Getting kids to love fishing FISHING WITH KIDS By Kelly Hunt
H
ere is a subject that is close to my heart. Fishing with kids and how to make it work for you. I had to do this through necessity because I have 4 energetic and engaged kids. This was not always the case and for the better part of their early years, they were a massive handful whenever I went fishing. You may say “Well why on earth would I want to take my kids fishing if that was the case” and that reason is brownie points my friend, BROWN…E…POINTS! If your significant other has been at home with the kids all week and you decide to bug out with mates or on your own for a fish you have lit the fuse. It may not happen the first time or the second, but one day when you come home you are going to have an explosion on your hands that makes Hiroshima look like a throwdown. Take the kids and take them from a young age. Introduce them to skills and adventures that some kids just won’t ever be exposed to. Be an adventurer and pioneer in a time when kids are bubble wrapped and hovered over like an Apache gunship looking to see off an incursion. Get some dirt on their clothes and some grass in their hair and they will love it. Make sure they are not in their Sunday best when you take them or you will be back to square one once home. There are several things to think about when taking kids fishing so let’s have a
look at a few.
PACK STUFF Make sure you have a small esky or soft pack and have some food and drink on hand. Kids will get cranky and not listen to you when their tummies start to speak to them. Make some white bread sangers with heaps of butter and some wheel meat loaded with some tomato sauce if you want to go old school. If you want more brownie points make up some salad wraps and take some fruit they like to eat. A spare set of clothes in the car is also a good idea. So too is a good first aid kit. We don’t want to speak about that too much but get one. Just in case.
They don’t all have to be marlin to get the kids smiling
MINDSET Right – Clear your mind now of what your expectation is when you take the kids fishing. You will have to change what you do completely if they are below 8 years of age. They don’t do as they are told and you have to watch them like a hawk. So tailor your fishing activity to their age ability and work within that. I am all for taking kids fishing whenever I can but Abseil rock fishing for a five-year-old is a bit of a stretch. Remember this is about time away from work and stress and over complicating your day is not what we are about. So shape the activity around the age of the kids.
BEACH FISHING
Freya loves nothing more than being at the helm Fishing News - Page 48
This is by far and away the best young children fishing activity you can do while still fishing quite hard yourself. The area is flat and safe as houses for the most part. There are acres of interesting things for the kids to do if the fishing is slow. While you are trying to fool a nice Gummy shark onto your line the kids can be looking for shells and stones or the golden chalice of kid’s beachcombing. The starfish! Try not to have them find any blue-ringed octopus or tread on a stonefish in a rock pool. This can lead to a fair bit of time at the ER and back to square one with the wifey. The bait used is of interest to the kids and the collecting of sandworms at the water’s edge is an amazing thing for a child to behold. The use of chairs and a table makes preparing
Australian salmon go hard on light gear and Ella learnt some angling skills fighting this one
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