As popular as fly fishing is as an adult activity, it seems that relatively few kids are involved in the sport at an early age.  It may be that the child in question is simply too young, or that the parent thinks the child may not be ready for it. Whatever the case may be, the first step in getting kids ready for fly fishing is creating an interest, and creating that interest happens well before a child visits a stream or lake with fly rod in hand.

Fly fishing is a reflection of life in that regard.  Afterall, the young child who says they want to be a firefighter when they grow up doesn’t come to this conclusion by visiting the scene of a burning building! So where do kids get the enthusiasm for things they want to do?  TV no doubt factors in. Video games also have a great influence on kids, all too often unfortunately. Certainly watching adults and parents whom they idolize also fuels the creativity of children.  Books also come to mind.

Kids have tremendous imaginations: by reading books about topics that interest them children often imagine themselves involved in those stories, going on the same adventures as the characters in the books. If there were a book with engaging characters that go on fly fishing adventures, it wouldn’t take a stretch of the adult imagination to see that kids would identify with those characters, go along on the fly fishing adventures, and come away with an excitement and desire to create similar adventures of their own.

Enter Olive, the woolly bugger. Olive is the central character in a series of children’s books that are intended as a primer to get kids interested in fishing (specifically, fly fishing). In the fist book, Olive the Little Woolly Bugger, Olive is just like the child who has never fished before.  She goes off to Camp Tightloops to learn what it takes to become a fishing fly (and while there she learns some life lessons that go well beyond fly fishing). After she has been taught the basics of fly fishing, Olive gets her first chance to take what she has learned and try out her knowledge for the first time in Olive and The Big Stream. In this second book, not every fly catches a fish, just as not every child will catch a fish on their first outing. However, everyone witnesses the excitement that accompanies the action when a trout is finally caught, and released! In the third book, Olive Goes for a Wild Ride, Olive (and her readers) overcome further obstacles and continue their education about stream habitat, insect life and all that makes the great outdoors so great! Kids will read the adventures of Olive and imagine themselves along for every step of the journey. They’ll come away having learned something and having had a lot of fun in the process.

If you have a child who already enjoys fishing, it’s a safe bet they’ll enjoy reading the Olive fly fishing series. If you think your child is too young to actually join you on a fly fishing adventure, it’s not too soon to get them thinking about the day when they will be ready to join you.  Until that day, Olive will take your child on fly fishing adventures right now.

Your child will be hooked on fly fishing with the help of Olive the woolly bugger, and if you’re an angler, these are books you’ll actually look forward to reading with your children.