New here - Need advice for my 8 year old

[brushhog]

Fished trout as a kid with my Dad, now my 8 year old caught the bass bug. Last season we caught a lot of bass fishng remote ponds and stretches of river from a canoe. One day, in a large pond, my son had a small sun fish on that he was letting swim around the canoe (Playing)... Needless to say A huge lunker walloped the sunny.. My boy screamed and tried to set the hook ripping the sunny out of lunkers mouth... We tried matchinging crankbaits to the sunny without any luck... We continued to catch fish on wacky rig plastics but never another look at the reallu big guys. Any ideas???

[skeeter944]

Welcome to the forum brushhog! Just keep fishing,the big ones will come. Try moving out to deeper water,Ya might get some bigger bites. Try the Storm Blugill Swimbaits,they work really good for bigger bass.

[lizardsrule]

Well I would try sun fish LOL. Try a fluke in a color close to the sun fish. Slug-O also make some good stickbaits that mimic baitfish. Glad to see your bringing him up right. Welcome to the site.

Lizards

[texasbasser]

try live sunfish if possible. If not, try using Storm Wildeye swimbaits in bluegill color, and hopefully you will get him again.

[Rebbasser]

Welcome to the forum!

Sounds like you are on the right track. Good advice so far-go with something that looks like a bluegill.

[brushhog]

we'll be at bass pro tomorrow, even though everything up here is frozen!! I thought about the live bait thing too.. but would rather go with what you have all mentioned. Thanks again

[Rebbasser]

Drive careful! Take a look for something like this:



They are made by Storm. Good swimbaits but are not very expensive.

Another bait you ought to take a look at is a Rat-L-Trap-a lipless crankbait that comes in a ton of colors. Firetiger is the color designed to look like a perch/bluegill. Fun bait to fish, too!

[islandbass]

Get him started on baitcasting reels now. I taught my daughter when she was 6 and she is now 7 and she claimed my green curado as hers.

I know your son will master a bc reel very fast. Kids can do that with a little bit of practice and a lot of parental encouragment.

Welcome and be sure to share more awesome reports!

-ib

[brushhog]

I just started a baitcaster last year, hand me down form Dad, what would you suggest for an 8 yr old

[JB]

a zebco33, best push button reel they ever made

[Rebbasser]

Yep-I'm with JB. The Zebco 33 is a good, TOUGH reel-pretty much 8-yr old proof . Baitcasters can be frustrating for adults, let alone kids, and you want fishing to be fun. The baitcasters will come later.

[Super Fluke]

Catch another sun fish and let it swim around, you will get a lunker fish like that.

[Basscrazie]

Bagley perch med runner or shallow.I have had great luck in small lakes with these.The shallow runner will cast far and retrieves easy.Keep trying you will get her one day.Good luck..

[zooker]

bagleys small fry blue gill bait. i have a couple. these baits rule during the spawn and just after..they are a hard floating crankbait that moves as close to any brim ever did..
one very large problem here in nc is. bass love them some gills and so do large flatheads... for pond fishing these baits are off the hook but i hesitate to use them in larger bodies of water..

i have to agree zebco 33 are boy proof.. stick it on a 6'6' mh lighting rod-or ugly stick-rig up a texas rigged worm on this set up.and let the boy have at them..

growing up in western ny i never even had one of those reels.wish at times i did though..



zooker

[JB]

he's only 8 years old and half our statue, I would get a 5 foot pole for the youngster

[bassintxlady]

let him start out with the zebco.....but i say the sooner you give him a baitcaster the sooner he'll learn to master it.....give him a shimano....set the brakes up high.....and put a practice plug on the end of it.....my grandson could throw a baitcaster at 2 so it's never too early.....let him get confident....i and bet watched a 10 to 12 year old last saturday casting with a baitcaster ....it was very impressive to watch.....he only had one professional overide.....(backlash)....

[islandbass]

Brushog,

JB's recommendation for rod size is a good one, but I couldn't find one as a baitcast rod.

My daughter has two baitcast rods, one is 5'6" and the other is a 6' Daiwa (only like $12!!!) and both are two pieces. I recommend that for your son's reel anything you can hand down to him will be fine.

I let my daughter start with my older curado (which she now claims is hers) but she has also used my 300 size cardiff and Pflueger Trion.

I also devised a fool-proof thingofajig to eliminate the possibility of her accidentally tossing her rig into the drink. I'd be heartbroken if she ever dropped it into the water and I know she'd feel even worse.

Here she is jigging in the salt with an 8'6" salmon rod and Abu G round reel


Here she is with her Daiwa rod and my cardiff:


Here is what I devised to prevent loss of rig experiences:







We both prefer left handed reels and that rh abu g is the only rh reel in my arsenal. It was the only one saltwater worthy since the other reels were set up for bass.

Just be encouraging. Young kids definitely have the capacity to learn anything faster than we can.

[adamgambill]

Man thats cool, I hope mine will have the attention span to fish with me later on.

I havent seen a suggestion for a spinning reel. You cant get a bad backlash, its going to have enough gear for bigger fish, you can put braid on it and itll cast pretty dang far. I was taught to pull a line twist at like 8-or 9, its not that difficult. Later in life he'll appreciate the fun you had fishing more than the gear he had so keep that in mind. As far as a first caster- go with an old Curado, they are so dang reliable and versitile you can use them for anything and everything. I am not above throwing a bobber and worm for bream with my 200BSF.