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Posts: 68
| Looks like I got a new fishing partner my girlfreinds little brother. He is 11 years old and I am curious how you guys handle this as far as rods, reels, lures, I want to try and make it as enjoyable as I can for him. But I have a feeling he may get wore out after a hour. My freinds start crying after a hour casting some of these baits!!! I was thinking alot of top water baits and maybe some dogs . The kid is so FIRED UP to get out casting I love it. But I am actually getting nervous that he might get sick of it after a couple hours. Any pointers you guys can give me would be sweet thanx!!!! |
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Posts: 2323
Location: Stevens Point, WI | I take it this kid has fished before? If not, start out with panfish or something easy where you can for sure catch fish. But if he's wanting to try the musky thing, I'd suggest doing short trips and on days where it's not 85 or 90 degrees. Keep the day short or as long as he can handle, and if possible, try to go to a lake that's maybe known for numbers versuses size. Perhaps where he might even have a chance at a Pike or two. But just keep it fun and don't get discouraged having to pick backlashes all day. Make sure you have tons of snacks and drinks. |
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Posts: 16632
Location: The desert | A few pointers, from Pointer (hehe). First off, make it fun. If he's bored an hour into it....change it up....have a competition, see who can cast the farthest, or cast the highest. High casting can get pretty interesting...maybe bring a hard hat! If the kid is big into gameboys or whatever it is kids these days have, tell him to bring it in case he gets burnt out fishing for a while.
Dont be afraid to bring some other types of rods along and fish for something a bit easier to catch. A lot of kids wont care what it is they catch, they just want something on the other end of their line.
Dont make the kid toss big baits or hard pulling baits. Keep it simple so all he has to do is reel. Throw something on your rod that you can work good and make it look like you are doing all sorts of funky things compared to his straight retrieving (perhaps a glide bait or suick)....I remember going out with my grandpa and my dad when I was much younger and they would jig for walleyes while I watched a bobber. They would get the boat rocking and and would be moving back and forth with the rod and it made me want to jig, so they took that opportunity to teach me how to jig. I then proceeded to cast my grandpa's brand new rod and reel combo into the lake...back to the bobber I went! But you could still take the opportunity to teach, and dont worry, he likely wont chuck your rod in like me!
Bring lots of snacks, waters, soda etc. and overall just make it fun. |
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Posts: 605
Location: Marshfield, WI | I had a 9 yr. old in the boat once several years ago. He learned how to cast a baitcaster in a few minutes, so hopefully that won't be a problem. Tell him to set if he feels weight. That 9 yr. old said that day, "I think I got a stick." Then, a musky jumped with the bait in its mouth. We got it in, was a 33" musky.
For baits, I'd have him throw either topwaters, bucktails, or 6" or 9" suzy suckers. The suzys are easy to throw and have great action and catch a lot of fish.
Krishna |
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Posts: 767
Location: Ames, Iowa | I have 3 kids and a wife who all love to fish, and the two boys, 16 and 13, are now fishing for muskies with me. I've done this the wrong way before with my kids and with my coworker's kids, and I've done it the right way before too. That said, I would take a bunch of spoons and spinnerbaits and smaller bucktails and take him out northern fishing. Another idea is to bring the light gear and some crawlers and catch some perch. Your chances of catching more than one fish are pretty good either way. You could troll some and maybe he could drive the boat. He wouldn't have to cast far to catch a northern, and he could use spinning as well as baitcasting gear. If you get him on some perch or bluegill he'll have a blast. He will likely end up in the bottom of the boat and take a nap after a few hours, so something like your jacket for a pillow and a blanket would be a good idea. A snack you can have together later and a warm drink if its cool and a cool drink if its warm are winners too. If you catch a bunch of fish, make it a longer day. If the fishing's tough, take a boat ride for a break, try the fishing somewhere else, and don't be afraid to quit earlier than you planned. Let him pick some fishing spots that look good to him. I'm still learning to be more patient with my kids when in the boat- and I have not always done well at that- but I find if I forget about the muskie fishing when we're in their spot and join them in their fun, we all get much more out of the time together.
Good luck,
Don |
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Posts: 742
Location: Grand Rapids MN | My oldest will be 10 this mid-summer and he's going to give it a try also. Last year after seeing a few fish swing at my larger spinnerbaits he decided to put on a bass size model and start casting. Before I knew it he was setting the hook on a nice large mouth but that was a sign he is ready to start casting for fish instead of jigging most of the time. So I gave him stuff like my spring bull dawgs, the larger X-raps (Shad and Regular), a few smaller bucktails and spinnerbaits to get him start. I also picked up a 6" kicking minnow just because he loves rubber baits. I always have panfish rigs in the boat for him if he gets bored.
