A Boatload of 31 Reasons to Take Your Kids Fishing

Every kid wants their parents to take them fishing, but I’m sad to report that I’ve met far too many parents who don’t. Yes, plenty of youths go their entire lives without having someone take them out for a fishing adventure. If you’re reading this, it’s time to break that miserable reality. You shouldn’t need much convincing; fishing’s awesome, end of story. You should absolutely take your child out fishing with you, every chance you get. Here are are a boatload of 31 reasons why you should take your kids out fishing with you this weekend.

1. Fishing Makes Shots at the Doctor’s Less Horrifying

I have legitimately used my son’s fishing experiences to help him through getting his shots at the doctors. Before I thought of doing this, shot day was the worst. There would tears, begging, screaming and fits.

How did fishing change all of this? Bluegill dorsal spines.

My child insists on holding his own fish and bringing them over to the livewell. With smaller fish, this means that he is routinely poked and jabbed by their dorsal spines and fins, which can feel pretty similar to the prick of a shot. He just never notices because he’s having fun and wants to handle fish “just like Daddy.”

It took me a few rounds at the doctor’s before I figured this out, but once I started talking to him about bluegill and how he gets spined and got him to acknowledge that it’s no big deal, I explained that getting a shot is just like a bluegill pricking him really quick – no big deal.

This got him smiling and it was clear the wheels were turning in his head as he said, “Ok,” and let the doctor treat him. We walked out of there with no tears and headed straight for the toy store to celebrate what an awesome job he did.

2. The Boat Is A Great Place to Potty Train Them

One of the greatest benefits of fishing with a two year old was we were able to potty train our son on the boat. We have a vinyl floor that gets far worse on it throughout the course of the fishing season, so if there was a little “spray” it was easy to correct. It was also great for our son because we didn’t have to pull him away from anything to go potty – just have a quick seat and, “why sure, kid, hold onto your rod while you’re at it.”

I’m sure we got a few weird looks fishing with our kid in his underwear, but it worked, he was trained quickly, without any fuss, and in a place that was very easy to clean.

3. Fishing = Kids + Water. Enough Said.

Parents need no explanation for this. I just thought I’d remind everyone of the obvious. Just remember to bring a change of clothes with you or that car seat is getting soaked.

4. They’ll Spend Less Time on Screens

The more time your kids are on the water, the less time they’re in front of a screen. Get your kids hooked early on fishing so that you’ll always have this in your back pocket to get them outside.

It’s so hard to find things that will get kids engaged enough to leave the screen these days, but fishing is such a big production that it’s one of the few things that can compete. There’s all the fishing gear to assemble and talk about, all the different species that they might catch, all the fun of hanging out on a boat, or trudging through the woods to find a good fishing spot along a riverbank. It’s a winner.

Even if you do find that you need to hand your toddler your cell phone for a few moments while you retie, they’re quick to hand it back with no fuss in exchange for their rod back. That’s about the only thing on earth (aside, perhaps from a chocolate mousse mouse) that has that effect on my son.

5. When They Are on Screens, It’ll Be “Educational”

Look, if fishing with your children ignites a passion, you’re going to find your kids in front of television screens now and then, but instead of Saturday morning cartoons, you may find them watching fishing programs! I know a screen is a screen but take solace in the fact that at least they’re watching something educational.

If you haven’t seen it yet, you should search for Glen Lau’s “Bigmouth.” I purchased it years ago but am having a hard time finding a place where you can buy new copies of the DVD. There are some YouTube videos out there with a large portion of the show uploaded that you’ll find in your search. I’m leery to link them as I wonder if they’re legal, but you can find them quickly on YouTube yourself.

This film is great because they show underwater footage of largemouth bass behavior, including their spawn. While there are some fishing scenes, it is much more of a nature documentary than a fishing show. You may find it illuminating.

6. Fishing Helps Kids Learn to Listen

I swear I’m not kidding – my son actually listens when he has a fish on the line. I know that’s counter-intuitive as you’d think that pairing a small child with a live fish thrashing at the end of a hook, but it’s true. He carefully listens to my coaching, stops reeling when he hears the drag “ziiiiiip!,” and holds his rod up high when I tell him to.

