Fishing gear for kids and newbies

T

timflan

New member
8-year-old Kiera wants a fishing pole for Christmas. Here 4-year-old sister Arwen thought this was a great idea, so she wants one too.

And, truth be told, I want one.

Except none of us know the first thing about what to buy. I've got a (G.I.) Joe's nearby, and they seem to have a bunch of packages, some oriented toward kids. But is this really a good way to go?

I'm going to guess that the first question somebody will ask will be "What do you want to fish for?"

The kids want to fish of the dock at our various cruising destinations, and I suppose we'll use what they catch as bait for crab or for some larger fish. And me? Um, I dunno, something that I can bring home to the wife and say 'Wife! Cook this for my supper!', or whatever it is fishermen say to their wives.

I don't own downriggers, and they seem like a big investment when I'm not sure how much I'll use them. Heck, I might just end up fishing off the dock with the kids. Or jigging for squid at night or something.

In case it isn't obvious, we don't know what we're doing, and nobody is holding their breath waiting for a bounty of fresh fish to arrive on our dining room table.

So how should we start?

Thanks!
 
Tim,

I am not sure that I can recommend a particular brand/model, but I do recommend going into a fishing oriented store and talking to the sales folks. Freddy's is a great place, but the people there do not as a rule live and breath fishing.

I would look for something that is easy for a young person to use, that does not tend to get backlashes/tangles/birds nests, and is reasonably durable. My guess is that a zebco closed face reel on a smaller rod would be in order. I got my grand daughter a "Barbie" model for her 7th birthday, and she was thrilled. She has even caught a couple three trout on it. I was not too fond of the pink color, but she likes it, and that's all that matters. Tell Santa that you want a nice Shimano Calcutta 400 for yourself, with a good G Loomis salmon rod.

I would also not expect the little ones to stay too focused on the fishing. After an hour or so, you can expect a "I'm cold/bored" statement.

Regards,

Steve
 
Tim,

When I lived up in Marysville, we would go to the Sportsman Expo every year at the King Dome.
Now, I know that the King Dome is no more, but do they still have the Sportsman Expo in Seattle? That would be a great place to start. They always have seminars for good info. Check out the kiddy pool- the kids can catch a fish or two. Look at the gear and ask, ask, ask questions.

As far as bringing home the meat and having the lady of the house cook it------- well, I do the 3 C's----- Catch, Clean and Cook. :lol:
 
For the girls: 5 - 6 ft. fiberglass rods with spinning reels rigged with 10 lb. test monofilament line. Fiberglass is more break resistant than graphite. The closed faced reels I've bought for similar purposes in the last ten years are junk, including Ambassedur's model. They just aren't the same quality similar reels were in the 70s. Shimano makes inexpensive combination packages (rods and reels) and for learning, casting and dock type fishing and with some practice, can land fish everyone would be proud to bring home. Get two and you use one of them and learn if you prefer spinning reels or.....For you? There are several graphite rods, that can be had for under $35, 8'6" long that are suitable for salmon, steelhead and even bass or trout that, when rigged with a levelwind Ambassaduer (sp?) 5000 -- 6500 reel ($50 - 75) will do very well in a huge variety of situations. You can start with the more forgiving monofilament line in 15-17 lb. test and then graduate to the higher performance, no stretch, stronger and less forgiving braided "superlines" like "Toughline" or "ProLine" in 50 - 65 lb. test. For trolling get a diver, or a big banana weight and flasher and drag a herring on a double hooked leader around at 20 -30 ft. deep and you'll get a silver salmon easy. Swap out that rig for a system called "pop gear" (multiple little flashers on a cable) and rig with a baithook and a worm and you'll kill trout and kokanee. Toss a Lucky 13 near lily pads or a rubbler worm and you'll kill bass. Downriggers, G. Loomis and Sage Rods can be something to look forward to later. If you are not going to be casting but mainly trolling or jigging, then a Penn 209 reel is hard to beat. ($45). C.W.
 
Tim,

Fishermen who've been married for a long time (or who hope to be married for a long time) DO NOT, I repeat DO NOT come "home to the wife and say 'Wife! Cook this for my supper!'". Trust me on this one - clean the fish and cook it for her and never tell her how much it costs/pound.

