fishin with a four year old

[wareagledc]

for the first time i took my 4 year old son fishin with me on a boat alone. just me and him. we went to dekalb lake and rented a little 14 foot flat bottom john boat with a 30lb trolling motor. I got some nightcrawlers for him and rigged up his superman fishing pole with a small hook and a float. we launched out and right away i started heading for some fallen trees to fish. i threw it out for him and told him to wait for the float to go under then yank and reel. MISTAKE!!! he had reeled it up close to the boat then sure enough yanked and wham hook to my arm. well i calmley removed the hook then told him to leave it out in the water and not yank it just reel if the float went under. then the 30 mph winds kicked up and i starting looking for the anchor and realized there was not one. what kind of boat doesn't have an anchor? do you know how hard it is to cotrol a flat bottom boat with 30mph wind with a four year old tangling up line and reeling in every 2 seconds and expecting a fish and then asking you why the fish are not eating. i caught one small bass on a jig and let him reel it in. in the process he steped on the worms spilling the dirt everywhere making mud in the bottom of the boat. i took the fish off and he wanted to hold it i told him how to grab it by the lip and when he did it floped and he threw it in the now muddy floor. the fish went crazy flinging mud all over us. i laughed about it and then we slowly trolled over to a cove to escape the brutal wind. we drifted around fishing for hours with no bites. i could not figure out why. maybe it was him hollering and banging around and droping stuff and stomping on the bottom of the boat. i gave up on trying to get in a good spot and me fishing and just trolled up to a tree and tied up to it. the water was clear and about 4 or 5 foot deep. i took the hook off his line and tied a weight on it to let him play around and pratice casting and reeling. i asked him if he was ready to go and he was like "no daddy i haven't catched any fishes you caught a bass and i want one too". right then i realized that my 4 year old was infected with the same additiction for fishing i was. even though we had been out for 6 hours and not caught but one little bass he wanted to stay. how many kids will do that? i retied his line and we tried for a while longer and nothing so we headed in. i had the best time even though i could not fish myself much and we only caught one little bass. i learned that you have to be very patient with a kid and just laugh at the things they say. like "i want to catch a blue fish and a green fish and a christmas fish". if you get the chance to fish with a kid take your time and just enjoy the little tikes. they will make you realize why you started fishin in the first place to have FUN. we all take it to serious sometimes and need reminders to just relax and enjoy.

[cassidyta]

That is a great day of fishing. My youngest is 5 and it is not much better, but the proudest fish in my life is the first blue gill that she hooked.
You have learned the most important lesson about fishing with your son. It is not about you catching a fish but being able to spend time with your son.

[bcklash]

eagle I started taking my son at about the same age, he's now 27 and we still enjoy the same thrill of fishing togather. We went out for a while yesterday didn't get a bite but still had an enjoyable day.

[Bassboss]

Well, at least you got him out and caught a few fish. Kiddies will be kiddies...... they make mistakes!

[bcklash]

Bassboss the kiddie is not making mistakes he's having fun and doesn't know any better, let him/her have their fun so they will want to go fishing or any thing they want to do again.

[bassintom]

I take my girls fishing knowing I probably won't get any fishing in but it doesn't matter.The time spent with them is the most important part.You're making memories and it's better to make sure the kids have a good time.

[zooker]

i spent the entire summer when i was 4 on the boat dock practicing with a fly rod. by the time i was 5 i was winning casting comps.. i was 6 when i caught my first fish on a fly-a brown trout-. 18 before i caught a legel bass on a fly..it snow balled from there..my uncle and grandfather made sure. i was supplied with tackle..

zooker

[cassidyta]

Originally Posted by bcklash

Bassboss the kiddie is not making mistakes he's having fun and doesn't know any better, let him/her have their fun so they will want to go fishing or any thing they want to do again.

