I imagine if you’re reading this, you either can’t wait to take your firstborn fishing, or the you’re the parent who thinks your spouse is absolutely nuts. Trust me, they’re not crazy. You can start taking kids fishing at any age, though I would argue the best age is around two. It’s still a good idea to acclimate kids to fishing at an early age so they get used to it. In fact, I took both of my children fishing even when they were infants. Fishing is truly a sport for all ages.
Granted, if you’re taking your infant fishing you can’t exactly expect them to reel anything in, but they can absolutely participate in the fun and be part of the family outing.
I vote for taking your kids out fishing with you as soon as the doctor clears them for outdoor activities. Fishing is a great family activity and your kid doesn’t need to be able to cast to enjoy it. Even so, you should know a bit about what to expect at each age to make sure everything goes as well as it can.
Setting the Stage
Luckily for you, I’ve recently been through this with my son, and am now going through it with my daughter, so I thought I’d share how our experience went in the hope that it will help you. I’ll describe what I did at each age, what he was capable of doing at each age, and also give you some bullet point objectives that you should aim for.
Don’t despair if your child is getting a little later start than my boy, but do ensure that you complete all the objectives for the prior ages. You can condense this depending on their age (just to give you an idea, a 4-year-old might take 2-3 days to learn all the prior steps. A 6 or 7-year-old can probably learn them in an hour).
Before we get into my thoughts about taking kids fishing at various ages, I thought it would be good to set the stage with some basic ground rules and first steps. While it’s beyond the purview of this article to dive into these in detail, I will share links that will help you get there in no time.
Ensure You Have Some Basic Skills
I don’t care what age your child is – if you’re taking them fishing, it’s a good idea to have a few basic skills of your own. Otherwise, how can you hope to teach them to your kids? You will need to know how to spool line on a reel, tie your line to a lure, and cast at the very least. If you lack these skills, please read my article on the basic skills you need to take your kids fishing, and then come back to read this.
If you’re the type of person who prefers a hard copy, I recently published a book, Fishing with Kids: A Parent’s Guide
Set Your Priorities Straight
You need to keep your priorities straight. You aren’t taking kids fishing so you can get the photo for the ages to share all over social media. Rather, you’re trying to bond with them and have a fun time outside, and away from a screen!!! Consider reading this article I wrote about how to make the trip more enjoyable for your children. You’ll note very little of it has to do with actually having a lure in the water.
Keep Things Safe and Stress Free
Regardless of their age, neither your kid nor you will have a good time fishing if you don’t take some basic steps to keep the situation stress free and safe.
I’ve written two articles that I think you should invest some time in. If you don’t, you’re going to struggle with taking your kids fishing for the first time.The first discusses how to keep the trip relatively stress free. The second discusses safety concerns at length. The second mentions some safety tips, including several you probably haven’t thought of. I’d consider reading them both.
Fishing With Infants to 1-Year-Olds
Now that we’ve got some of the basics out of the way and shared some resources, let’s dive into how to take your kids fishing at different ages. We’ll start with birth.
Infants and 1-year-olds can come along for fishing trips, but probably won’t do much catching on their own. Your major goal is acclimating them. To do so, you’ll need to accomplish three objectives:
- Introduce your infant to fishing and acclimate them so they are comfortable;
- Let them see you fishing often, so they’ll want to copy you;
- Start introducing them to reeling in a lure.
Introducing Infants to Fishing
Obviously, an infant or even a one-year-old really isn’t going to “fish” when they come out with you, but it’s important that you get them used to the sights and sounds of fishing so your kids aren’t afraid of it and will want to keep fishing with you when reach an older age.
We immediately introduced our son and daughter to everything fishing-related that we could. We tried hard to totally and completely acclimate them to the sport so that being around fish would become second nature to them.
I think it’s fair to say we went all out with introducing fishing to my son. My wife did an awesome job painting his room to look like an aquarium, and kept on buying him all sorts of fishing shirts. I took him to Cabelas every chance I could, and kept bringing him down in the basement to see all of my fishing gear and look at crankbaits.
When you’re introducing an infant or a one-year-old to fishing, consistency is the key. It’s really no different than introducing them to a new caretaker, or the dog, or soft food. You want to make sure they have a chance to get used to this and so you need to expose them to it often enough that it becomes old hat.
