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Owen – Amateur Entomologist and Fishing BuddyMeet Owen, my top fishing buddy. He doesn’t use a fly rod but fishes with my spin cast rod or his personal favorite, a Superman rod given to him by his Uncle Mike. When Owen decides the fishing isn’t going to be good, he spends a good majority of his time studying the critters that inhabit in or near the waters we fish. He has a good understanding of these critters. He’s been studying them for nearly seven years now. I use his descriptive recollections, such as “crawly thingy” and “slimy”, to help decide what flies to tie. Okay fine. So Owen isn’t an entomologist, he my six year old boy who gets bored with fishing when he doesn’t get a bite within the first three casts. This is when he wanders off and starts catching bugs, frogs, and crawdads. This year he showed an interest in fly fishing but when I tried to help him learn to cast he struggled with the line loading on him. I wanted to try and keep his interest so I told him he could start by learning to tie flies. I think this aspect of fly fishing excited him just as much. Without really realizing it he is not only learning about fly fishing but also learns many other skills. He’s learning a lot more about the world outside of cartoons and superhero movies. I bought him a kid’s book on insects, a digital camera, and a bug catching box. He catches critters, takes there picture, and then we try to find a match in his book to find out more about them. He’s also learning how to follow directions step-by-step by tying flies and the consequences of not being patient and skipping steps. When everything is done correctly he gets the satisfaction of showing off a creation that resembles some of the creatures he’s caught or seen. I only add this page because I am a big believer in getting kids out of the house and away from the television. What better way than fishing. Even when they’re not actually fishing they’re having a good time catching bugs, collecting rocks, or whatever else they might decide to get into. Hire your own fishing buddy to be your personal entomologist and watch their interest in the sport grow. You’ll be surprised at the ideas they come up with. Now that you’ve read about my fishing buddy, click here to find some of the bass fly patterns we use. Click here to return to the home page. Sign up for our free ezine.To get updates to the site, fly fishing stories, tips and gear information feel free to sign up for our free monthly ezine – Fly Fishing Journal.
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