New Beginner

[Baron]

I’m looking forward to tomorrow. My 6 year old granddaughter has elected to go fishing with me at a local farm pond that usually produces well. It’s a great resource for training kids of any age. The average gill and perch is very large and then there is the occasional LMB. My hope is that in the next year she will become interested in the fly. She watches me tie and collects feathers for me, cute.

 

[salvelinus]

That's great. Have fun tomorrow!

 

[Baron]

Plain old worms won the day.......sorry fly rod. The sun was warm and the Bass and Bluegills were on fire in this little farm pond. Non-stop action all great for a beginner. It was her day:

 

[coyoterahn]

Nice Baron!

 

[Dave_W]

Awesome.

 

[Baron]

She is patient and seems to understand fishing concepts. A joy to be with.
This pond is unique in that it contains Giant Panfish. We caught 3 perch over 13" and 14 Gills over 8" (most over 9"). Except for the initial attack the 9.5 and 10" gills fought harder than the big perch and bass we caught.

 

[gulfgreyhound]

Great to see a youngest getting started in fishing with grandpa. Having fun is what it's all about. GG

 

[fritz]

Not much if anything tops that!

 

[Baron]

She has an uncanny instinct with animals. My pooch will do anything for her. Cats like her and fish bite her offerings. Most importantly she is patient and willing to wait for that bite. We use trout fishing indicators which are small corks. She will see the cork move a little but will wait for it to dis-appear before cranking the reel. Perfect. I'm working on getting her to bump it a little before cranking to make sure the hook is set. Attention to detail and patience will make her a better fisherman than most in no time.

 

[Bamboozle]

I got nothing against worms, I use them all the time for panfish but you MAY want to find yourself a small circle hook and let her try that with bait.

It is so much easier to just crank the reel when the bobber is moving than setting a hook. I swear by circle hooks when bait fishing, not to mention deeply hooked fish are almost non-existent if you use them correctly.

I also tie beadhead flies on circle hooks for kids to fish with on either spinning tackle under a float, or on a fly rod.

No hook-setting required...

The trick is to find small circle hooks although even a size 8 isn't too big for panfish. Eagle Claw used to make a dandy but they discontinued it. Gamakatsu might be your best bet if you are interested.

 

[Baron]

Wow. Great idea. I remember when I switched to circle hooks for Striper and Bluefish how big of a difference it made. My whole life I’ve used eagleclaw bait holder hooks. Then I switched to long shank Aberdeen’s hoping they would be easier to remove. I’m not sure I noticed a difference. Perhaps circle hooks will make the diff.

 

[djs12354]

Great photos!

 

[JerryC]

Baron, I use circle hooks the rare times I fish bait, usually minnows for pan fish and bass. Size 6 to size 1 depending what I'm expecting to catch.

 

[Baron]

I’m going to try them. As bam said they are online down to size 6. Though I might go 4 or two. Thoughts?

Biggest problem is I’d rather flyfish mostly.

 

[Bamboozle]

Baron:

My favorite circle hook for straight bait fishing is the Eagle Claw L787 that has two bait holding slices on it.

When they were readily available, they were sold down to a size 12. If you look hard, you may find some out there although I doubt anything smaller than size 8 or MAYBE size 10.

The Eagle Claw L702 is available down to a size 14, but has no bait holding barbs however, I have a HACK for that... ;-)

When I fish bait (which I do unabashedly at times) and have issues with bait flying off on long casts, I take a SMALL piece of soft plastic worm, thread it over the hook point and slip it up past the barb to keep the bait from sliding off.

Works like a charm!!

Things to think about the next time you're out with the grand-kids and they want to fish bait...

 

[Baron]

Soooooo many toys.

 

[JerryC]

Baron wrote:
I’m going to try them. As bam said they are online down to size 6. Though I might go 4 or two. Thoughts?

Biggest problem is I’d rather flyfish mostly.

I normally use size 2 to 6. Less likely that a bass would swallow a larger hook. Circle hooks do get swallowed

At some point circle hooks were available down to size 14. I tied flies on them which turned out to be a frustrating experience. I lost a bunch of fish because I did a strike set. Once I learned to count to three before I lifted the rod and started to strip in the line I actually caught a few fish.

 

[Baron]

You're actually the one that got me to start using larger hooks Jerry. I had forgotten about the Set Issues. I had learned that Blue Fishing in the bay. Let them hook themselves.
Although I don't currently do it I bet hook sharpening is an effective addition to letting fish hook themselves.