three year olds

Tim Apple wrote:
My boys are asking about fishing, and though I want them to be elitist
bamboo flinging, dry fly snobs. I know this is not very realistic at three.
I have some old heddon glass rods I could rig up, and maybe just use a hook
and corn and go after bluegill, or would it be better to just get them some
lil' zebcos and give in to the spinning rod. If anyone has gone through
this, any advice on being successful without making the children hate
fishing please share.

Tim Apple

I've taken my daughter fishing when she was 3. As others have said,
she wasn't coordinated enough to cast any type of rod. I would hook a
bluegill, and let her _try_ and reel the fish in. She usually could
not do that herself, but wanted to. I found the little Zebco setups to
be much easier for her to handle. Fly rods....even 7' rods, were just
too long for her to control. She's 6 now, and still enjoys going to
the pond to fish. She can somewhat cast a bobber setup on her Snoopy
pole, and has no problems landing fish. We mostly fish a small wooly
bugger under a bobber......sometimes we adorn the fly with cheese. She
can work the fly well enough to get the fish to eat it. I have had her
try and cast my fly rods, but she's much more effective with her
Snoopy setup....which directly relates to more fun for her. Our
fishing sessions are usually short. No more than a hour at a time, and
almost always in conjunction with doing other fun stuff.

brians, proud papa