If you don’t have kids, don’t skip this episode. The reason? Kids are people. So while I’m certainly framing the content in the context of working with youth, the principles will apply to anyone you want to make into an angler. Although sometimes just taking a kid fishing is enough to get them into the …
I am not an entomologist. I am not even the kind of fly fisher who is proficient with insect taxonomy at the species level. But I do know a few things about bugs. And I am aware that they can captivate an 8 year old in a way that very few digital things can. Over …
Even though I talk about fly fishing into a microphone for about half an hour every week already, it is always a great experience to hop on to someone else’s podcast. A few weeks back, I recorded with Spencer Durrant of the Untangled Podcast from Ventures Fly Co. We talked Casting Across and fly fishing …
Days and evenings spent at various outdoor expos are important for Casting Across and a lot of fun for me, personally. But there is a three-hour chunk of time that gets written in ink on the calendar by my kids. Since 2018, the boys get a morning or afternoon at The Fly Fishing Show in …
There are few gifts that you can give a child that can have as much of an impact as a book. Between the valuable skill of reading and the even more special benefit of reading together, a book does things that few toys or electronics can. A quick search online will yield plenty of titles …
In your mind, put yourself at the end of November. You’re looking at an email inbox. What do you see? Along with Black Friday deals (which may or may not last the better part of the final quarter of the year), you’ve probably received dozens of opportunities to take advantage of Small Business Saturday and …
I had held the fly rod, running my hands over the black foam grip and the forest green blank for weeks before I brought it outside. It was a $25 rod, reel, and line from a department store, but I kept it safely inside. I felt like the right thing to do was to wait …
I’m blessed with four amazing boys. Each is gifted in his own way. Each loves the outdoors; including the water and everything in it that crawls or swims. This past month my three oldest submitted artwork to a local fair. Before running off to funnel cake and ferris wheels, the boys sprinted into the exhibit …
Recently I took my oldest son fishing on one of my favorite streams. It has taken me this long to take him, an accomplished angler for a pre-teen, because it is an incredibly small creek with remarkably spooky fish. But those fish happen to be native brook trout. I warned him of the challenges while …
“He needs to know what kind of fishing it is going to be.” My wife was all for the 11 year old joining me on a trip to a tiny, tight, brook trout creek. Being a mom, she also had the intuition to identify some vital qualifiers of which he needed to be apprised. Casting …