Best of luck! |
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Posts: 39
Location: Cedar, MN | If he has never fished for muskies before,don't plan a full day trip the first time. Take him out for an evening so you can feel him out a little. If he gets bored and stops fishing dont be afraid to call it an evening.If you drag it out because you dont want to go yet, you may ruin it for him if you stay out a long time. I have 2 boys 14 and 15. My youngest caught his first at age 11. A 42" that he enjoyed tremendously. But after that I pushed the envelope too far and kept him out too long on some trips after that. Now he rarely wants to go out with me and his brother. I regret what I did and would have done it differently if I had known. He doesnt enjoy fishing like he used to. MY Fault. Be carefull.
My 2 cents.
Brad |
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Posts: 11
Location: Maple Grove, Minnesota | I'm calling a 45" in the first 10 cast. It always happens that way. |
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Posts: 431
| I'm still young enough to recall my first outings. I started going to LOTW for a week every year when I was around 12. I hated the first couple of years. I wasn't catching fish, and I was stuck there a whole week. Looking back, the biggest problems were 1) I was not good at casting which was frustrating and severely limited my effectiveness and 2) I didn't know what I was doing. I didn't know where to cast or why I was casting to a certain spot. Looking back, it's obvious now. On my third trip my dad and I went by ourselves and we had a really good week and I managed a 45" ski. After that I was hooked. My advice is to let him tell you how he wants to fish. If he wants to learn how to use a baitcaster, teach him, otherwise let him use the spinning rod. Get him started with smaller spinnerbaits and bucktails. They cast easy and will catch anything and let him pick out the lures sometimes. Good luck and have fun. |
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| Take him out for two hours before dark with a surface bait. Easy to cast, all you do is reel, no snags, highly visual/auditory and evening is prime. Pick a calm, still one. No wind to fight, no waves until he gets his sea legs. At the very least big bass fall all over the things. Little pike love them too. Surface fishing is how I've hooked a few kids and a couple chickies. Any easy evolution off a surface bait is the bucktail or spinnerbait once he learns what pace to reel at, where and how to cast. Letting a newbie SEE the lure---where it goes, what it does, how fish respond to it---is very important in my opinion. And lets face it, surface baits are cool. |
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| Something that worked for me.....I am involved in our local "Kinship Partner" program, and was matched with a kid named Wes who was a fishing maniac. However, Wes had no experience with musky fishing, and soon grew tired of the gear and lures. He was about 11 at the time too. The thing that worked best for me was to give him a bit heavier spinning outfit, and then had him use downsized baits like smaller spinnerbaits, bucktails and crankbaits. Then, we targeted lakes that were more known for "numbers" than size. That way he could catch numerous pike and bass all along the way, and then get his occasional 40 inch class musky. We kept the trips short...maybe a few hours at most. Action and snacks are key! Also make sure they're comfortable...not too cold, and if it's hot, jumping out of the boat out in the middle of nowhere is usually a hit. |
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| Some good advice here. I am in the process of teaching my 6 yr old to fish musky. He got his first last fall.
Pick the right lake. Action lake with pike/bass, panfish and musky.
Dont yell at him, no matter what he does. If he tosses a rod in, patiently explain to him what he did wrong. .
Praise him. Great job on that cast. Can you hit that leaf floating over there. That was really close, etc.
Make it fun
Be prepared to switch gears.
Bring along worms, and the aforementioned small spoons and bucktails. If you dont move a ski or the kids gets fidety (keep an eye on him) switch to panfish for awhile. Get him a passel of fish, then head in.
Kids remember the end of a trip. If you end it with a few fish, they forget the boring part, so always end it well if you can. Panfish, bass and pike are usually acoomadating that way. Musky not so much. |
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Posts: 68
| Thanx for all of youe tips guys lot of good suggestions. I love getting anyone there first fish hopefully i can help him 2 his first!!!! Who knows maybe his first fish will be a 50" like my first!!!! He would FREAK OUT thanx for all your help!!!! |
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Posts: 20219
Location: oswego, il | Lots of great informationa above. Another very important thing to remember about taking kids fishing is putting the right equiptment in their hands. Give them something cumbersome or some cheap piece of crap that does not work and they will get frusterated and give up. My kids use heavy bass stuff and a low profile baitcaster or a spincasting reel. For a spincater, get a diawa or a zebco pro-staff. Don't consider any other reels. They are either too slow retrieve for lures or won't pick up slack line most of the time to start a retreive.