I put together a list of tackle for salmon fishing in the salt in this thread. C.W.'s advice on a rods and reels is good. I'd add that for fishing from docks (or the boat) in salt water, there's a lot to be said for a small chunk of herring on a salmon leader with a banana weight (like one is "mooching" just use a small piece of bait). In most places in the sound, flounder/sole can be caught just be dropping a piece of bait down to the bottom. You'll also catch the occasional rock cod (tasty), ling cod (tasty), cabezon (tough but some people think they're tasty), sculpin (crab bait or return to the water), dog fish shark (a good fighter but they require careful handling to avoid getting stuck with a toxic spine), ling cod (rare in the sound and out of season most of the year in the sound) and even the occasional salmon. The other thing that the kids can have a lot of fun with is jigging for herring using herring jigs. These are like little flys with 5-7 attached to a leader. You hook one end to the main line, the other end to a weight and lower over the side of the boat (or dock) and hopefully into a school of herring. You can catch several in one drop when you're over a bait ball. The kids will have fun and herring make good bait for salmon and other fish and are even good for crabbing.
 
I don't know much about equipment needed in your area but I do know a lot about teaching kids to fish. Young children mostly lose interest pretty quickly if they don't catch anything. I have a pond in my back yard full of bream and many young children have caught their first fish in that pond. I'd look for someplace that you would be assured of catching something on your first few outings with the kids they will enjoy it a lot more.
 
marvin4239":2yp2c0td said:
I don't know much about equipment needed in your area but I do know a lot about teaching kids to fish. Young children mostly lose interest pretty quickly if they don't catch anything. I have a pond in my back yard full of bream and many young children have caught their first fish in that pond. I'd look for someplace that you would be assured of catching something on your first few outings with the kids they will enjoy it a lot more.
Click to expand...

Excellent point - that's why I suggested jigging for herring or fishing on the bottom with bait in the Puget Sound. With a piece of herring and a hook, it's hard to not catch something in <5mins. Won't necessarily be edible, but will be entertaining for kids. When I first got my boat, we spent the better part of one day just catching and releasing dog fish sharks. For a young boy (about 13 at the time), "shark fishing" was very cool - even of they were only 2-4' in length.
 
Having never learned much about fishn' as a young man. I do mean adult type of serious fishn' I hooked up with a man I met on the docks and asked him if I paid for the gas and beer would he teach me about fishn'. It was a great deal for both of us.

You need to just ask around, at the docks, at work or down the street. You have a boat, you live in a great area for fishn' and I am sure you can learn what you need to know in pretty short order. You could furnish the boat and bait...and they provide the knowledge.

Now take what you learn and pass it on to the kids.

The Zebco suggestion in an earlier post is right on as far as equipment for the kids is concerned.

Good Luck....and....Tight Lines.
 
Wow, thanks, guys!

OK, some specific questions on CW's post:

CW":3cmw0j9o said:
For you? There are several graphite rods, that can be had for under $35, 8'6" long that are suitable for salmon, steelhead and even bass or trout that, when rigged with a levelwind Ambassadeur 5000 -- 6500 reel ($50 - 75) will do very well in a huge variety of situations.
Click to expand...
Is this the currently available equivalent?: Link to Cabela's

CW":3cmw0j9o said:
For trolling get a diver, or a big banana weight and flasher and drag a herring on a double hooked leader around at 20 -30 ft. deep and you'll get a silver salmon easy. Swap out that rig for a system called "pop gear" (multiple little flashers on a cable) and rig with a baithook and a worm and you'll kill trout and kokanee. Toss a Lucky 13 near lily pads or a rubbler worm and you'll kill bass.
Click to expand...
Um...whuh-huh? You lost me at "trolling". :-)

CW":3cmw0j9o said:
Downriggers, G. Loomis and Sage Rods can be something to look forward to later.
Click to expand...
Makes sense to me.

CW":3cmw0j9o said:
If you are not going to be casting but mainly trolling or jigging, then a Penn 209 reel is hard to beat. ($45).
Click to expand...
So, again at Cabela's, one of these?

Actually, I have a rod, a sort of hand-me-down from my neighbor. I doubt it's anything special, but it appears servicable, if neglected. It's fiberglass, seems pretty stiff to me, 8'6" long, with a long wood handle and cork above the reel mount. Assuming I get, as you suggested, a pair of "5 - 6 ft. fiberglass rods with spinning reels rigged with 10 lb. test monofilament line" for the girls, which I'll probably use too, which one of these reels should I mount on this big ol' hand-me-down rod? The goal will be to give us a little variety of equipment to use and learn about.

