Kids are the future of the sport of fishing and in the long term the people who as adults will eventually be the ones to protect our outdoor environment for the future of others. Unfortunately, children don’t see the merit in fishing like those that have caught the bug and fished all their lives. Developing a passion for fishing takes time, experience, knowledge and a wealth of memories.
The big thing to remember when you take a child fishing is to keep the fishing simple, don’t try to be too technical, critical or make it difficult based on the child’s skill set. Don’t worry so much about what you catch, how big it is or whether it’s good to eat or a quality gamefish. Kids see every fish as a new experience, so even the smallest fish are a big deal to them.
Keep it fun, and the kids will want to do it again. Don’t stress catching fish as the barometer of a good day on the water, when the reality is that being on the water and sharing your love of nature and fishing with your child is a good day. If the kids want to fish for a while then go swimming, do it. Over time, they will learn to equate going fish with a natural part of the outdoor experience, and if they take an interest in the sport, will want to dedicate more of their time on the water to the pursuit of catching fish.
One of the easiest ways to take a kid fishing is to head to the local beaches or to a pier, bridge or dock. The Naples Pier, Punta Gorda Pier, Matanzas Catwalk and the Sanibel Causeway are all good areas in my region that you can drive to and fish over the water with a reasonable chance of catching something. If you want you can catch live bait like small pilchards, threadfins or pinfish and put them out on a popping cork, or you can just bring a bait bucket with some live shrimp and do the same thing. This also applies to any of the local beaches that allow fishing. Live shrimp or a live pilchard will get a lot of interest in these areas.
If you have access to a boat, you can pick just about any grass flat in the region and anchor up in 3- to 5-feet of water. From there, fish a popping cork rig with a live shrimp. Everything loves shrimp, and the potential is there to catch something of quality while at the same time getting a lot of action. Even using pieces of shrimp for bait under the cork will produce plenty of bites, and at the same time, the cork allows the kids to see when the fish are striking their baits so they get a feel for when to set the hook.
As the children get more experienced and want to do a lot of casting, you can start teaching them how to fish lures. Start with the lures that are simple to fish like a Gold Spoon, a swimming plug or a shad-type soft plastic bait—things you don’t have to give a lot of action to, you just cast them out and reel them in. As they get better at casting and retrieving the lure, move up to jerk baits and topwater plugs.
The thing to remember with kids is that their attention span is short, so the more action they have the more they will focus on fishing and the longer they’ll want to spend doing it. Once they decide they want to do something else, stop fishing and move on to swimming, wading, or whatever else they want to do. As long as the equate going fishing to having fun, they’ll want to keep fishing, and the more they fish the better their skills become until the point that they’re teaching you how to catch the big ones.

Captain Tips