He does this because he’s in the zone and really wants to land that fish. He’s open to guidance and suggestions and coaching and willing to hear what I have to say. This has worked out really well for him as he’s landed some fish that I don’t think I would have at his age.

This extends beyond fishing because sometimes I refer back to a large fish he caught and tell him that it’s so important to listen, because I’m trying to tell him something important that will help him. By doing this, I’m breaking down a situation he doesn’t understand (for example, why he can’t break away from me in a parking lot) into one that he does (whey he needs to let a fish run when it’s pulling drag).

There’s a method to the madness of all the fables and fairy tales that we read to our kids, and it’s usually so that we can refer back to a lesson that a character learned at one point. It’s all the better if the lesson is one that your child learned themselves while fighting a catfish.

Frankly, if getting your kids to finally listen isn’t a great reason to take them fishing, I don’t know what is.

7. It Teaches Kids Strategy

There’s nothing wrong with developing strategic thought from an early age, and fishing will provide plenty of lessons in strategy.

Pretty much every time you head to the lake, you want to have some sort of plan in mind as to where you’ll start casting, what lures you’ll start using, and what type of habitat you think the fish will hang around. If you’ve read my article filled with tips about how to scout your future fishing spots from the comfort of your home, then chances are you’ve spent some considerable time thinking about your trip long before you started it.

Involve your children with this planning process! Bring them over to the map the night before and let them know where you’re thinking about fishing and why. Explain to them what you’re looking for – is it a different depth? A certain type of cover or weedline? The important thing is to let them see that you are approaching fishing thoughtfully and strategically so they will start to emulate you.

After you’ve gone out with them a few times, let them take control. Ask them to plan the fishing trip (give them a few tips) and then execute on that plan and see how it went. Having a debrief of each trip will let you revisit what your plan originally was and also what changes, if any, you had to make during the day. It will also assist you in coming up with a better plan for the future.

8. Fishing Teaches Kids to Deal with Change

Being able to deal with change is one of the most critical skills that you can teach your children. Change will be constant throughout their lives and will create chaos unless they know how to take a deep breath and muddle through.

Taking kids fishing is a great place to teach them how to reason with change because it’s everywhere in the sport. The seasons are the most glaring example, but offer a good way to talk to children about the seasonal patterns of fish, where you can expect to find them during the year, and how active they might be.

Change can be much more rapid in fishing. The tides are a good example as the rock or jetty that you caught so many fish on earlier might soon be consumed by the sea, forcing you to try something different.

Even just the process of losing a trusted fishing lure to a snag brings about change. It’s not a fun feeling to be forced to move from one technique that was catching fish in droves to something else that’s unproven for the day, but sometimes that’s exactly what you need to do.

9. Fishing Teaches Problem Solving Skills

Problems arise frequently while fishing and having your kids observe you while you solve a few (and then having them solve a few on their own) teaches kids to work through a tough situation and come up with a solution.

A good place to show your kids how to do this would be with Senko-styled worms. While they’re one of the best fishing lures for beginners, if you’ve ever used them, you know that just rigging them right on a hook is an expensive proposition as they tend to tear off the hook easily and are lost. You may have heard of sliding o-rings up the worm and then attaching your hook to that instead, as it tends to keep the worm attached much better.

This, unfortunately, presents a whole new problem: sliding the o-ring up the worm’s body will often damage the worm. Some enterprising folks came up with a tool that you can buy that does work very well, but if you don’t have it (or don’t want to buy it), you can also use your needle nose pliers as seen in the photo below.

Simply place the o-ring on the pliers while they’re shut and then open them enough to allow you to slide the worm through. Then, slide the o-ring off of the pliers and onto the worm wherever you want.

This solves a problem, and by walking your kids through your thought process it will start triggering them to think of new and creative ways to solve problems of their own.

10. Fishing Teaches Kids to Stay Organized

There are many disorganized people, including myself, who can only find order in their tackle box. As cluttered as my desk may be, my tackle bag has everything organized exactly as I like it so that I can find it quickly.

My son took an interest in my tackle boxes from an early age. We used to go down to the basement after I’d get home from work and just look at all the crankbaits and see how I organized them.