For baitcasters, the curado will work fine, so will the garcia torno reels. For rods, like I said, something heavy for bass. A giant cork handle is cumbersome and the total outfit heavy.
For lures, go with something that will catch anything. For topwaters, the mini lac suel turbo and there is a mini globe on the market too. The zara spook with twin props is a great bait too. The other lure would be a spinnerbait up to a 1/2 oz. I would not go much bigger and that is about the only sinking bait I put on my kids rod. If you are fishing weeds, it is tough for a kid to transition the rod and start a retrieve in time to keep it out of the weeds, steering baits around thick clumps and casting very accurately. Go with small prop style topwaters and bass size spinnerbaits and he will have better luck with less fouled casts. |
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Posts: 357
Location: Long Prairie, Minnesota | Lots of good ideas. I know I have had my 7 year old out quit a bit last year. The gameboy and MP3 player were always in the boat, along with alot of snacks and pop. When he got tired, he took a break, played some games, had a pop and snack and a little while later he would give it another whirl. He did really good, but this year I am getting him a 5600 or perhaps even a 4600 for him to use. He likes to throw topwaters and now has a couple Killr Eels and a small bulldawg. I have a ton of Blue Fox Musky Bucks that he throws (After he dropped a couple Eagle Tails in the lake). The last trip of the year he went with me and my brother for a full day on Little Boy/Wabedo. Fished from sunup to sundown. Didn't take long for him to fall asleep once we got off the water, but he loved it. Thinks he is ready for LOTW, but I am going to give him a few years before that happens. |
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Posts: 80
| My daughter turns eight this June, and this will be her 2nd year. When looking at rods we decided on the cabelas 6'4" pro guide musky rod. It costs only $40 and has a longer handle than the bass rods and the cork is just the right diameter for smaller hands. We put a 5500 garcia on it and she loves the outfit. You can find a 5500 on e-bay dirt cheap. She loves the mepps baby marabous. And storm thundersticks. A good way for him to practice is a one ounce egg sinker in the grass as well. Like all the other gents said short sessions and numbers lakes are all great points. Hope this helps. |
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Posts: 376
Location: Lake Vermilion Tower, MN | Good stuff here, but alot just depends on the kid.
I have had some that could fish all day and some that were done in an hour. 
If they really want it and have the skills, most kids in the 10 to 12 yr range will fish hard for hours. Let them change lures and be there to applaud when they do something outstanding!!
"Ace"
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Posts: 32
Location: antigo wisconsin | my son fishes with me all day and he is 12, you have to make it fun and interesting or he will lose interest, help him to pick out baits but let him do his own thing also, musky fishing is tough, its hard to keep interest when you may only see 2 fish on a goood day, but above all try and make it fun for him and i can tell you from 1st hand experience when he catches his 1st fish, it will be a moment you will never forget |
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Posts: 8
Location: Indiana | Start him out with a spincast bass road maybe using a spinner bait or rattle trap. That way if he loses the lure its no big deal. Also the spincast reel is a lot easier to learn on at first. Using such a light bait will not tired him out as fast and he always has the possibility of catching a bass or pike while still having the chance to catch a musky. Also make sure you take pan fishing stuff so if he gets tired you can sit and rest, but still be fishing. Make sure you take some food and drinks cause young kids use a lot of energy fast. I would also take warm close just in case he gets cold. Try to keep him involved in everything going on. and try your hardest to catch fish yourself that way its not boring to him and he can see how its done |
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Posts: 3867
| Most of the above but more cowbell.
Take lots of breaks for snacks and 100% juice. If you want to give him Mountain Dew, well, give him a Marlboro while you're at it. |
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Posts: 8781
| I think more than anything you have to be prepared for the fact that the kid, no matter what age, might just not be into fishing. I used to bring my friends up to the lake when I was a kid and try to get them fishing. For the most part, none of them had ever fished before. Some took to it right away, some never did. Some would fish all day, some got bored after an hour... The ones that really were into it were easy to teach -- they wanted to learn. And watching them catch their first fish was a riot! The ones who just went fishing because that's what I wanted to do? Totally different. You could see them getting bored. 11 is plenty old enough to fish all day as long as he's into it. If not, it probably doesn't matter if he's 11 or 14, or 20.
Thinking back to when I was that age though, the thing that I always hated was the guys who treated me like a kid. I had way more fun fishing with the guys who treated me like one of the guys. Yeah, I WAS a kid, but I didn't feel like one on the water and HATED being treated like one.
I guess that's my advice -- treat him like one of the guys. I don't mean give him a beer and start talking about sex, but in regards to fishing, forget about the fact that he's 11. |
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