Newbies Guide to Catching Fish With Your Kid!

Schools out! Oh my god how are we going to entertain the kids and keep them out of trouble! This is a dilemma faced by many parents, especial single moms and dads. We all want to engage in outdoor activities with our children and spend quality time with them, but especially to reverse the mind numbing effects of video games and to keep them off of their Wii or Xbox for a short time. Any time outdoors is time well spent if it can actually bring you and your children closer together and perhaps have an incredible adventure as well! The warmer weather is here, and your local lakes should be teaming with Panfish, including Sunfish, Bream, Crappies and a host of others. They are all very simple to catch, don’t require expensive equipment and are actually quite tasty too!

The first thing you need to do is outfit your self with all the necessary gear, but don’t forget to also have a bucket, a knife and a pair of nail clippers along with you, they are often forgotten but frequently essential, a small towel should be taken as well. Most of the equipment needed can be found at your local Wal-Mart, Target, Sporting goods store or perhaps there is a bait and tackle shop nearby that can not only outfit you, but give you suggestions on what is biting and where. It is also important to check on any regulations or the need for a fishing license in your area. Nothing can ruin a day faster than rain, mosquitoes or a game warden who is having a bad day!

Many of the stores sell packages that contain all the equipment you will need, but lets break it down into a few essential items. The rod and reel should be relative to the size of the fish you are trying to catch, in the case of most Panfish and Sunfish and Crappies, it should be light. The rod and reel should be matched to handle line in the 6-10 lb test category. Pound test  (lb test) is generally thought of as the breaking strength of the line. You can look on the rod or reel and see what it is rated for. Line that is too light will easily break if you hook a fish that you do not have the experience to handle and if it gets snagged or caught on the bottom you run the risk of it breaking. Line that is too heavy for your task will be difficult to cast and could cause wary fish to shy away. The hooks should also be relatively light a size 8 should do the job nicely, remember, the higher the number the smaller the hook. Tie the hook to the end of the line and you are half way home! You next need to place a bobber a few feet above the hook. How high above the hook really depends on how deep is the water you are fishing.   The size of the bobber should not be large for these fish. Remember you want it to float the bait at a particular depth yet be light enough to be pulled under to indicate a fish strike. Sometimes very small weights attached to the line called split shot can help. I’d start off with the bobber about 2 feet above the hook and adjust from there, a very small split shot the size of a small bb should be in between the float and hook.

For the species of fish you are targeting, just about anything will work. Sunfish and Bream are not all that picky and are usually in great numbers. Try different things, usually a worm or a piece of a worm is sure to bring results and can be purchased at most of the stores mentioned earlier. You can even make the adventure bigger by first going on a worm hunt to catch your own bait. If all else fails, almost anything that will fit on the hook may work. I’ve even seen Panfish caught using Pillsbury dough and pieces of a hot dog!

Now comes the most complicated aspect of the adventure, where to fish? Just about any body of water should do as most lakes and streams have something swimming in them. If you can’t ask the local bait shop owner then just look on a map, find a nearby lake and head out, in short order you should be others fishing there as well. Most anglers will be happy to assist newcomers, but be careful not to crowd them, remember they are here to catch fish too. If you don’t see anyone else fishing, look around for any spots that are flat and near the water, you may even see things left behind by previous anglers in that spot, if not go ahead and try anyway, you may be lucky enough to find your very own honey hole or hotspot. Just cast your line out a few yards from shore and wait it out, I prefer water that is about 5-8 feet deep for Panfish.

Finally, this is about fishing, not necessarily catching. Although catching a fish with your son or daughter will highlight a great day, it is more about spending time together outdoors. Our children miss so much when their world revolves around a TV or video games and we miss so much in being able to spend time with them. Let your inner child loose and take a kid fishing!

