The memory of your first fishing trip with your parents may be inspiring you to get the kids involved, or perhaps you’ve taken up angling as an adult and now you want to show your kids the ropes. Either way, fishing with kids can be fun, but it can also be nerve-wracking. Below are some tips to take the stress levels down and enjoyment levels up when fishing with kids, and hopefully have them loving fishing as much as you do.

Lots of Patience

There’s no other way. When there are kids onboard a boat, they can be excited and raucous. With that in mind, you really have to stay patient throughout the trip. Aside from that, they are also complete beginners – so teaching them requires patience in the process. If they make a mistake, let it be – mistakes are inevitable especially with kids. You might not get any, or many catches, but the main goal is to spark their interest for next time. The important thing is that everyone has fun.

Be Excited for Your Kids

You know what they say, excitement is contagious. And when you are excited for your kids, they will be equally excited or even more! When you show how excited you are for them, they will become more motivated to land their very first fish. Of course, there will be times that landing may fail but keep up the encouragement and enthusiasm to try again.

But Don’t Get Too Excited

As anglers, we are wired to be persistent. We won’t stop until we have one more fly combo, one more cast and one more location or until the sun goes down – there’s absolutely nothing wrong with that. However, having a kid onboard is another story. Like we mentioned earlier, showing the kids the angling life for the first time is bound to be different to your typical day out solo, or with mates but don’t get too hung up on this. A full day of fishing is a long time for a child. Break up the day or choose the best time to go out that suits your child’s nature. If there are no catches that day, you can always try tomorrow.

Create a Kid-Friendly Environment

Last on this list of kid friendly fishing tips is to help make their first fishing experience more wonderful. How? By creating an environment that’s just right for their age. First of all, use kid-friendly equipment such as closed spin cast rod or other simpler setups that look less intimidating.

The point here is that when fishing with kids, it doesn’t have to be perfect – it only has to be fun and memorable. By engaging your kids and showing them how fun it can be, you can guarantee that they will be the ones asking when the next trip will be.