural materials with fur and feathers. Personally, I got more into fly tying in the beginning and later discovered the reward of catching one on my own creation. That pushed me over the edge, and as they say, I was “hooked”! My eight-year- old twins have been trout fishing since they were three years old and have yet to catch one on the fly rod, but they suddenly love to tie flies.