fishing with kids

My husband is a mad keen fisherman, so we often take the kids fishing.  I was reading these guidelines for success when with fishing with kids the other day and realised that I hadn’t done any posts on fishing, so here are a few of our fishing photos …



I agree with the tips in the article, which mainly focus on keeping the kids busy, so here are our favourite ideas

• as suggested by iKidsFishing try and go somewhere where there are lots of fish to catch, and don’t worry about catching fish that are good to eat or fish that are too small to keep
• practise casting (without hooks on the lures if you have young children). To make it more of a challenge have them aim for a bucket or other object.  We do this in the backyard too (as you can see in the photo).
• we usually put the crab pots in the water when we go out because all the action of setting and pulling the crab pots keeps the kids entertained (and we might even catch a crab).  B is now old enough to pull them in himself.
• catching small fish or other floating objects in a net.  We have a butterfly net that works perfectly for this.

We also take other activities that have nothing to do with fishing, just in case.  This might be sports equipment or a bucket and spade if we are going on the shore or sticker books and crayons if we are going in the boat.

As the kids get older there will be more for them to do because they can start to bait their own hooks, tie their own knots and so on and can practise those things in quiet times.

My other tip is to use real fishing gear for the kids, don’t bother buying those little kids’ sets, they don’t last and get frustrating when they mess up while you have a fish.  Real gear will last a long time, so it’s worth the investment.

Have you ever taken your children fishing?  I’d love to hear your stories.