Hey guys, I live near San Antonio and joined a couple of years ago after going to the lake in Medina as was such a good numbers lake and have a young son (5 yrs old) who I would love to have grow up at least knowing how to fish. I havent been back out to Medina in well over a year due to drought but hoping has improved? I understand that live bait is not allowed on the private lakes so I was wanting advice on how to get a kid started fishing as casting lures is difficult and takes some skill. This would probably be a turnoff to someone w a limited attention span....Ive seen artificial live bait at Bass Pro and wonder if its any good?

Thx

Trent,

Great question! First, I would start fishing for something other than bass.Most kids don't care what they catch, they only want to catch something. As they age they can move up to larger fish and harder species to catch. Oh sure, there are some elementary kids who can and who will cast for hours without catching any fish or only a few; but those kids are few and far between. But, I would start by ramping down your expectations and hope for an hour of fishing if the bite is good, if the bite is slow, hope for 10 to 15 minutes. Concentrate on things like skipping rocks, pulling up wads of vegeation and looking for insects, worms and other goodies in the clump of vegetion.

As far as catching is concern, go buy the cheapest gummy white bread and roll into pea sized balls and bait it to a tiny "bream" hook with a single split shot and a bobber placed a couple of feet above the hook. The smaller pond (2 to 3 acres) behind the bigger lake at Tarpley has a nice population of bluegill and a small dock. Try here.

I can not emphaize enough, to start slow and keep your expectations low for the amount of time your son will want to spend on the water. As he ages, if he likes fishing, you guys will be able to increase to 1/2 days and by junior high or high school all day trips.

Also, going to Dairy Queen and getting a Blizzard is a must on the way home.

The blizzard still work on a 17 year old and he still likes to catch bluegill!

Thx for the advice. And DQ is a must!

Be sure and take some toys, snacks, and thoughts on how else to keep your boy entertained.  You want to make it an overall great experience.  Fishing can be the focus, but you need to have other fun stuff to do if/when he gets bored with that part of the outing, whether it's after 4 hours or 20 minutes.

Even though he's likely too young to do much casting to catch fish, in addition to doing what Steve suggested, you still might let him try to throw some lures, and also maybe makes some casts with a topwater and let him reel them in, just for the experience of it.  Maybe after he's caught some fish under a bobber and/or seems to be getting bored with that.