The last thing you want is to have your spouse tell you that you need to sell your boat because your kid hates it.
Get Your Kids to Want to Copy You
Whenever I would take my son fishing at this age, I would do everything I could to excite him. Every time I would catch a fish, I’d bring it over for my son to see. While I have several photos that make it clear he didn’t start off that impressed, the sport grew on him quickly.
Kids naturally want to do what their parents do, no matter how boring it might seem to adults. Just look at how many toy lawnmowers sell each year.
Fishing is actually fun, so it is very easy to get kids hooked on it. One thing that we did that really got our one-year-old interested in fishing was to buy him a toy rod and a little stuffed largemouth bass. This way, he got to “play” fisherman, and be “just like daddy,” right in the living room.
Teach Your Kids How To Reel
The first year or two of life is far too young of an age for kids to learn much about fishing, but they can at least start to reel. I went and purchased a very small spinning rod to replace his toy rod. I would cast it over in the corner and let him learn how to reel it in. It was a little awkward for him and the rod tip went everywhere as he wildly reeled it, but you could tell from his smile that he was having a blast.
A 1-year-old really isn’t capable of casting on their own, so it doesn’t matter much what kind of reel you use for this. All of them have a handle that needs to be turned, and it won’t make much difference, so you can use whatever you have.
You can buy special “casting plugs” for this purpose, but really any old crankbait will work. Just take the hooks off one that has a busted bill or hasn’t been producing for you and tie it on to the rod.
A little 3/8 oz, de-hooked crankbait is no more likely to break the television than the casting plugs out there, and it’s just as good, if not better, of a fish approximation to boot.
You’re going to want to use a consistent message or cheer while you’re teaching them how to reel in, because you want them to remember it later when they have a real fish on the line. For us, it was “reel, reel, reel!” Repeat your coaching message/cheer each time they’re turning the handle.
As you can see, it’s a wonderful idea to start taking your kids fishing at this young age, but there’s a lot to it. So much so that if you’re still looking for information, I wrote a second post that specifically deals with this age group in more detail.
Fishing With Two-Year-Olds: The Best Age to Take Your Kid Fishing
In my opinion, the best age to start taking your kids fishing is when they are two. While I certainly took my own kids earlier, I have to concede that things really took off when they were old enough to reel in their own fish.
2-year-old children are capable of casting their own rods, hooking their own fish, and reeling them in, but only if they get a lot of practice.
If you’re introducing your 2-year-old child to fishing, you’re going to need to accomplish all the objectives they should have learned when they were 1, and also start working on the following:
- Casting a lure in the general direction of water;
- Waiting for a fish to bite;
- Reeling in a fish;
- Stopping reeling before the fish hits the tip of the rod (this is key).
Teaching a 2-Year-Old How to Cast
One of the main reasons I think that two is such a great age to take kids fishing for the first time is that they can finally cast, albeit inaccurately. While you shouldn’t expect a 2-year-old to do most of their own casting, it is a good idea to start teaching them how.
Most people think that they have to buy a spincast reel for a smaller child, but I started my son with spinning gear and he handled it just fine. I’m glad that I invested the time to teach him on this gear instead of taking the “easy” way out, because now I don’t need to teach him a different tool, or spend money twice.
As I mentioned at the start of the article, you need to know how to cast yourself before you can teach your kids (and again, you can read this to learn).
You simply want to teach them to do the same thing, but bear in mind that they have small hands and won’t be able to extend their trigger finger far enough to grab the line. Instead, they need to use their non-dominant hand to bring the line in close enough for them to grab it with their dominant one.
How A Young Child Casts a Spinning Reel
I’m going to break down how a child might teach themselves to hold the line of a spinning reel, but I want to emphasize that they really need to teach themselves this. If you try to explain the following technical steps to your kid, you’re just going to aggravate everyone.
This all assumes that you’ve been fishing in front of your kids for some time and they’re attempting to copy you. They’ll try doing what you’re doing without you even asking, but you can help them along by doing a few steps.
What YOU want to do is take the rod with a lure on it and show them what happens when you flip the bail without holding the line (the lure drops).