Now when we’re done fishing together, I ask my kids to help me “police up the boat.” We store all our rods away neatly where they go and make sure the net is in good condition and exactly where we need it. I have no interest in teaching them organization the hard way by losing their fish because the net is inaccessible!

When my children are older and it’s time for their own tackle box, they’ll do what all kids do when tasked with this for the first time — mess around and play with their plastic worms and lizards. However, once they get that out of their system, I trust that they’ll start organizing their lures by type and color and making sure everything has a proper place. It’s all part of the fun of fishing!

11. Fishing Helps Kids Provide for the Family

While it’s not necessary to always keep what you catch, and you’d probably want to practice selective harvest when you do, fishing is, nonetheless, a great way to put food on the table, and one of the few ways that a young child can contribute to the production and livelihood of the family.

If your family relies on nature for meat, letting your children take part in gathering will make them feel relevant, important, and esteemed. Most kids want to pull their weight. They will literally step into your shoes and emulate you. Fishing is a great way for them to do that.

12. Your Kids Will Develop a Greater Respect for Nature

I mentioned selective harvest above and linked to an In-Fisherman article about the need for it. You ought to read it if you get a chance. The theory is that both catch & take as well as catch & release kind of miss the mark.

If one were to eat every fish they caught, they would soon find themselves with no fish left to catch. Yet at the same time, throwing back every fish can lead to overpopulation and stunted growth, especially in smaller ponds.

The idea behind selective harvest is that you want to release the truly large and magnificent fish as they are the ones genetically predisposed to have babies that will also grow to massive proportion. Instead, you should focus on keeping and eating smaller fish (where legal) who are more abundant (and usually taste better too).

Practicing this and teaching it to your kids will tend to get them thinking about the natural order of things and how they can negatively influence nature if they aren’t careful.

You’d also do well to take a little bag out for garbage whenever you’re taking your kids fishing. First of all, kids create a massive amount of garbage all on their own, seemingly out of thin air. But secondly, when your child observes you going through the effort to lean over and pick some trash up, they are more likely to to appreciate why we shouldn’t litter, and become better stewards for the planet.

Likewise, police up your old fishing line. Don’t let it stay stuck in the tree, or just toss it on the ground. Explain to your children how birds and other animals can become trapped or ensnared by the line, and encourage your children to always pick up after themselves.

If you explain why you’re taking the time to clean up after others, it will be a good start for your budding conservationists.

13. Fishing Teaches Kids About the Circle of Life

Even if you did intend to release each fish you caught, despite our best efforts, there is death in fishing. Hooks are sharp, and smaller fish are sometimes taken by larger ones as they struggle by the boat. Occasionally, a fish that seems perfectly fine just won’t swim off again, and that’s not even to mention what happens to the worms.

Death is part of life and though it’s a complicated topic and one I’d generally steer clear of with little kids, they’re going to be curious about it. At the very least, if they ask, you can explain how death works for animals, and how one life nourishes and sustains another.

You probably don’t want to linger on this topic longer than necessary, but it is something you’re going to need to explain to your children someday, and a quiet evening among the lily pads is as good a place for such a somber moment as any.

14. Your Kids Will Learn Self Reliance

Oftentimes when things go wrong out on the water, you have to fix them yourself. Perhaps you have an issue with a battery connection, or maybe all your tackle gets tangled up. Perhaps you’ve even bungled through some comedic fishing mistakes. No one is going to fix these issues for you, but your kids will certainly watch with a keen eye while you attempt a remedy.

I remember I was once out fishing some miles from home, having a grand old time and absolutely slaying some pickerel when I looked back and noticed my boat was sinking! I didn’t know it at the time, but the livewell intake had broken clean off the boat and was flooding the bilge.

This was an interesting dilemma, to say the least. I pointed my trolling motor in the direction of home and started frantically bailing (this old boat didn’t have a bilge pump, naturally). Anyway, I managed to bail it enough to where I thought I could use the outboard. I got home and retrieved the boat and saw the problem.

This was, of course, right at the start of my vacation and I thought it was all over. My boat had a giant hole in it, after all! Luckily, my friend introduced me to the amazing curative powers of J-B Weld, and after finding an appropriate plug we were able to get everything nice and dry and keep on fishing.

