Kids & Fishing

Contributed By: Marce

When I was around five or six years old I used to fish with my father and his friends all the time. I can clearly remember jumping into our family dune buggy and heading out to Chesbro, Uvas, or Calero. Back in those days I was more of a crappie kid since they were plentiful and easy to catch. Who would have thought that those simple yet enjoyable afternoons would stick with me forever. Sometimes on my way home from work I’ll jump off on Bailey and take the back roads home and reminisce about the times we used to spend out there. Now that I have kids of my own I know how important it is to do things like that and hope that when they have children of their own they’ll do the same things with them as well.

We used to go camping all the time when I was younger. The very first camping trip I remember was when we drove up the coast of the United States all the way up into Canada. This was where I caught my very first fish, at least from what I remember, it was a nice sized ling cod. I remember sitting in an aluminum boat with my Dad when I caught it and he made me real it in myself. I was the happiest kid on the planet and it was a great way to kickoff the fishing career.

We also spent quite a bit of time in our RV on the Sacramento River. We’d stay in the small town of Los Molinos and we would hook into countless amounts of shad. Looking back now it was pretty dangerous because we would stay literally right on the river which was usually moving pretty fast and as kids we would walk down to the dock and fish for most of the day. We used to take our little Honda 50’s and trek around the area making new trails and meeting new people. There was a little store in the campground and my cousins and I used to buy Butterfingers there almost every day.

So why am I telling you all this? Because I think kids today could use more activities like this. Nowadays it’s all about the X-Box or Playstation and that’s kind of a sad thing. I know recently when I was fishing 3 times a week I would take my son out at least once. He’s only four and loses interest quickly but I keep him engaged by letting him reel in every fish I catch. Every now and then he’ll ask me when we’re going fishing and that certainly puts a huge smile on my face. In fact, it’s more rewarding than catching any sort of fish.

If any of you are interested in putting together a kids fishing day let me know. We can all chip in for bait and tackle and maybe even get some foster kids out there to enjoy the day. If any of you out there have experience in setting up something like this send me an email and let’s do it!

Good luck out there guys. Tight lines.