Thanks again!
 
Tim,

I'd go with the Abu reel that you linked to from Cabela's - good reels and one of the top favorites in that price range amongst those who regularly post on the gamefishin.com web site. Trolling - it's easy to do - with a banana weight and a cut plug, you'll do quite well for silvers (and even other salmon in the right places/times).
 
Tim, how about we go out on my boat after thanks giving and I can show you a lot of different gear and how to use it. We can cover trolling and mooching also jigging, which I dont enjoy very much but kids love, my sons favorite. I also think that finding a small pond is a good idea. One with blue gill or a lot of trout. There is a local group, cast for kids, that have kids fishing days in local lakes about once every other month, differnt lake each time. Its a bit of a zoo, the good thing is that after they are done any fish left over get released in to that pond or lake and the fishing for the next week can be good. I would have to look on their site to see when the next one is. roger is right on about the sand dabs. any where around edmonds in the shallow water is good. As for dog fish they are fun to catch but be careful. I got stuck by on in the arm two years ago and it hurt like hell for days and I ran a fever for a day. just drop bait on the bottom at possison bar and you will get all you need. Also dont forget smelt. great fun for the kids and I will take all you have for sturgeon bait. Also if you want to get extreme there is good squiding going on right now at the edmonds pier. in fact I have to get out there soon for that.
 
My boys are 8 and 6 and both of them use closed face, push button reels. They have been fishing for several years and are not coordinated enough yet to understand the spinning reel. We tried last year with my older son and he just couldn't quite get it and ended up being more frustrated than it was worth. This year we will try again and I think he may be able to do it.
We have had great success with the closed face reels and that is what my father started us on growing up in Alaska. We did a lot of fishing without too many reel problems.
Maybe we have just been lucky.
I guess I should point out that they use these rods/reels at the rivers, lakes and dock. On the boat, if we are fishing for salmon, they just use our rods/reels and we help them.

Julie
 
Tim-
First thing you need to do is add another room on to your house, or better yet build a big shop. This will be necessary to hold all the gear you will accumuulate over the next several years. It all starts with the first rod and reel, pretty soon you are looking at all the out door catalogs and hanging out at the local Sportsmans warehouse, sportco, Joe's sporting goods,ect.
Once you are hooked on fishing, it gets bad. Custom made rods that you tell the wife cost half of what you really paid for them.
Next you start hanging out with guys like Rogerbum and the rest of us obsessed fishermen.
Remember, " an obsession can't be overcome, but it can be properly equipped."
Good luck, I hope it all works out!
 
Helpful and sage advice...mostly. :wink:

Tom, you're on! Kiera and I spent an hour at Joe's this afternoon, and she had questions...questions that needed answers. Her poor ol' dad was out of his element! We did look at some inexpensive combo packages, just barely a step up from the kid combos. Thank goodness Kiera is starting to develop an appreciation for the actual TOOL, not just the graphics or characters attached to it. Even she could tell that the "real" gear was better than the "toy" gear.

I also got to see these Abu Garcia reels in person. That's a lot of smooth-running machine for the price, it seems to me. I'll stick one on this big beater rod I've got, and that should be fun. When I start to have a clue, maybe I'll move the reel to a nicer rod better suited to whatever it is I find most enjoyable.

Kiera keeps making reference to this wonderful fishing experience she had with her cousin this summer over at Mystery Bay. They were just fishing off the dock with the help of some crusty local gal who didn't seem to mind, and they were catching...um...some kind of fish or other. She keeps reminding me that she wants to do THAT kind of fishing. It's starting to reinforce the advice I'm reading here, especially from those with kids. Right, got it...gotta CATCH fish.

Anyway, I am thinking about something like this for her. Seem reasonable? For the price, the reviews on Cabela's are prety good; a few folks have bad luck with the plastic internals, and a majority appear not to. I figure we might head down to Outdoor Emporium after the holiday and start asking questions.

