Riffles & Runs: Teaching the Next Generation

If you have achieved even a level of mediocrity in the sport of fly fishing, you’ve likely had the help of a mentor to get you there. And every real expert I have worked with in this sport over the last 30 years has acknowledged the influence of a guiding hand. The subtleties and nuances of this all-encompassing sport—from fly tying and casting to spotting fish, achieving a zen-like connection with your tippet, “reading” tidal forces and predicting fish movement, and everything in between—require years of encouragement and coaching from a mentor. If you are browsing this website it’s likely you have had a mentor, and hopefully you have been a mentor also.

In the T. Edward Nickens story “Flip’s World” we learn that one of the most enduring and endearing personalties in fly fishing—Flip Pallot, host of the TV series The Walker’s Cay Chronicles—spent decades fishing with and learning from the legendary Lefty Kreh. At the same time, he was sharing his knowledge with a young Rob Fordyce, who strolled into Pallot’s fly shop when he was just 11 years old. Lefty credited Joe Brooks for much of his success in the sporting world, and Rob Fordyce through his work with Captains for Clean Water and his TV show The Seahunter is continuing the chain of knowledge.

Sometimes it can be a father who has a giant impact. In “Back to the Blue Ridge” New England Field Editor Brian Irwin writes about taking his father—the man who coached him to his first trout and bluegill—back to the Blue Ridge Mountains of Virginia to retrace the fishing history of his father and his group of friends, most of who are now passed, to capture that knowledge before it is lost.

Or you can read about Tom Ossoff, who has been taking annual summer fishing trips with his dad since he was 16 years old. After 24 years, the young Jedi became the master by catching a 24-pound brown trout while his father slept.

These all-important mentors can also come through organizations and local clubs like Trout Unlimited or the Golden Gate Angling & Casting Club. People like Steve Rajeff don’t just spring up out of the earth without help from the old guard.

You can also read about the USA Fly Fishing Youth team, a group of six young men who just won back-to-back team gold medals at the 2023 and 2024 world championships. This year they also swept the individual medals with a bronze, silver, and gold. Their coach for the past two years has been Josh Miller, a guide, author, and speaker who is leaving a legacy by sharing his knowledge, and motivating his young anglers to travel, learn from their peers, hone their skills toward excellence, and inspire future competitive anglers.

As Philip Stanhope, 4th Earl of Chesterfield, wrote to his son in 1774, “Whatever is worth doing at all, is worth doing well.” Let’s all pass that message along to the next generation.

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