Kids and fishing

[PACMEN]

Read TroutFools post a bit ago and thought some of us might have a story or 2 to share about kids and fishing.
I have many but one came to mind as I read his post.

Bout 5 yrs ago my bride, a son in law, a granddaughter, and my self were on Strawberry casting jigs. (catching was good)

Gramma says to the 5 year old granddaughter, "let me show you how to do that".  Gramma picks up her 3" Barbie fishing rod for casting demonstration.  She winds up and promptly throws the granddaughters rod in the lake. 
As luck would have it the son in laws line was not in the water and was able to cast out the 10' hook and retrieve her rod.
Gramma still to this day gets teased with "let me show you how to do that" on a quite regular basis.

[Tin-Can]

Always fun to take kids fishing. In 1979 when my oldest son was about 4, we were traveling from N. Carolina to Calif. We stopped in ShowLow Ariz. to visit an old family friend.  We had not taken any fishing equipment, and she wanted to take us to a local stocked pond, think it was called Bill's Lake. 
She provided a couple of her fishing poles, but they were still a bit too big for my son to handle. She had one of  those "Pocket Fishermen" folding poles that had a wonky reel on it. My son got the hang of casting it after a couple tries, and about his 3rd or 4th cast got a hit from a Rainbow. He started to reel it back but no matter what he did, the reel wouldn't take up with out the drag slipping. He was so determined to catch that first fish, he grabbed the line, dropped the "rod" and hand over hand retrieved that bow.  His first of several, and all caught by hand lining.  

We kept the limit of what the stringer would hold, and had great Rainbow fish fry that night.  

[Anglinarcher]

OK, another stocked pond story. My son was probably about when he wanted to go fishing. I took the family to a nearby pond near Blackfoot Idaho and placed him on the bank with a red & white bobber with a piece of worm about 2' down. Now, so far it is pretty normal.

It appears that the state planted some brooders in the pond that fall and one took his....... bobber. The fish got his teeth and gills wrapped in the line, and my son got the fish, about 5 pounds in. I unwrapped the line to get to the hook, and just than realized the hook was not even in the fish. I guess you just have to be a kid.....

[Cowboypirate]

I will join in.....

When Buckwheat (our disabled son) was about 6 i had a modified back pack that I could put him in and we would hike into lots of places. One day, drove the family to Mill Creek in the Uintas and parked at the top. Threw him in the pack and hiked down to the inlet. If we were careful about how level the ground was, we just spread the legs of the pack open and he could stay in the pack and fish right out of it, giving my back a break. Only problem was if I wandered very far from him (5 ft or more was far) he could not reach the bait. Well we were catching fish pretty steady and I kept wandering outside the 5ft zone and it was taking me too long to get back and rebait him when he hooked up. He kept telling me that I wasn't listening when he yelled that he needed bait, so I told him, jokingly, that if I didn't hear him, to throw somthing at me to get my attention. Well if your legs don't work, your arms can get real strong...you get the idea. When the rock hit me in the back of the head, I went to my knees in the lake. When I finally shook off the effect, my wife and oldest son were laughing so hard they could not have helped me if I was drowning. Fortunately it wasn't deep. All my wife could say was " you told him to throw something if he need bait". Yes. Yes I did.

Not the only time that boy and his backpack about got me, but the other time was hunting. I will save that story for a differnt day.

[PACMEN]

Great story. I was going to say hope it is written down but then I don't take my own advice so how can I give it out.

[TubeDude]

I had three kids...Mike, Kimberly and Steve.  All loved fishing with dad and I made sure they had mostly good experiences.  Some, not so much.  In my later years  I harkened back to some of our more noteworthy trips and put them on paper...and gave copies to each of my three kids.  Here are three good stories featuring each of the three.

[PACMEN]

There often exists a special fishermen’s size/time continuum
which results in the lost fish growing ever larger over the years, with the repeated recounting of the
epic battle and resulting tragedy of the ultimate loss.

I have noticed and experienced this mystical size/time continuum conundrum multiple times. Some of us seem to be more susceptible to it than others.

[Tin-Can]

Posted the story of my oldest sons first successful fishing in Arizona 1979. Fast forward to Utah, Mantua, 2004, our first boat and my youngest child and only daughter. 

Was first summer with our new boat. After a couple disappointed trips to Pineview and East Canyon, we hit Mantua for the first time.  We found a tactic that was very productive. Small brass hooks, barb bent back, small piece of plastic worm about 3 feet under a bobber. We were catching Perch, Bluegill, Trout, and a couple small LMB. 
My daughter was probably catching 3 or 4 to every one of her brothers.  I watched her bring up a nice Perch, take it off the hook, drop it in the live well, then drop her line back in..... no worm, just bare hook. She was letting hook down just to the point where she could see the fish go after it. Soon as one would take it, she would let it hook itself, reel it in, unhook, repeat.  
I didn't realize how many she had caught till we were off the water and putting fish on a stringer to put in ice chest. Over 30 assorted.