LEARNING Lessons - FLOAT Fishing 

I always like your videos, but especially loved this one! Not because of the fish that were caught but because of you being an awesome dad and your “coaching” of your son! Great work dad! Much respect from a dad of 41 years!

The Flylords comment was the best. LOL

Kyle the trout whisperer as always. Love the dad teaching, super awesome. Nice work, fellas!

Lastly, I don't have any chillens so the heck do I know. That said, I do like the fact that you didn't freak out over Gregory getting skunked. What I mean by that is----- you didn't go crazy Dad mode at the end to make sure your kid caught a fish. Like hey, it's fishing. Good for the boy to not catch a fish. I'm sure he still had a good time and that's an important lesson. We don't go fishing just for the fish. I know a few guys who go fishing JUST FOR THE FISH and honestly------ they're no fun to fish with. Keep your head up Gregory. The hardest one to catch is the first one. And honestly, I bet he would have done a lot better if he weren't having to dodge that dang dog all day. Stay huge.

I'm also a guide and watching this video felt like 99% of my boat guiding days. Things I tell my clients: the easiest way to cast this rod is to start with your bobber on the opposite side of the boat than the side of the river you are trying to cast, then plop it over to the side you want to fish. You can only cast these rods in a straight line. You gotta make sure you have tension on your flies before you begin your cast. When you bring that rod forward to make your cast, you have to stop the rod between 1-3 o'clock. When you stop your rod, you have to let go of your line or your flies won't go anywhere. When you let go of your line, you have to make sure you have slack off the reel or it won't matter if you let go of the line or not. Casting is a 2 handed action. If your bobber is on the water, your line should be under your finger. You gotta have tension on your line before you try to make that mend. You gotta mend the whole line. Don't mend too far. Sometimes you mend it one direction, then a few seconds later, you have to mend it the other direction. When we're fishing fast water close to the boat like this, keep all your fly line off the water...... then we don't have to worry about mending. After you make that mend, keep your rod tip over here near me and give your line time to straighten out, then follow the bobber with the tip of the rod. Hookset is going to be off your left shoulder if that bobber goes under. There he is, set, set, set, SET, SEEEEETTTTTT! Well, I don't know might have been a fish or might have been a rock. Either way, they're not going to swallow it. You have to set while the bobber is still under and we're going to set on everything. SET, SET, SET! Nice, better reaction time that time, unfortunately, you set in the wrong direction and pulled it right out of the fish's mouth. What I like to think about is this----- these fish are always facing upstream. If you keep that in mind, you will always know the right direction to set the hook. If you're fishing behind the boat and the bobber goes under, it is an easy hookset, just pull straight back. If it is cross stream your hookset should be in a downstream direction. If the bobber is downstream but not directly downstream, your hookset is towards the boat. If it is directly downstream of the boat, it is an extremely difficult hookset. Basically, you are just going to strip your line and slowly lift your rod up until you feel the fish. We are basically just hoping that the fish is still holding onto our flies in this situation and don't want to put any pressure on it until we feel the fish. When you make that mend, you should be drawing an upside down U in the sky with your rod. When you make that mend, you have to go UP first, THEN over. When your bobber gets to this point and it is heading towards good water, we want to keep it going. The way we do that is by FEEDING LINE. To feed line, you are going to drop your rod tip almost into the water, then lift the tip up really fast. DOWN SLOW, UP FAST. Now, when you make that Down slow up fast motion, you have to let go of the line. Okay, you also have to have line off the reel or all you are doing is moving your bobber. Pull some line off the reel, THEN feed it line. Alright, we're going to do that whole thing over again from the top. Go ahead and strip about half of that line back in, and point your rod tip at the left bank. Other left bank. alright, now put the line in your left hand and in one motion, you are going to bring the rod back a little farther, then bring the rod tip up and over the boat and send your flies back over there to the right side. Nice, not bad. Lets do that again, but this time when you stop your rod at 2 o clock, let go of your line so that we can get some more distance. Okay, that'll work, now, line's under the finger. strip. Make your mend. Keep the rod over here next to the boat after you make your mend. Okay, now follow the bobber with your rod tip. Okay, now feed it line. Down slow, up fast. Okay. That's it. Now, do that whole process over again. You're getting the hang of it. Now, when that bobber goes under, your hookset is going to be off your left shoulder. Lift, Lift, Lift. Nice. You got 'em. Keep that rod tip back. Strip, Strip. Strip. Nice. Very well done. Okay, we can land him on either side of the boat. Just keep stripping.

Great Dad! I commend your patience and instruction. Nothing better at all than time spent on the water with family.

This was a great video. Cool watching your son soak up all that knowledge. Thanks Ben.

Love all of your videos, but this one is best.

I love to watch you fishing with your son, memories for life bud!

Love the patient and concise instruction- also Wavy Lays kick Ruffles’ ass.

Great video Ben. I am reminded of a few float trips with my son, who is 11 now. Your doing the Dad thing right, good job! I have thought of putting together a father/son or daughter San Juan trip for a while now. I think it would be awesome getting a bunch of kids together with their parents to fish.

gregory is such a great learner. he's going to a top notch angler in just a short time.

Watch your bobber, watch where you’re going, I am watching where I’m going.

"Set... set...SET IT....." You sound like a real guide😅nice job with the boy🎉🎉

I’ve been Greg, young kiddo on a boat learning the ropes with everyone else in the boat landing em. Keep it up lil dude, gotta pay your dues. One day you’ll help a 10 year old kid connect the dots like your pops is doing with you.

This is 💯peak dad/guide-life, love it! There was way more shouting in my experience🤣 Looking forward to seeing more of this content, and Gregory’s angler development, down the road. I’m confident the interwebs community will be fair in its assessment of your mentoring skills :-)

Great video my friend, congrats on developing an oar monkey. Rudy seems super chill, would love to pat his head some day. You probably could've gotten a couple of nice fillets off of that sculpin.

Nice father son outing - handled that well with a little good father sarcasm. Best convo - that’s twice as big…. What is normal? Half that size.

Awesome you son stuck with it even though he wasn't bringing them in. That's HUGE! Great attitude. Next time!

Your kid's going to be a pro if he keeps that up.

Would give anything to be able to go fishing with Pop again.....

Great Dad!

Freakin cool video Ben. Little man is gonna be a stick one day

Fly fisherman don’t use bobbers, we use indicators..HUGE DIFFERENCE…….in our minds…lol. Great video.

Good day of fishing was had by all .Monster sculpin, you should have measured it . That could have been a CO state record. Thanks for sharing and stay Huge:-)

Nice video. Gregory is a chip off the old block!

Team Kyle reporting in

Awesomeness

So frustrating when doing everything right and they dont catch anything but honestly think us dads care more about them catching a fish than they do

Growing up fast

Also, 13:17 HAD to be a fish. If the boat had been anchored, Gregory would have landed it. Downstream hooksets are even harder when the boat is moving and it's your first confirmed boat hookup. He had him, then when he to lower his right arm so he could strip the line, the fish got off. I tell my people------- don't ever let that bend in your rod straighten out. Keep the rod bent. I also tell them when they are stripping, your right hand should be steady.

Friend once had a guide service called "Set, Set, Set."

🤙🤜

👊🏼👍🏼🤙🏼

Karen...the good kind 😜

Arnt you the Guro That says you dont need a Boat to be a Huge Fly Fisherman !!,,,,when will we see videos you walking that banks of creeks instead of being in a boat

you remind me of my dad. only my dad helped me catch more sorry