You nailed it bcklash...I spent too much time trying to make sure that my oldest son knew how to cast just right. It is probably why he is not a fan of fishing to this day. With my other son and my daughter I learned to just let them learn at their own pace. As long as there is no danger then it didn't matter. Both of them love to fish with me.

[aikenyounggun]

yeah my dad said after the first time he took my bro and i (very young) he realized you need to stay far enough away from the bank that they (we) cant cast onto it

when i go to mu cousins i go with them.... their dad like fishing but with 4 kids under the age of 5th grade its time consuming..... the oldest loves it and the youngest boy does... the youngest boy would beg us to take us with him.... we snuck out one morning to have some peace..... but we did take him..... so there was me, my bro, oldest cousin (who throws and sets the hook w/o lookin behind him), my uncle, and my youngest cousin fihsin out of a 16 foot boat...... foir SCHOOLIN fish.... so it was run there, throw, run there,ron over there

i was of course running the boat, the trollin motor, and helping the 5 year old.....

i think i took 5 cast in an hour (4 fish..... got to love it!!!!) .... the littlest one caught like 10..... caught a 2.5 lber...... he was having so much fun and i was haveing fun helping him

got to love that..... p.s i think he is also the youngest wakeboarder ever...... yeah we taught him..... he aint scared of nothin

[Jim80]

sounds great man my boys have been coming out with me for 2 years now and as the weather is warming up my 5 year old is starting to pop around the house asking when we can fish again . In my eyes nothing better than spending time on the water with the kids



Jim

[bassackwards]

my girl is 7 and loves to fish (and a fast boat ride) still working on the let her learn at her own pace part my wife says it's just fishing to calm down shes right.
soon my little girl will be looken at boys and other stuf so need to get the time in when i can glad to hear everyone takes there kids with them

[wareagledc]

he asked me all day today if we could go and i told him i had to work. he said how bout tommorrow and on and on and on until i said maybe this weekend. now its is it the weekend yet? kid are so funny.

[bamabassman]

derrick man........... that is just great pal. reminds me of when i was a kid( yes i was a kid once. a long time ago in a land far,far away.). bout the same age. you're a great father man. a great father. keep it up pal. the kid will be alright, he may root for the wrong team, but we still got time for that too,lol. thank you for the story for real. reminds us why we started this sport to begin with.

[woody]

Wareagle...
You've earned my respect. But what's more important is what that little fella pictured in your avatar thinks of ya; I think I now know why he's holding up that little finger.


~Mark

[wareagledc]

thanks for the kind words guys.

[jooleyen]

Awesome. I take my little brothers fishing and of course whatever I do, they want to do aswell. We go all the time and they love it. I just got my older young brother a baitcaster (thanks to Ryan) and he'll be good with it in no time.

[aikenyounggun]

yeah my cousins love and beg me to take em fishin

[brushhog]

As you all know, I rarely fish without at least one of my three kids... My youngest is only 3 so he hasn't gone yet. And we usually throw in a neighborhood kid or a cousin for giggles... I do a lot more "guiding" than fishing and wouldn't trade it for a thing!!!!

[BigBassin144]

My little cousin fished with me two time last year. He had fun, and I'm gonna take him bluegill fishing in the tracker this year.

BB

[aikenyounggun]

yeah it was funny, the first time i saw the pond my uncle lives on in Florida he said "there aint no sunfish/bluegill/crappie in here" ..... i laughed and said he was crazy.... so i got some bread and a tiny hook and the whole family (including my mom, who almost never fishes) caught bluegill and sunfish..... we had a good fish fry..... its funny watchin my mom help the little ones catch fish

[Captmikestarrett]

At the age of four, My childhood was typical: summers in Rangoon, luge lessons. In the spring, we’d make meat helmets. When I was insolent, I was placed in a burlap bag and beaten with reeds. Pretty standard, really.



But at age of five well you know the rest of the story..

Capt Mike

[fish2]

taking kids fishing is pretty fun.