I recently took my 9-year old son, Brendan, on his first fly fishing trip. I decided to take him to Pappaw’s Fishing Pad right on the South Holston. For those of you who haven’t been there yet, the wading is easy, there are no trees to get hung up in, the fishing is excellent, and Pappaw’s is a nice place to hang out if you need a break. We went up one afternoon, fished a few hours and got up the next morning and fished till about noon. I didn’t want to wear him out and didn’t want him to get bored. I don’t think I would have had much patience at 9-years old for fly fishing either. But he did great, he mostly was roll casting with a nymph and strike indicator. I think it gave him something to at least watch(kind of like bobber fishing for bream). He managed to hook 3 trout(landed 1 and the other 2 got off). One of the trout that got off was probably my fault, I was telling him not to reel it in until I got my I-phone out to video him. I think the trout saw this as an opportunity, and he took it.
We had a good time, and he did a whole lot better than the first 3 times I went trout fishing where I didn’t catch anything. Brendan also got to experience the cold water of the SoHo as well, he fell down and took on a little bit of water in his waders!
Anyway, he said he liked it, had fun and wants to go again. He did say trout were a lot harder to catch then bream.
I’ve attached a few pictures from our trip. The trout in the net was a 12-inch rainbow. We tried to get a picture of him holding it, but it jumped out of his hand.
Good times, good fun!!
Manuel Wray, the writer, is an angler, electrical engineer & dad lives in the Charlotte-area