Intro For Single Moms Taking Their Kids Fishing

Around this time of the year, especially up North people are emerging from their long winters, birds are singing, flowers are blooming and kids have traded their galoshes for Tennis shoes and tee shirts. About this same time, parents are now waking up on Saturday mornings to the lovely sound of “Mommy! I’m Bored!” Last year I wrote an article about Geocaching, and how it is a great way to spend time outside with your child, get a little exercise and have some fun. This year I decided to come to the aid of the many single moms I encountered last year valiantly trying to enjoy a day of fishing at some local ponds while have little idea of how to make it an enjoyable and successful affair.

Here is the skinny on how to teach your child the ins and outs of fishing; this is called fishing 101 or the sunfish academy. This is basically the easiest methods to catch small fish such as pumpkinseeds, bream other sunfish type fish. Go to your local sporting goods store such as Dick’s, Bass Pro Shops or the local bait shop, here you will see an assortment of fishing rods and tackle that you can buy all for probably under 40-50 dollars. Look for a light spinning rod and reel combo that can handle 6-10 lbs test line, it will say something like this right on the rod itself. I suggest a spinning reel because you will invariably be taking out tangles, snags and other inherent problems due to the line and reel not playing well together, and a spinning reel will probable be the easiest to deal with. The reel should be filled with 6 lb test line, 8lb test or 10 will work as well. This refers to the breaking strength of the line. This should cost in the vicinity of $30 for something that will last a season or two.

Next let’s deal with the tackle. I have seen many singles moms placing rubber worms on hooks that could catch world record Muskies or the biggest baddest Bass in the lake, forget it, if you are merely going out to have a good time match the tackle to the target species. Buy a small box of hooks, anywhere from size 6 to 10 should work fine. Remember 6 to 10, not 0/6 or 0/10 as these are probably as big as the fish you are trying to catch. Now that we have the hooks, let’s get a few floats or bobbers to attach about 2-3 feet above the hook. When you are fishing you can adjust this to the proper depth to keep the hook and bait off the bottom or to dangle at a depth a few feet below the surface. You can adjust this from time to time to see what depth the fish prefer, but for the Sunfish, keep it off the bottom or just a foot or two under the surface. Pick up a package of very light split shot as well, these are little lead pellets about 1/16th of an ounce in weight that will help keep the bait down, especially on a windy day. The hooks, bobbers and split shot should be about another 5-6 dollars.

Its now time for the bait, for sunfish and other small species, you can’t go wrong with worms, available at almost any bait and tackle shop. This is probable the easiest for a single mom with no experience to deal with, if you are hesitant to touch the worm, just lay it on a board cut it in half and find a way to thread it onto the hook. Other baits such as leeches, waxies and a host of others may be a bit much for the single mom to deal with without any experience. You can also try a small bit of corn meal dough the size of a pea if there is no way you will get close to live baits. But I think worms are the way to go to get enough action to keep the youngster occupied.

You are now ready to fish! Just find a likely area, you can find plenty of places via the internet or just by driving around a lake and seeing where others are fishing, but don’t forget to give other fisherman plenty of room. Now with a bit of practice you will be able to cast the line complete with bobber, hook, and bait, (split shot optional) a few yards from the bank and begin the fine art of fishing. If you see the bobber or float begin to do a little dance on the surface it could mean something is investigating your bait. If the bobber submerges or starts heading off across the lake, then gently lift your rod and twitch it back to set the hook. Your youngster will now be giddy with excitement anticipating his first catch. If you were the kind of mom who wouldn’t bait the hook you may also shy away from unhooking your child’s fish. It must be done and a great way to teach catch and release. Just lay the fish in a wet rag and wrap it up so you can get a grip and immobilize the fish, then merely pull the hook in the opposite direction that it went in. A cheap pair of pliers is especially handy at this point.

I hope this little introduction will help get you and you kids out by the lake and give you the enjoyment that I had fishing with my dad when I was a small boy. If you are a single mom with no fishing experience this article is really all you need to get started, and I’m sure you and the kids around you will begin to build some incredible memories. Please feel free to send us pictures of your adventures and any other information that will assist others in teaching their kids to fish.