I was up at the rod shop near me talking with the owner about epoxy finishing.
My spin rod was layiing on the counter when a dad and his son came in.
His son was about (11) yrs. old - and building his own fly rod.

We got to talking and he asked me if that was my rod on the counter. He liked the split
grips and Diamond wrap I had done, so I gave him some pointers on how to do them.

THEN HE GAVE ME A POINTER - he picks up my rod, sights down it and then says,
"you've got a couple guides which aren't straight."

So I looked at it and ...well I could not see them.

You've got to love how kids are honest and direct and just say it the way they see it.
He's obviously got better eyes than me at my age, so I thanked him for his comments..
Too bad I had already epoxied it or I would have had him straighten them.

And as we get older we loose that charm Darn shame

Bill - willierods.com

Last fall I took one of my nephews out fly fishing for the first time. He is 11 and my father had been taking him spin fishing a bunch of times over the summer. On the way over to the river Shaun told me that Papa had taken him out a bunch of times with no fish caught. I assured him that we would catch at least one, maybe a couple. Anyway, the kid went on to get 7 bows, not to shabby for his first time. We stopped at Papa's on the way back, and he was quick to ask Shaun how we did, Shaun went on to say that he had caught 7 all on his own. My father asked how Uncle Billy had done, and he went on to say, well he only got 2 or 3, but he spent most of his time helping me, so he probably would have caught more if he wasn't helping me out. Then Shaun said, I'll tell you what Papa, that Uncle Billy sure knows how to catch fish. It took a second or two for my father to realize that the kid had just zinged him, but you could see the blood rise into his head. Shaun had no idea that he had just poured salt onto an open wound. Priceless!
About a week later, I had my other nephew out who is 10. Same situation, kid got into a half a dozen bows, and when we stopped by Papa's, this nephew said almost the same damn thing to Papa. I think with the second episode Papa thought I put the kids up to it, but I didn't.
I told Papa, he needed to find some water with fish in it if the nephews were going to keep fishing with him.