Telling your kids little stories like that (or living them out right next to each other) can make a big difference in how self reliant they grow to be.

15. Your Kids Will Become More Resilient

Not all fish that are hooked on any given day will be landed, and having your child go through this minor disappointment repeatedly will begin to teach them resilience and how to move on from setbacks without throwing a temper tantrum. This will only work, however, if the adult they’re fishing with is a good role model and also just let’s it go with a smile.

If a fish breaks your fishing line, it’s very tempting to let your frustration get the best of you and start complaining or groaning. Avoid this temptation and instead just focus on how much fun it was to fight the fish. “Gosh that sure was a big one! Let’s see if we can catch him again!” Often, fish school and another large one is just a few casts away!

16. Fishing Rewards Hard Work

Sometimes you have to really work for a bite. While this isn’t a great situation to be in with toddlers (you really want to make things as easy as possible for them), older kids can start to develop a good work ethic by fishing.

An angler often carefully prepares their gear well into the night and then rises before the sun to drive to the lake, launch the boat, and head out fishing. Hundreds if not thousands of casts may be made throughout the day, and dozens if not more knots will be retied. They may or may not catch fish during this process, but if they do, they’ll need to be skillfully played and landed. When the day is up, the boat needs to be retrieved, drained, and dried. Then everything needs to be packed up for the night. It can often be a 14-hour “work day.”

Just in case it isn’t obvious, you should NOT take your kids out for that long, but if they love fishing, they might start talking about becoming a professional angler. That’s a wonderful opportunity to talk about how hard the pros work and how much they sacrifice. For the most part, professional fishermen are good role models for your kids. Take advantage of that and use it to get your kids to start cleaning their room!

17. Fishing Teaches Delayed Gratification

This kind of goes hand in hand with how fishing rewards hard work, but it is a sport where there is delayed gratification involved. You do certain tasks in the hopes of being rewarded in the (hopefully not too distant) future. This is an important task for children to learn or else they turn into college grads wondering why they can’t immediately land a six-figure job.

Now, with small kids, you want to do your best to make sure that delay lasts as short as possible (I find 5 seconds is about right when fishing with babies and infants). If you want some tips on how to scout effectively to try and quickly put them on prime fishing grounds, check out preparing for a fishing trip with kids.

18. Fishing Teaches Kids to Win and Lose Gracefully

Fishing is a sport and one that kids can take part in from a fairly young age. There are many youth tournaments organized by various bass clubs, national programs, and also just different towns. There’s only one winner, of course, and that’s not always going to be your child.

Getting kids involved in sports early is important to help them learn to win and lose graciously, and fishing does tend to soften the blow a bit because whereas in most sports, there is one winner and one loser, in fishing, there could be one winner and hundreds of people who will have to try again next time.

If you’re one of those parents who has trouble stomaching that your kids are going to lose from time to time, fishing might help you too as being part of the 99 “also-rans” isn’t nearly as bad as outright defeat (there are also frequently prizes of some sort for many places beyond first).

19. There’s No Better Time for Quiet Conversations

When I’m with my son in the boat, it’s just the two of us and nature. We’re able to fill the time with quiet conversations about life, his thoughts and feelings, and my expectations and hopes for him.

I really enjoy our time together, especially when we both put down the rods for a little bit and just let the boat do the work by trolling. We like to eat peanut butter & jelly sandwiches and eat hummus and crackers while talking about this and that and waiting for a fish to strike.

If you don’t know how to set up a trolling run, check out this post on trolling for chain pickerel. This is a great technique for when you want to just concentrate on your company rather than casting, but still not give up fishing.

20. You’re Taking Your Kids on an Adventure!

Don’t think of a fishing trip with your kids only being about the fish; you’re taking your children on a fishing adventure! If the forecast is calm enough, make a journey out of it. Take them to see a really cool rock formation or to visit some “mysterious island.”

Make a big deal out of the landmarks you expect to see, and ask them to keep a lookout. Then, when they loom into view, make a huge deal out of it so they’re excited they finally got to see it.

Likewise, have a “checklist” of different birds or animals you hope to see over the summer. Will this trip be the one you finally see a muskrat? How about a loon? Or maybe even a deer swimming in the water? Take every opportunity to simply be excited to spend all this time with your children.

