Welcome to Quick Tips! A new series presented by Redington where we ask some friends their quick tips to teach anyone new they take out on the water. We were all beginners at some point and all of us are always learning new tips and tricks! Whether it is your first time out, or you have been fishing for 20 years, we hope you can take these tips and use them yourself or help a friend you might be introducing to fly fishing.
In this feature, Photographer and Angler, Amber Toner, gives us some tips on avoiding tantrums and establishing foundations when taking the young ones out on the water.
There’s no set manual on the right way to take your kids outdoors with you. As a parent, you quickly learn what’s best for your child. And it really isn’t any more complicated than that; kids don’t need a lot of fancy things to keep them happy outdoors. As a mom who has taken her now 7-year-old fly fishing since he was 3 months old, I have seen the progression from packing diapers, blankets, wipes, and soothers for my son to hot wheels and his favorite treats for a day out on the water.
As your kids grow, what they need changes. But as I have found, these quick tips below are some easy ones to remember through any stage of bringing your kid fly fishing:
Tip 1: Pack Those Snacks.
Kids get hungry, and if you’re my kid -when you are hungry, you are hangry. As Lochlan has grown over the years, so has the types of snacks I bring. Right now, our go-to options are granola bars, trail mix, oranges/fruit, and a few of his favorite candies to help keep him happy. There is no one-trick option here; you just pack what is best for your kid at that stage in their life and make sure to overpack on the snacks. It’s worth it.
Tip 2: Grab a Kid-Friendly Camera
This is a great way to keep your kiddo engaged out on the river for the day. And it’s really cool to just let them have creative control over what they want to capture. You end up seeing the world through their lens. Sometimes you end up with a lot of photos of the same rock; sometimes you end up with a photo of the top half of your fish. Those remain some of my favorite photos to date.
Tip 3: Bring Extra Clothes.
Seems like a no-brainer, right? I pack extra pants, shorts, t-shirts, sun shirts, and socks for Lochlan. When you live in a climate like ours, you can experience four seasons in one day, so being prepared is essential. No kid likes being soaking wet when you’re touring streams at high elevations in the mountains. And let’s face it, kids like to get dirty; kids like the water. Having a dry pair of clothes for them is crucial to keep them happy and comfortable.
Tip 4: Let Them Cast How They Want to.
It may seem necessaryl to teach your kids all the dynamics of casting a fly rod; it’s one of the biggest learning curves for most anglers in their fly fishing journey. Some kids are super eager to learn how to fly cast, and that’s great. For Lochlan, I found the more instruction I gave him early on, the more frustrated he got. So at age 3, he was holding a fly rod, and I learned to let him just get a feel for it, let him take his time understanding the motion of it. As he got older, I could introduce more techniques to help him, and that’s worked well for us.
Tip 5: Drop Those Expectations.
Fly fishing with your kids is vastly different than fly fishing with your buddies. Some days your kid might have a long day on the water in them; other days they might not. Learning when to call it if your kid is struggling is a really important thing for you and them.
I can’t tell you how many times I would go out with my son, Lochlan, and rarely even fish; we would spend more time looking for caddis casings or stonefly nymphs, or we would end up skipping rocks instead of casting to rising fish during an epic drake hatch. Some days we would last an hour before we were back at the truck and heading home. I think once you realize that, it becomes less about the fishing and more about the experience with your child out there. The easier it is to be present in those all-too-fleeting moments. One moment your kiddo is lying on a blanket as a baby in a field next to a brown trout creek as you prepare for another diaper change, and the next your kid is driving hot wheels through the mud or catching his first cutthroat trout. It goes by quickly, and the less expectation of your day, the more time to enjoy the outdoors with your kids. For me, that’s what it’s all about.
Thank you, Amber for these great tips on getting your kids out on the water! Also a thank you to Redington for making this series possible! If you’re looking for a quick way to get out on the water and test out these tips yourself, check out Redington’s new Wrangler Kits! They all come “ready to fish” with rod, reel, line, and leader. Check them out HERE!
Header and in-article photos courtesy of: @thedubbingloop
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