As long as I'm admitting my full and complete non-fisherman status, why aren't there any crab in my trap? First time out, I used bear meat (long story), in about 25 feet south of Edmonds, and caught one undersized male after two hours, and nothing after another two hours. Then one of my dock neighbors said "go deeper, 40 to 100 feet", so I dropped it with a chopped up turkey neck in 80 feet off Richmond Beach, and left it for four hours or so. NOTHING! Of course, I'm only laying out my one trap, and most folks put out the limit, so TOM, I'll be asking you for some cheap but effective recycled traps to match-up, head-to-head, with my Flex-Fold. BTW, my bait is in a bait jar, not the cage. Maybe the bait jar doesn't allow enough scent to get out for short periods? Maybe I'm in the wrong location? Maybe I haven't left it out long enough? Or across the correct part of the tidal activity? Obviously I don't know. If you feel like sharing, but not with the whole world, you can PM me with your crab secrets. :-)

Thanks fisher-brats, I'm countin' on ya! Happy Thanksgiving, BTW. I'm especially happy because Julia and Arwen made a pecan pie...my favorite!
 
First, what are you fishing for? Salmon, trout or, as I think, lifetime fishing partners? I agree wholeheartedly with the advice to get them catching fish, little ones that are easy, fun and simple. Perch or sunfish from the dock or bank using bobbers and worms is hard to beat. When bored they can run up and down the beach, play with sticks, make castles and, if it is like here, poke at the bonfire on the beach too. Hotdogs cooked on a stick are classic fun. Take them where the fishing is easy and successful, and they'll want to go again. Don't discuss the size of fish much. That can come later. Bobbers give them something visually to focus on and make a bite and strike versus a nibble very detectable. Use a snelled #6 bait hook with worm, refrigerator biscuit dough or powerbait and slide the bobber up the line so that the hook is near the bottom. Trout love it too. Herring chunks off of a dock in the salt water is great too.

Trolling, though highly effective at catching salmon, is a great way to kill a kid's enthusiasm. It is as exciting as backbouncing lures on the Columbia river for most kids, only one in 50 really likes the idea of staring at a pulsing rod tip! So I bribe them with pop, cookies, chips, books, card games, the big labrador and yes, even a DVD on the laptop.... Keep them warm and distracted and you can keep them out there on a boat longer. But to get them actively fishing... the dock approach is better.

The "Slab Seeker" rod you highlighted looks okay, but I'd skip the depth seeker option, one more thing to complicate, confuse or fail. I wouldn't necessarily take the girls shopping. You make the decisions. You don't have to get 2 rods that are the same either... maybe one close faced set up and one open faced spinning reel. Gear can get shared. A beach is the best place for a kid to learn to cast, one that has some backcast room to avoid snags. That day will be about learning to cast, not catching fish. A three hour outing is a reasonable goal, not all day.

My son's Shimano combination is an FX 4000 reel (rated for 8-15 lb. line holds 200 yds. of 10 lb, I think we have 15 lb test on it) on a 6'6" Shimano rod. I paid under $30 for it and it is great, smoother and far better than the Abu spinning combo we got for the other son. It is heavier than you need for most little fish, but we also use it to backbounce for steelhead. Shakespear's "Ugly Stik" is a great line of rods too (most have a graphite core wrapped in fiberglass - for durability and the wrappings, finish & guides are first rate, & priced reasonably) and the contrasting -color tip makes strikes easy to see. The graphite Rapala rod I got for $24 is 8'6", model TS71TR86XH2 is very stout, great for salmon and steelhead and rated for 15 - 50 lb. line, 3/4 -- 3 oz. lures. Buzz Ramsey has a model through Berkely that is also decent gear, reasonably priced. The Abu reel for you is great but it too will take some practice to learn to cast. Go with an experienced person to teach you how to do it.

With the kids, make sure their life jackets fit, wear polypropylene or wool socks, warm hats, a thermos of hot chocolate is good. Car doors break more rod tips than anything else. Watch their backcast so they don't put a hook in somebody's eye. C.W.
 
OK, time for me to spend a day with Tom. Tom?

And there are a couple of combos I'm thinking of, but I'm not familiar with the product lines. So someone please confirm my suspicion:
Zebco 202 reels aren't quite as robust as Zebco 33 reels.

Also, I see some gear is marketed for SALTWATER, while a lot of the lower-priced items I'm looking at aren't. What special care instructions do I need to be aware of to keep 'em running? Freshwater rinse back at the dock?

Thanks, oh fishing gurus of C-Brats.
 
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