Daily Press Writer
MONTROSE — Tyler Befus leads the way past the playroom full of toys to a wood-paneled workshop. He sat at a chair and began working on something that interests him much more than games: tying a fishing fly.
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The workshop is Brad Befus’s, Tyler’s father, who works at Ross Reels and is an accomplished fly-fisher and tier himself; his wife and Tyler’s mom, Lisa Befus, is also an avid fisher. They started Tyler fishing when he was just a few months old.
“My wife and I enjoyed doing it before we had kids,” Brad said. “Having a child wasn’t going to stop us. Rather than stop doing it, we just put him in a backpack and started taking him with, and we’ve done that with all three of them (younger daughters Ava and Vivian).”
Tyler said he still enjoys fly-fishing as much as he did when he started.
“My favorite parts are catching the fish, tying the flies and making the flies and just being outdoors — that’s what fishing is to me — just spending time with family.”
As he spoke, he focused on the fly, weaving thread, wire and feathers to create a facisimilie of a bug.
Tyler came to it naturally, said Lisa.
“The coordination was amazing,” she said. “He could push the button, cast it across our yard, across the street and into the neighbors’ yard. He would just do it for hours on end. And I didn’t realize how unique that was until I had other children and realized, yeah, most kids who are 18, 19, 20 months old don’t have that kind of coordination or attention span.”
On Wednesday evening, Tyler held a program in Grand Junction on fishing for kids.
He’s also been working on a book that he is illustrating and writing. He’s not sure of a title, and the book is scheduled to be out Sept. 1. With the programs and books, he said he hopes to encourage more parents to get their kids involved with fly-fishing.
“I’m trying to get the parents to take their kids out to the water to fish,” Tyler said. “When they see me, that might get them wanting to take their kids and say, ‘Okay, my kid isn’t too young, if this kid is going out at his age, I could start taking my kid out to fish.’”
Brad said he thinks Tyler’s outreach could interest a lot of children.
“If you look at some of the (better-known fly fishers), all these guys are getting up in their years,” he said. “There’s kind of like a void, almost like a lost generation, where many kids were not introduced to the outdoors, whether it be hunting, fishing camping, hiking, backpacking, all that stuff, where there’s really kind of niche there that’s open.”
Tyler’s going to be seeing a whole new market in April. Japanese fly-fishing equipment distributor Masaharu Katsumata of Kanagawa, Japan, saw Tyler fish and offered to take him on a tour of Japan, fishing different areas and doing presentations. Tyler said he was looking forward to seeing the new culture and fishing for different fish.
“Japan’s going to be a good memory, I know that,” he said smiling.
Fly-fishing is just one of several things that interest Tyler. He also swims, plays piano and has a part in his church’s holiday play. He said he doesn’t feel too overwhelmed despite his schedule.
“I don’t really mind having to rush around, actually,” he said.
Tyler said he wants to stay with fly-fishing, maybe to pursue his own TV show, but he’s not too sure at this point.
“I want to see where it can go to, see what I else I can do in the industry,” he said.
Contact Kent Green via e-mail at kentg@montrosepress.com
Kaitlyn Heichel wrote on Nov 3, 2009 2:01 PM:
Sarah Bond wrote on Jul 13, 2009 5:31 PM: