FishingFather

I have the kids wear auto-inflatable PFDs when they are bank fishing... there are too many things going on for me to keep track of what they are doing at any moment in time. This is true for my strong swimmers also - particularly on the strong current creeks and the banks with drop off. My thinking is that there is fishing line, rods, hooks, trees, limbs, etc... in short, there's a lot going on that if someone falls they could end up face down underwater and have a foot stuck and not be able to get their head above water.. etc. It buys me time. Growing up in SoCal I spent most of my life in the ocean - particularly free-diving in kelp forests with float lines - and I was always very careful about being caught in something. I carried two knives on different parts of my body. So I'm right there with you.

I was planning on a 1648, or something in that range, so I'm not overly worried about weight... my 13 girl weighs about 80 pounds, and it goes down from there. Room would be an issue, but they all love the Ned rig so they aren't out casting every 3 seconds.

Over the past 4 months, I have started learning and teaching my children (13, 11, 8, 5) how to fish. We have been bank fishing on lakes and ponds and some streams. We went from not catching anything to catching 8 LMB yesterday - small, but catches nonetheless. My 13 year old caught 4, my 11 year old caught 3, and I caught one. These were caught at three different locations and conditions nearby each other. My 8 year has caught 3 in an hour window in the recent past and even my 5 year has casted and caught a LMB on his own. While standing on the bank, it is tempting to look across the small lake and think about how nice it would be to have a Jon boat to fish some good looking areas that aren't accessible to bank anglers. But I also think about how much we still have to learn and it would be better to leave the boat out of the equation and just focus on becoming better anglers. It seems to me that bringing a boat into the equation would add another variable, curbing the learning process of how to catch fish. I have really enjoyed the thoughtful discussions I have come across on this forum and so it seemed to me a good place to ask this question: Is it better to wait until we have learned even the essential basics of catching bass before getting a Jon boat? As a side note, I have the means to get the boat - and the associated items that go along with it, that isn't the issue. Thank you.