THEN, show them what happens if you flip the bail WHILE holding the line (the lure does NOT drop).
Get your kid to understand this “cause and effect” concept and then tell them to hold the line so the lure won’t drop. They will be able to figure this out with a little time and encouragement.
This is what you might expect it to eventually look like:
It doesn’t matter how pretty this looks. All that matters is your kid holds onto the line with something while they’re flipping the bail open, and then releases the line when they go to cast.
If you think this isn’t worth the trouble and you’d prefer to use a push-button spincast reel, that’s fine, but just remember that spincast reels are to fishing what roller skates are to ice hockey players. You’re going to wind up buying equipment twice.
Teaching them Patience: Waiting for a Fish to Bite
I know I said that I thought the best age to take a kid fishing was when they were about two, but fishing does take some patience. You’re going to need to teach them that. While you’ll eventually get through it, I think every parent out there is thinking of two words: GOOD LUCK.
This one is going to take some time. As soon as the lure hits the water, kids just want to reel it in without giving fish much of a chance to notice the bait. I worked around this by fishing in areas that were stacked with panfish (so they’d bite within about 3-5 seconds) and constant coaching.
“Wait ’til you feel nibbles, buddy! Wait ’til you feel nibbles!”
I said that so much I nearly wore out my throat. It would have been a great time to own a parrot.
Call in the Cavalry
Depending on your kid, you might have an easier or harder time with this, but you would do yourself a great service if you joined some local fishing forums and asked the folks there for recommendations on good lakes and spots for large numbers of bluegill, sunfish, and yellow perch.
Most people that are on those forums are chasing larger species, but they’ve probably observed a few areas that consistently hold the smaller ones. You can expect that most will tell you those spots (perhaps in a private message) if you explain you’re taking a little one.
You really want to find a spot where you can keep the wait as short as possible for your child and then work up from there. Kids can resist reeling in for 3-5 seconds, and maybe even 10. Anything longer than that could be pushing it at this age.
Reeling in a Fish
OK, so your kid left the bait in the water long enough for a fish to bite, and now it’s on the line! It’s time for all that practice casting in your living room to finally pay off!
Whatever phrase you used to teach them to reel before, use it again. For us it was “reel, reel, reel!” Make sure they don’t forget to do this, because you want to keep constant pressure on the fish so it can’t spit out the hook.
If your kid hooks into a larger fish and it starts pulling drag you can try to tell them to stop (as a rule, you should not be reeling while a fish is pulling drag), but this might be a little tough for them to understand at this age.
You’ll also want to remind them to keep the rod tip high. Kids tend to drop the rod and point it straight at the fish. This is a bad habit because it puts all the pressure directly on the line rather than letting the bend of the rod absorb the fish’s pull. It probably won’t matter much for little fish, but the bigger ones will break them off.
Stop Reeling Before the Fish Hits the Rod Tip
This is pretty self-explanatory, but not something a angler would necessarily think of. You need to get your kids to stop reeling before the fish reaches the rod tip.
If your kids reel a fish in all the way to the rod tip, they could break the rod tip or knock the fish off of the hook and back into the water. Both become much more likely as the fish get larger.
Just make sure that you’re standing there next to them and remind them to stop before it is too late. Accidents will happen while they’re learning, but this is one that they’ll get a verbal (your coaching) and visual (the sight of the fish) cue, so they should learn this quickly.
Fishing With 3 to 4-Year-Olds
I would imagine that most sane people start taking their children fishing when they are about 3 years old. A child this age is capable of fishing on their own with significantly less direction and help from adults, but this is, of course, reliant on their having been exposed to fishing much earlier.
If they’re just starting fishing at 3 or 4, take things slow and make sure you go through the check list for fishing with infants and 2-year-olds before you hand them a rod and expect them to know what they’re doing, but you should also aim to achieve the following:
- Increased casting distance and accuracy;
- Understanding the reel’s drag system so they can fight bigger fish.
Depending on your child, they might react in a few different ways. They could be scared of the fish and really need to be acclimated by a trip to the local aquarium a few times, or they could take the “I’m a big boy/girl” attitude and want to start doing everything themselves immediately.
