Fishing Lessons

[Tim Essenwein]

My 6 year old son wants to learn how to fish, but i don't know anything about fishing. Where can we go to learn to fish? It has to be something he can do and does not require a boat.

[Hooker]

Tim,
To teach your son how to fish, "you" have to learn how to fish, and this can become the defining experience of your relationship.
Six year olds don't have a lot of patience if something is not happening, and they tend to get more pleasure out of throwing rocks in the water, and getting wet than watching the bobber.
If I were you, I would probably start out taking him to a "pay to fish" trout pond, and let him experience catching, and than during the summer, I would frequent the Jones Bridge area, throw some lines out with corn or worms, and just let him be in the environment of fishing. The area around the boat ramp at Jones Bridge holds a lot of fish, and they can be caught fairly easily from the bank.

Fishing is something you don't learn in a day, a week, or a year. It's a journey that takes a lifetime.

Enjoy the ride, and come back anytime with questions.

Hooker

[Hooker]

Tim,
Also, why don't you plan on coming to the Trout Primer at the hatchery. There will be a lot of fishermen there, and you will be surprised how helpful everyone is. Watch NGTO for the time and directions.

Hooker

[spinner]

Tim...I have found that soaking a worm or corn is fine for a while...At 6 kids have no patience..The idea of going to a pay pond is great...At that age they want immediate gratification..A pod would do just that...For a beginner Dad or Child....Fly Fishing will disappoint both of you....You have to be VERY coordinated to fly fish...A 6 year old or a novice adult will spend most of the day in the trees and weeds...Speaking from experience...AFTER you have shown your kid that you don't catch a trout on every cast...Then go buy him/her a cheap closed face and a couple of spinners and go to the place Hooker recommended...The casting will keep your kids hands and mind busy...Don't mess with a spinning rig a first...The closed face will build casting confidence.....Don't fish for a long time to begin with...A 6 years attention span is short....Good Luck....A couple panther martins or rooster tails and a Zebco 202 will get you started...Let me know about your first catch....Spinner.........

[Woolly Bugger]

There is also a good book out called Fly Fishing with Children by Philip Brunquell. I has a lot tips for getting them started.

My bibliography page has a link to buy it on line.

http://www.kbrcomm.com/btwc/bibliography.shtml

I've taken my kids with me on the stream when they were 9 months old. I carried them in a backpack as I waded up the stream. They had a blast, my older boy use to kid me when I hung a fly up in a tree. "Oh, Dad, look at the size of that one!" or "Way to go Dad, you caught another tree"

Now my two year old daughter LOVES to go with me. Check out my FF logs @

http://www.kbrcomm.com/trout/

Good luck its worth the effort.

[Woolly Bugger]

Just learned about ubb codes. So here is a picture of my 5 year old catching brook trout with a 4 wt 8 foot Loomis rod w/CFO reel.
[img]http://www.kbrcomm.com/btwc/trout/P0000633.jpg[img]

[Woolly Bugger]

Just learned about ubb codes. So here is a picture of my 5 year old catching brook trout with a 4 wt 8 foot Loomis rod w/CFO reel.
[img]http://www.kbrcomm.com/btwc/trout/P0000633.jpg[img]

[pschlemm]

I started taking my daughter fishing when she was 3. We started at a local pond fishing for b****& bream - they were pretty easy to catch and the pond environment gave her somewhere to run around and throw rocks & sticks in the water - without disrupting my fishing too much. Also, I felt the pond was safer than the moving water of a river. She's now 5, and still loves to go fishing (she's actually landed some pretty nice bass). If you're into camping as well, Nimblewill Creek (Blue Ridge WMA) is stocked heavily in season and has some nice spots to camp.

[Mr T]

Tim -- I started fishing with my daughter when she was five in Northern Michigan out of a canoe on a small lake. She started with a closed face spinning rod because it was easy to handle and generally not subject to backlashes. We were lucky on that first trip because she caught fish on virtually every cast and was hooked from then on.

I didn't start her fly fishing until we made a trip to north Georgia about four years ago. She had taken her spinning gear -- by now an open-faced ultra-light combo but was fascinated by my flyfishing and asked me to teach her. She caught on very quickly as far as technique was concerned but didn't land her first trout until two summers ago on the Tallulah River.

Once, when she was seven or eight, we were spinfishing from our sailboat on the Gulf of Mexico and we were not having much luck with artificials. We had no bait so she decided to try some Kentucky Fried Chicken we had brought for lunch. The fish went berzerk and once again she landed one on just about ever cast, including a small shark.

I'd suggest starting your son on a closed face spinning outfit using corn or powerbait in a stocked stream or a pay-to-fish pond. Odds are that he will catch fish and this is the most important thing for a kid that age. If he doesn't catch fish, his patience will wear thin quickly and he will eventually lose interest.

Some of my most important and valued times with my dad were on fishing trips, especially from about age 10 on. I acutally learned how to fish from my mom, using a cane pole, bobber and worms and fishing for crappy and bream on borrow pit lakes along the Mississippi River in eastern Arkansas. My dad bought me and my brother a flyrod when I was 10 and he was 8 but we fished mainly for b****and bream. I didn't get into trout fishing until I was in my mid-20s on the White River in Arkansas. I started fishing the Little Red River in Arkansas from the time they closed Greers Ferry Dam in 1963, using both spinning gear and fly fishing gear, but gradually began flyfishing almost exclusively.

The point in relating this is that if you get him started early on simple gear, he can, over time graduate to more complex fishing and even flytying. In any case, it'll provide a wonderful opportunity to establish a lifelong relationship with your son.

Mr. T