I took my 6 year old and 3 year old to Rockport on Saturday Feb 9. We woke up around 5:45 and rolled out the door by 6:00 and got there close to 7:00am. We packed everything in the sled and pulled it about 100 yards off the boat ramp. I am glad we got there when we did, because we were the second group to start fishing in that spot. But by 11:00 it became a small community. The slush was not too fun to hike through, but my kids were able to stay on top of it. about 5 minutes after I had my first pole in the water, it started getting hit, so I reeled in a nice 14 inch rainbow. As I was unhooking it, the second hook on the line caught my knuckle because the fish was flopping around. My two kids were watching this great scene of their dad shouting ouch, ouch, ouch while trying to get a handle on the fish so it will stop tugging the hook. The pressure on the hook was too much and the 4lb line snapped under the pressure, which was a relief to me. My youngest child thought the fish was attacking me, so she wouldn’t pick up her fishing pole the rest of the day. I had to convince her to reel it in assuring her there was not a fish on it, so we could check the bait. My other daughter caught the biggest rainbow of the morning at 15 inches until I pulled in a 16-inch rainbow about a half hour before we left. I couldn’t let my child get the better of me. In the end we caught just under our limits and have a freezer full of fillets to cook this next week.
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Im not being rude but i had to laugh just pictureing all that fun. Did you get any perch, or see any one else catching perch?
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We did not catch any perch, we were only fishing at about 12 feet and the bigger fish were being caught on the ratfinki tipped with mealworm about 1.5 feet off the bottom. If I had more time, we would have gone for the perch though. I love getting into a school of perch.
quick question though. how does everyone feel about bringing your kids in order to have more poles in the water and a bigger limit? The reason I ask is because one of my kids did not even fish, partially because she was too scared and was having too much fun playing in the tent and snow.
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Spending "quality" time with your kids is PRICELESS! You are teaching them about the outdoors, they are having fun, and if it is applicable...your wife got you all out of the house for a while
] As far as I'm concerned it does not matter the age, its legal. Keep it up.
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it was kind of fun having multiple poles in the water. At one point, I had to shout for my friend to come over and attend to one of the poles while I caught a fish on the other. It was funny too, because he caught most of his fish on my poles.
As for my earlier question, does anybody have an objective opinion to using your kids to have more poles in the water. I want to hear both sides if there are two sides. I do appreciate the previous comments.
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[cool][#0000ff]Technically, you are in violation if you just bring kids along to fill a limit for them. They can catch their own limits but you can't fish for them. That's what the regulations are for. Over the years DWR has written a lot of tickets for parents who brought a passel of kids along just so they could fill a cooler full of fish...and the kids went off and played while others caught their limits for them. If you are the only one fishing and you have over one limit, then you will likely get a ticket.[/#0000ff]
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Its good that I left when I did then. I would have caught too many fish[
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