Great thread with some great advice!  The only thing I would add or emphasize is dont force feed them. Go at their speed. Time spent fishing with my son is time we always remember.

great thread:

the easiest fishing trips w/ the kids are catfish/panfish fishing off of the dock in the pond behind my dads house, but...

most of the time i fish with my kids (i have 4) in my boat i am pre-fishing a tournament, so i have to try to make it fun for them and productive for me

my top three most important things...

1) keep them comfortable... i use a patio umbrella rigged in the seat post for the hot/sunny days.

and on the colder days i bring a flashlight, camera, books, and crayons and clear out the rod locker for them. bring plenty of food and water/juice.

2) keep them entertained. i save all my torn soft plastics in a bag, and when they are bored of fishing i let them pull them out and play w/ them...

about a year ago she was losing interest, so i graduated her to a spinning rod, and spray-painted it pink... that won her over

and most importantly.

3) finish with a bang... that means a slurpy at 7-11, because the one thing they will remember is the last thing we did, and a well timed slurpy at the end can salvage a dismal day.

most recently i fished a team tournament w/ my six year old daughter, and she insisted that i retie her after she broke off so that she could be responsible to "fill our limit" (her words).

Warmer, Is your daughter using a fuego in that picture? Thats awesome  if you got her knowing ho to use a baitcaster like that. ;D

she would have preferred a pink fuego, but her favorite real is indeed my red one...

GREAT thread/topic!! Makes me Thank the Lord (again) for my Dad and Grandfather taking me fishing so many, many years ago and getting me hooked on the sport (no pun intended:o)

Topics like this one show you how GREAT and helpful ALL the fine folks on this Fantastic Forum are!!

Really great stuff here.

Warmer........you win the "best fishing dad" award in my book.

One thing that I learned is that when you take a little kid fishing, you really need to remember that you are there for them.  forget about fishing for yourself.  this is ALL about quality time with the little critters.

p.S.  catt.......good advice for bream....what about attracting shiners?

russ,  cool stuff dude.....where DO you find the time?

russ, cool stuff dude.....where DO you find the time?

He has no life!  ;D  Seriously Russ,  that's very helpful.  I'm sure it will be of use in the future when this topic pops up again.  You know Glenn's going to love you for starting something.  We'll all be embedding video into our posts before long.  More bandwidth, please?

pre-approved    It's just a link, the actual file is hosted elsewhere  

Thanks alot, I am getting so much from this website's forum members. So are there any members out there from the volunteer state? Perhaps one of you guys can help me pick a place for my little guys first outting, down near Normandy Lake area? 8-)

sent you a pm

These are a few of my kid buddies that have fished with me. I love taking the kiddos out to fish.

Ronnie

thanks avid!  dadding is a great sport.