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Montrose 11-Year-Old Is A Flyfishing Prodigy

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Jan 23, 2009 6:02 pm US/Mountain

Montrose 11-Year-Old Is A Flyfishing Prodigy

Written by Paul Day
Reporting
Paul Day
DENVER (CBS4) ― On a bitterly cold January day, this kid is hot.

"Right now, I'm looking for any movement that might be fish," says Tyler Befus.

Tyler Befus is fly fishing for giant carp near Downtown Denver. Just 11 years old, he casts like a pro.

"I like to find the fish I'm going to cast to," he tells a shivering TV reporter wading with him in the South Platte River.

Young Befus is a prodigy in the world of flyfishing which this weekend has attracted many angling celebrities to the Denver Sportsmen's Expo at the Colorado Convention Center.

Tyler pulls out a fly made to look like a baby crawfish and properly secures it to his leader.

Like a seasoned guide, the boy can already read a river.

"The water clarity -- today it's really clear -- and that helps me determine what pattern I'll be fishing," he explains.

But his talents aren't limited to angling techniques.

Tyler is an award winning fly tyer. He's written and published two books on fly fishing topics.

This angling prodigy already has his own internet site: tylerbefus.com.

The Web site has pictures showing Tyler teaching other youngsters about this passion he first developed at about age 1.

"My first fishing trips, I was just old enought to go in a baby backpack carrier," he adds.

Tyler says his Dad would hook the fish then hand the rod over for his son to land.

His father, Brad Befus, works for Ross Reels a fly tackle manufacturer.

Brad, too, has written books. He's an accomplished fly tyer himself and holds several world records with a fly rod.

"Tyler started going to shows and doing fly shop demos when he was 3 years old," says Dad.

The family lives in Montrose, where Tyler is home-schooled. That allows the fifth grader to travel internationally and around the USA to outdoor shows like the one in Denver.

On this outing, the giant carp fail to cooperate. It's just too cold.

But Tyler doesn't need more pictures of carp, he's posing with them on his Web site along with trout and several other species.

So where's does he intend to go with all this?

"I don't know," he answers, "as far as it will take me."

In a world where anything pint-sized gets thrown back, this kid is a keeper.

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