Practice Increasing Casting Distance and Accuracy
Fishing is like any other sport. If you want to improve, you need to practice. You don’t need to be on the water to practice many of the skills, either, which is handy if you don’t live near a lake.
Just as a hockey player might shoot pucks at a net in their basement, your little fisher can practice casting in their own back yard. They can use the same de-hooked plug that you used to throw in your living room and now cast it at targets in the yard.
The target can be just about anything, but I’d recommend just flattening out a few cardboard shipping boxes. Try to flatten a few in different sizes and lay them out at different distances around your yard. Then, take turns with your child to see who can get the lure the closest.
If you want to simulate reeds to teach your child how to cast into pockets between them, you could leave a few boxes unflattened and make little walls with them around the target. This would help your kids learn how to avoid getting snagged in bulrush or trees and would also add some three-dimensional fun to the game.
Teaching Your Child How to Fight Bigger Fish
One good thing about kids that are age three or four is that they can catch larger fish than most two-years-olds. Successfully fighting and landing larger fish takes skill and experience, which they might have by this age.
Three Mistakes Kids Often Make While Fighting Fish
There are three big mistakes that children (and beginners) often make that cost them fish.
- Reeling In While the Fish is Pulling Drag: You can’t simply keep reeling in the line while a fish is pulling it in the other direction or you will risk breaking it off. You need to teach your kids that if they hear a “zzziiiiip!” (the drag being pulled) that they need to stop reeling;
- Not Keeping a Bend in the Rod: As mentioned earlier, if your kid is pointing the tip directly at the fish, then all of the force of that fish is placed on the line directly, instead of the rod. This will snap the line in a hurry with a larger fish;
- Trying to Lift a Large Fish Out of the Water: This is a sure-fire way to lose a fish unless you have very strong line, which you probably don’t on a kid’s reel. Make sure they leave the fish in the water and don’t try to pull it up into the boat without a net, or it could snap off in front of their eyes.
The Bottom Line? It Happens.
Your kid will lose some larger fish while they’re learning this and will continue to lose larger fish throughout their lives. It’s just part of fishing. Even so, it would be understandable if they are upset. It is very important that you are there for them when this happens and talk about how exciting it was to see them fight such a big fish for so long.
Don’t allow yourself to be frustrated if this happens. Your child is trying their best and will feel bad that they lost the fish, if you make them think it is something to feel bad about. If you celebrate the fact that they got to fight a big fish for awhile, that’s what they’ll concentrate on and it won’t be a big deal.
ALWAYS look to the bright side in this situation.
Of course, in order for your children to fight larger fish, they need to hook larger fish. While you’ll catch a few from time to time with worms, I’d suggest trolling for chain pickerel to help get them used to fighting larger game fish.
Fishing With 5 to 7-Year-Olds
By the time a child reaches the age of 5 to 7 years, they should be able to pick up casting very easily and should be able to handle many fishing techniques on their own. They’ll still probably need some help with tangles and maybe even getting the fish off the hook, but they’re on their way.
If you’re just starting to fish with your kid when they’re 7, you’d do well to spend an hour with them in the backyard before you head to the lake and just give them a briefing. Make it a big deal, like it’s this big important, exclusive meeting that they’re invited to. In other words, there’s a mission.
Assuming your kid has now spent several years catching panfish on nightcrawlers and is starting to get that out of their system, your objectives at this age are as follows:
- Transition your child away from bait and towards artificial lures;
- Start to move away from quantity in favor of quality;
- Teach them about different lures and when to use them;
- Show them how to learn more about fishing all on their own.
Transition Your Child to Artificial Lures
While it’s a great idea to start any new angler on live bait such as nightcrawlers, at some point you’ll want to transition them to artificial lures so that they can start expanding their skill set and targeting larger species. I’ll give you some quick tips below, but when you have a moment, consider reading my in-depth post on artificial lures as well as another one where I break down which ones you should use with kids.
Artificial lures will often catch larger fish than bait, but they rarely have as fast of action. Thus, before transitioning your kid to artificial lures, make sure your fishing buddy is of an appropriate age to finally have that patience thing tackled.
Most artificial lures lack the scent and wriggling action of live bait, so precise placement is necessary. Your child is going to need to know how to cast fairly well so they can place the lure exactly where they want to. Hopefully, you’ve been practicing with the cardboard boxes discussed above, but if not, now would be a great time to start.