21. You’ll Travel to Places You Might Have Overlooked

Fishing gives you an excuse to go the extra mile. It’s often an excuse to break away for a day on vacation and do something that most tourists don’t. In the process, you’ll get to see the natural beauty of this great Republic.

Here’s a great example of how to make your trip to Florida all the more memorable:

When you take the kids to Disney World, consider calling up Captain Mickey Maynard and taking a fishing charter over in the Harris Chain of lakes. It’s only a few miles away and is a unique experience that most of the tourists who head down that way never get to experience. Moving past the willow trees in the canals at dawn as alligators glide by you and Bowfin explode on your spinnerbait is one of those things every kid should get to experience.

22. You’ll Get Great Photo Ops

I had to make a New Year’s resolution to be more present in family photo albums during the winter months, because as soon as the water froze over I tended to disappear for months in the calendars my wife makes each year to celebrate all our adventures.

I am, however, all over those calendars for the summer months though I usually am standing next to my son who is showing off the latest fish he caught. Fishing with my children is about the only way to get me in front of a camera!

Someday, he’ll have thousands of photos to show his own children and to inspire him to take them out fishing and pass down this passion to another generation.

You’ll also get some great landscape photos that remind you that you really lived.

23. Fishing Lets Kids Get a Little Dirty

I can’t keep my son away from the fishing worms while we’re on the lake. He loves looking at the critters and taking them out when we need a new one. He also enjoys leaving it RIGHT between the walk-in windshield, where everyone needs to walk, and I’m not getting more agile as I age.

The boat gets dirty, the kid plays in the dirt, the kid is happy. I bought a boat with a complete vinyl floor, so I shrug it off.

If we’re fishing a pond from the bank, I just make sure he’s wearing some shoes and clothes that can get dirty and let him have a ball. We time bath day around fishing adventures so I don’t have to constantly tell him to stop having fun.

24. Your Kids Can Play With Bugs

Alright, so worms aren’t exactly bugs, but perhaps you’re using some crickets, or there are just a lot of dragonflies and water striders buzzing about. The bottom line is fishing gets kids up close and personal with bugs more often than not, and what kid doesn’t love that?

Bugs are a great distraction when the fishing slows too. You can’t always count on fish biting, but if you’re fishing from a bank and have access to a rocky shore, help your child turn a few rocks over and see what’s underneath. This will keep them occupied while you collect yourself and figure out how to put them on more fish.

25. Fishing Teaches Kids Cause & Effect

Sometimes when things go wrong out there on the water, it’s an opportunity to step in front of it and take the blame for your little one. If a fish snaps off the hook, you might tell them that you’re sorry but you think you tied the knot a little loose. Explain to them how forgetting to do the little things can have a big impact later, and use fishing to teach them this lesson in a safe, but memorable way.

You also might use the opportunity to explain the concept while doing a little topwater fishing near your children. If they’re patient enough, have them observe the little “bloops” of your lure and wait until a fish comes and grabs it. Explain how the little “bloops” caused the fish to think the lure was prey, and attack (effect).

26. Fishing Gives Kids Confidence

We were very fortunate in that my mother-in-law was able to watch our son for several years while he was little, but when his sister was born, it was time for him to go to daycare. Since this was a new experience for him he struggled with it a little bit at first.

Being able to take out my cellphone and let him show his friends and teachers pictures of all the fish he caught over the weekend gave him a lot of confidence and helped his transition tremendously. His teachers picked up on this quickly and started engaging him about fishing and soon he was telling them all about his adventures over the weekend.

It’s very important for kids to believe in themselves and it doesn’t hurt if they have a skill that is fairly rare. Fishing isn’t always the easiest activity, so being able to cast, hook, and reel in fish gives kids a real boost. It’s also something that helps them start conversations with their peers, which helps them make friends if they’re shy.

27. Fishing Keeps Kids Out of Trouble

I firmly believe that the more involved kids are in sports, the less likely they are to get involved in drugs and alcohol. Fishing might just be the greatest sport of all for that because they’ll spend all their spare change on lures instead of having any left over for other vices!

