For some strange reason, I started liking fishing at the knee-pants stage of life, but no one in my immediate or extended family knew or cared anything about it.
When I was 11 we moved next door to a neighbor who liked to take kids fishing. He was in his mid-60?s, a former cavalry officer who had fought for Kaiser Wilhelm and Germany.
Recommended Stories
During four years of World War I trench warfare he had experienced a bunch of horses being shot out from under him. He obviously survived.
He was a crusty old guy, but it is because of his tutelage and despite our fifty-plus-year age difference that I sit here today writing about the outdoors.
Getting kids started early in fishing is critical if they are to continue it through life.
How you get kids started is simple ? you take them fishing. Experts tell us that the best fishing for kids is nearby (no long, boring trips), with easy-to-catch fish (panfish and sunnies are good), and no size or creel limits (so they can keep ? and cook ? the catch).
Most important: the fishing MUST be done with the kid in mind. Depending upon the age, a “fishing trip” might include wading, swimming, skipping stones, finding frogs, a picnic, chasing butterflies, corralling tadpoles, playing with friends, or looking for insects.
It is different from the highly focused, challenging adult trip of seeking the most difficult trout in the stream or the biggest striper in the Bay.
Having kids fish has to be short rather than a dawn-to-dusk endurance trek. It is also important to leave pets and other distractions at home.
On trips like these you often end up rigging the gear, tying the knots, sharpening hooks, baiting hooks, setting the drag, casting the rod, watching the bobber, striking the fish and then handing the rod to the youngster to reel in “his/her” fish.
Family fishing must be from the kid?s perspective, not an adult viewpoint.
Fortunately, excellent help is available through the Internet. Check out www.takemefishing.org and www.futurefisherman.org, sites respectively of the Recreational Boating and Fishing Foundation and the Future Fisherman Foundation. Both have lots of sections on fishing, boating, how to get started, basic fishing rigs, kiddies pages, where to fish in your area, etc.
These sites and their guides will keep you from hearing those awful words feared by any adult striving to help a youngster learn about fishing ? “Can we go home NOW?” Awful!
Future fishing fun comes by keeping the trip short and hearing “Do we have to leave now?”, “Can?t we stay a little longer?” or best of all, “Can we go again SOON?”
C. Boyd Pfeiffer is an internationally-known sportsman and award-winning writer on hunting, fishing and the outdoors, and he has more than 20 books to his credit. He can be reached at [email protected].