Enter the Spinnerbait
Once your kid can cast reasonably far on their own, you can start handing them rods rigged with spinnerbaits instead of simple worms and start targeting larger, aggressive fish like chain pickerel. You’ll want to cover a lot of water in this technique, and to start in areas that are very likely to hold them. The same locations I discussed in my post about trolling for pickerel will also produce while casting.
Plastic Worms
If they can cast reasonably accurately, they can also start using plastic worms and trying to cast to pockets in the weeds that likely hold bass and other game fish. It’s important that they can cast accurately or else they’re going to spend all day picking weeds off their hook.
Advanced Tackle: Crankbaits and Other Treble-Hooked Lures
Depending on your comfort with their skill level and control, you might even consider letting them use crankbaits or other lures with treble hooks at this age, though you’d probably want to snip off the barbs in case anything goes wrong. Remember to make sure everyone is wearing sun glasses so no errant hooks catch an eye!
Start Fishing for Quality vs. Quantity
Around the same time that you start preaching artificial lures, you’ll need to set new expectations for your kids. Though they’ll occasionally have an awesome day for the ages, most of the time, they’ll catch fish less frequently with artificial lures than if they were using live bait, but the fish will frequently be larger.
It’s not that large fish don’t bite a nightcrawler if they get the chance. The issue is they rarely get the chance. Most of the time, smaller fish are going to pick live bait to pieces long before a large fish sinks its teeth into it.
That’s not an issue with artificial lures. Their sheer size tends to discourage small fish from biting, so any bite is going to be a fish of at least some proportion. Indeed, larger artificial lures tend to catch larger fish.
You have to remember, all animals instinctively run a cost-benefit analysis when targeting prey. Fish would much rather expend energy for a large meal that will net them an energy surplus than a snack that will barely keep them going.
Size isn’t the only quality you’re after. There’s also just the thrill of the strike. A few little taps on a nightcrawler isn’t anywhere near as interesting as a norther pike rocketing from the depths to SLAM a spinnerbait at full speed.
The jolt of excitement that such a strike produces is a feeling anglers will chase for the rest of their lives.
Teach Your Kids About Different Lures and When to Use Them
Believe it or not, there is a ton of strategy in fishing, and once your children are 5 to 7 years old, they can start to appreciate it. This makes this a really fun age to start fishing with your kids (it’s when Dad and my relationship really took off).
Take this opportunity to turn them into strategic and tactical thinkers. Discuss your approach the night before and consider what lures you should start the day with.
Will you throw topwaters before first light and then transition to spinnerbaits that gleam in the sun?
What will you do if the skies darken? Will you swap out to darker colors?
What time of year is it? Do you think you’ll find the fish on rocky points, spawning flats, or sunken humps?
All of these are great questions to ask your kid and test their understanding. It can be a real thrill hearing what they come up with.
Show Your Kids How to Teach Themselves About Fishing
Once your children know how to read, the entire world opens up before them, and this includes all the fishing knowledge of the universe. This blog is hardly the only place out there where you can read about fishing tips.
Take your kids to Google or even (gasp!) the library and show them how to research topics. Get them a magazine subscription to one of the major outdoor publications and watch their worlds expand. Challenge them to learn more and more each day. One great website is the fishing section at Boys’ Life. While my website is geared more towards parents, theirs is focused on helping kids learn to fish directly.
Before you tuck them in each night, go ahead and snuggle while you read a favorite fishing book. Even if they’re just storybooks about fishing, they’ll help engender a love for the sport within your kids at any age!
Before you know it, your kids will start teaching you a thing or two!
In Sum – Any Age is a Good Age to Take Your Kids Fishing!
Hopefully this article gave you some confidence about taking your kids out fishing. As you can see from my family’s own experience, a child is never too young to start learning to fish.
I certainly would recommend bringing them out with you as soon as you get the OK from your doctor. I hope this article helps you do that, but if you have any further questions feel free to comment below or send me an email at johnpaxton@fishingfather.com and I’ll do my best to help you.
As always, if you found this article helpful, please consider sharing it so it can help others.
Thanks,
John Paxton