How To Fish With Your Kids

Have you ever taken your kids fishing? If you have you probably know how stressful it can be, especially if you have a lot of kids that are multiple ages. We’ve recently begun to take our kids fishing and each time is a different experience. I’ve created a random list of tips that we have gathered from our personal experience on the best practices on  how to fish with your kids.

• Set Rules: Before you begin make sure to let the kids know what to expect while they are at the fishing spot, safety rules, the importance of being quiet and calm, and how the stations work. In addition, set consequences for when rules are broken more than once.
• Take Turns: If you have multiple and inexperienced kids that you plan to take fishing, if it is possible do not take them all at once. If you are not alone and have a friend or your spouse with you, I suggest taking half of the kids fishing and then once a certain amount of time has passed switch kids. Too many kids plus their inexperienced ways can cause quite a bit of frustration and tears.
• Have Stations: When we go fishing we use bait that consist of either worms or hot dogs. The bigger kids are able to put hot dog bites on their own hooks but need assistance with cutting the worms and baiting the hook with the worms. So while one adult is at the bait station the other adult is there to help the kids cast and real in.
• Have a Fish Catching Back Up Plan: When anyone goes fishing the goal is to catch a fish and if that goal is not met then there is a huge disappointment and sometimes tears that arise. My genius husband figured out the perfect solution for this and it has helped us tremendously during each of our fishing trips. If you have a child that is struggling to catch a fish, mainly if it is a younger child, here is a little trick to always keep up your sleeve. If you catch a fish or if one of the older kids catch a fish, you have one of two options. The first option is to hand the pole to the smaller child and after a second or two pretend that they themselves caught the fish. The second option is to real the fish up and then cast is back into the water, hand the pole to the smaller child and have them wait for the ‘tug’. Once they feel the tug, have them real it up and viola, they caught a fish! This may sound silly, but it actually works and prevents tears.

The thought of taking your kids and their friends fishing sounds fun, but without a fishing plan it can turn disastrous! I hope that these tips on ‘How to Fish With Your Kid’s’  help you. Feel free to post any additional tips that you might have and have fun.