Tyler Befus has been traveling as far as Japan to speak to fly-fishing conventions. He holds two world fly-fishing records. He’s on the pro staffs of four rod-and-reel and fly companies and is a fly designer for another. He just published his first fly-fishing how-to guide.
But right now, this lifelong fly-fisherman is hopping around his living room excitedly waving and honking a rubber chicken.
Even a 9-year-old fly-fishing prodigy can have kid moments with a toy, especially when it has been signed for him by more than a dozen of the world’s premier fly-fishermen.
Nowadays, Tyler is the one doing the signing. He is traveling the state and hitting fly-fishing events around the country to promote his new book, “A Kid’s Guide to Fly Fishing.”
Over the weekend, he cast a spell over attendees at the Fly Fishing Show in Denver, where he tied flies, signed copies of his book and gave a slide presentation.
“At first, my friends didn’t believe I really wrote a book. Then, they were like, ‘Oh, my gosh, you really did write a book,”‘ Tyler said in a late- December interview at his home in Montrose.
Tyler has been catching fish since he was 2. By then, he had already been on many fishing outings, snug in a backpack as his father, Brad, a well-known author, fly designer, fly-fishing lecturer and sales manager for Ross Reels, hit the rivers.
Tyler started casting with a pint-sized rod from the front porch of his home in Montrose when he was 18 months old. He would wow the neighbors by arcing the line, over and over again, all the way into their yards.
“I didn’t even know there was anything unusual about that until other people told me so,” said his mother, Lisa Befus.
Tyler was also tying flies – or at least learning the intricate hand motions of the art – when he was barely walking. He would sit on his father’s lap, and Brad would guide the chubby toddler hands as Tyler wrapped wooly buggers and tied double surgeon’s knots.
At age 5, Tyler wrote and illustrated his first how-to book – fishing advice laid out in penciled block letters and folded into construction-paper pages. He organized it into chapters with headings like “Why Not Fish for Trout?” “The Katch (sic),” and “What It is Like to Be a Trout.”
His first published book is slick, with color pictures of Tyler and his sisters, Ava, 6, and Vivian, 2, who are already flicking rods of their own. The book has a foreword written by Jack Dennis, a Jackson, Wyo., resident who is one of the best- known fly-fishing celebrities in the world.
The book includes Tyler’s stick-figure drawings of how to do a roll cast and his clear explanations for aspiring anglers: “Flyfishing is a sport and art form that uses a rod and line to cast a fly to a fish and trick the fish into eating that fly.”
“We sold more than 60 books the day of his signing. He’s an amazing kid,” said Al Carmi chael, a salesman at Cimarron Creek outdoor and fly-fishing shop in Montrose. “There are not many kids with the wherewithal and skill to do what he’s doing.”
Tyler does have a life outside the fishing streams and away from his well-stocked and -organized fly-tying desk. He is home-schooled with his sisters and plays soccer, football and baseball. He is on a swim team and takes piano lessons.
In his spare time, he works on a book about fly-tying and has a full schedule of signings and speaking engagements that will take him to California, New Jersey, New Mexico and Texas in the next several months.
Tyler said talking to small classes of fly-tiers or to banquet rooms filled with hundreds of adults from around the world – including the ringers of the fly-fishing world – comes naturally.
“It doesn’t make me nervous. About half of them are my friends,” he said. “I always tell a joke first. They like that.”
Staff writer Nancy Lofholm can be reached at 970-256-1957 or nlofholm@denverpost.com.
