Youth discovers art of tying his own flies

After just about a year of fly-fishing, 13-year-old Daniel Akin, of Sedalia, became hooked on crafting his own flies and lures.

Akin, an eighth--grader at Smith-Cotton Junior High School, has been an avid fisherman for most of his life. His parents, Brad and Laura Akin, said Daniel started fishing when he was 5 or 6 years old and took to the sport with immediate enthusiasm.

“He used to try to catch fish in a mud puddle at the neighbor’s when he was younger,” Laura Akin said.

Now the family is a regular fixture at the pond in Liberty Park, and they usually make a summer fishing trip down to Bennett Springs State Park.

“I fly-fish with my son pretty often. I never made (flies), but Daniel took an interest in it,” Brad Akin said.

“Usually, we would go fly-fishing like one time a year, but now it can be more often.”

After receiving a vice from his former art teacher, Ted Suhr, who is now assistant principal at S-C Junior High School, Daniel started making flies from his workbench in his room.

Daniel developed his technique with the help of his father’s longtime fishing buddy, Scott Satterwhite. Although Daniel said working with the tiny implements initially proved challenging, he now brings his kit along on fishing excursions to make sure he always has the fly that fish are biting.

“Daniel and Scott will bring their tools along and find out which ones the fish are biting and go back to change them up,” Brad Akin said. “It is nice for a kid his age to get into it. You don’t see that as much.”

“Scott showed me how he makes his own flies, and I thought that was pretty cool. So I decided I should go ahead and try doing that because Scott had so many reasons why it was better than just buying them,” Daniel said.

Along with saving money, crafting his own flies helped Daniel understand what fish are attracted to as well as how to change his approach to trick the picky, keen-eyed trout.

“A lot of flies are made to attract the person and not the fish, so now we can actually look at the bugs and make a lure that the bug actually looks like,” Daniel said.

When trying to “match the hatch” — making flies that look like bugs fish are used to eating — Daniel created a unique lure that can draw in fish even on a slow day.

“I call it an ugly fly because it doesn’t look very good, but we ended up catching quite a few trout on it when nobody else was really catching anything,” Daniel said.

Daniel keeps a large box of his flies near his desk, and he also sells the crafts to other fishermen for about half of what they would cost at most retailers.

He said he has learned a lot in the last year, but he intends to continue honing his craft because he feels like there is still room to grow.

But selling the flies is far from Daniel’s priority when it comes to fishing.

The feeling of catching fish with his own handmade crafts is the most rewarding aspect of what Daniel does.

“The first time I ever caught a trout on my own fly, it just felt so great to catch a wild animal with something I made with my own hands,” Daniel said.