If your kids are at all interested in pursuing a career in fishing, it’s very important that they keep a clean rap sheet. So much of the fishing industry is really a marketing game, and sponsors don’t want to doll out money to folks with criminal records. Remind your children of this early and often.

28. They Could Get a College Scholarship

Fishing is a legitimate college sport these days, with several large tournament sponsors, including B.A.S.S. and FLW, offering college tournaments and various schools offering scholarships to anglers to compete in them.

Bassmaster published and article in October, 2018 discussing this trend as well as the rise of Bethel University as a college fishing powerhouse. It talks about how the school awarded $216,000 to 36 students in 2018 in fishing scholarships, as well as how about 10 other universities now consider fishing a major college sport.

While fishing is clearly in its infancy as a college sport, who knows just how expansive it will be by the time your kids are applying for college? You never know. The little hobby that was your way of spending some time with your little fishing buddy might one day be the ticket to his higher education.

29. Your Kids Could Make a Career Out of Fishing

In the same vein as collegiate pursuits, you never know if introducing your children to fishing will one day lead them towards a fulfilling career. This doesn’t need to mean that they’re tournament anglers, either. They could be fishing guides, tackle shop owners, boat mechanics, journalists, salesmen, skilled craftsmen or even a marine biologist.

There’s a huge range of careers that supports the recreational and commercial fishing industry and many of them are fields that are almost impossible to automate, so the jobs are likely to be around in the future.

To give you an idea of the size, the Fisheries Economics of the United States, 2016 report by NOAA found that fishing generated $212 billion in sales and supported 1.7 million jobs (source). There is certainly opportunity for aspiring young anglers.

30. Most Kids Think Fishing is Fun!

I saved one of the more obvious reasons for last: fishing is fun! Your kids what to go, and they want to go with YOU. They are sitting there at their lunch table talking with their friends about how you are going to take them out this weekend. They will wake up at the crack of dawn and run into your room asking you if it’s time to go. It’s like Christmas in July, and every other month!

It’s a great way to spend quality time with your kids and one that they’ll enjoy. You do want to do your best to make fishing fun for kids (which usually means making sure they catch something), but that really doesn’t matter to them. All that they want is to spend time with their dad or mom or grandpa or grandma or uncle or aunt or mentor or older brother or, well, you name it.

If there’s a little kid out there that looks up to you, grab a rod, dig up some worms, and take them fishing!

31. Fishing Ignites a Passion

I suppose the final reason I’d implore you to take your kids fishing is that we all need a passion. We all need something that gets us up each morning and powers us through each week. A reason to keep going on and pushing further so we can get some time to ourselves to really live. Fishing fits the bill quite nicely.

Whereas there are so many passions that can turn to vice, when done sensibly and with respect for the environment, fishing can be flawless:

• They’ll scream less at the doctor’s, or whenever they get a minor cut;
• Your kids will be potty trained in no time;
• Fishing is a great reason for kids to spend less time on screens;
• When they are on screens, they’ll at least be watching something useful;
• They’ll learn to listen, to plan, and to change as they work their way through life’s many problems;
• They’ll learn organizational skills, and how to provide for their families;
• Taking your kids fishing gives them a reason to develop a greater appreciation for nature, and better understand life and death;
• They’ll learn to rely on themselves, and grow more resilient because of it;
• They’ll learn to work hard for delayed gratification;
• When a fish spits the hook, it will teach your kids to lose gracefully;
• They’ll go on grand adventures to places they might overlook, and walk away with amazing photos and memories;
• Your children will get to play in the dirt with bugs;
• They’ll learn cause and effect, which will give them the confidence they need to stay out of trouble, and in school;
• Someday, their studies might lead them to a rewarding career that they find fun and are passionate about.

Closing Thoughts

As you can see, there really are a boatload of reasons to take your kids fishing. In fact, I’ve barely scrapped the surface. If this sounds like a fun activity for you and your children, but you aren’t sure where to start, consider purchasing my book, Fishing with Kids: A Parent’s Guide. In it, you’ll find many more great reasons to go fishing with your kids, but more importantly, advice on how to do it!

I also took the time to write an Illustrated Guide to Taking Kids Fishing, which is a blog post you can read for free if that is more up your speed. Check it out!

Thanks for reading,

John Paxton