Letting A Kid Fish: Nice Brown Takes RS2 on Dream Stream

When I taught in school I was aware of how I often told kids the answer. I did the work for them. Why let a kid ponder and hang in frustration? Just tell them what you want them to do or know.

When I gave into that feeling and told a kid the answer I quickly became aware that I had cheated the kid of a learning experience. In fact, it felt like I was stealing the experience by robbing the child of a unique opportunity.

The same thing can happen in guiding. I can just take the rod and try to hook a fish for the youngster. But what does that achieve? It seems that as a culture we are so afraid to have children not "succeed," or figure out things on their own. God forbid if we let a child struggle alone!

But on this day guiding, I had made a choice to let Caiman cast on his own. He was fishing a deep run with big submerged boulders on the top of the run. The fishing was tough with nothing to show for our efforts. Then, on his own Caiman decided to cast in between the boulders which allowed the fly a deeper and longer drift.

A nice Brown was waiting on the bottom for the little nymph. Caiman rather calmly said to me, "I have a fish." I walked down just in time to see the large brown launch itself out of the water. I said, "You sure do have a fish. And it is big. Let it run!"

Caiman, then had to chase the fish down river holding the rod high letting it run when it surged and reeling in line when it was coming at him or just "dogging" it.

It was a great battle that Caiman won. He stood victorious on his own two feet.