So y’all saw my post on trout fishing. It’s been eating me up all day that my daughters friend broke her little pole at the joke of a kids derby. I’ve decided to outfit her. Her parents aren’t hard up but have 8 kids so the fact that her Mom has dedicated time over 1.5 yrs to try and catch fish is awesome. They have 8 kids and some grandkids while being around my age, very very late 30’s LOL.
I’m a trout guy now that I’m north again. I’ve always been a bait guy. They also fish lakes sometimes. I want to get her a rod, maybe an open face reel(I have a new micro spin cast push button as well seeing how they struggled with an open face), I want to setup a box of stuff she can do well at derbies, creeks, or lakes with. I’m going to give her the niceties like a looper for leaders. Don’t laugh, I use the yellow plastic Amazon one every trip steelhead to salmon. If I’ve time I pretie a variety of my most common hooks on two weights of leaders and carry in a sweet little magnet case. About a dozen total on the little foam spools. I won’t go to that level. I’m going to start a list here so please add what I forget. I want her to have a good chance at catching fish and maybe winning a few derbies if that’s her thing.
Maybe custom maybe off the shelf rod?
Not sure on best generic for a kid but she handled the length of my St Croix 7’ ul fine.
Probably an Okuma or Pfleuger reel
Nice wooden net, maybe a mid length like mine for bass also
Light clasp swivels
size BB winged split shot
Mosquito light hooks from 4-10
Torn on Flouro leader but probably
Few spools of 4-6 lbs mono main line
Brown pellet PB (Yeah I know, it’s easy for kids though and even my bro uses it at certain places)
Hemostats and zinger
Threading needles - For her Mom, if you can’t fully exploit a minnows action a threaded one is the next best option, some 10-12 trebles too with advice on not using with anything but minnows unless they are
Lite Redbook of Knots - have this already, bought it to use a gift card up, I just Google mostly myself
Floats of some kind, I’m actually liking the easy slotted foam cheapies these days,
Flexible tape for all her trophies
Stringer in case she likes the brown fillets I dry rubbed from yesterday
Ok, kids bass/sunfish/trout~ what did I miss?
She’s not casting yet so not sure on lures/spinners. My kids are just starting to cast too so I huck for them mostly and bait fish with them.
I’m a trout guy now that I’m north again. I’ve always been a bait guy. They also fish lakes sometimes. I want to get her a rod, maybe an open face reel(I have a new micro spin cast push button as well seeing how they struggled with an open face), I want to setup a box of stuff she can do well at derbies, creeks, or lakes with. I’m going to give her the niceties like a looper for leaders. Don’t laugh, I use the yellow plastic Amazon one every trip steelhead to salmon. If I’ve time I pretie a variety of my most common hooks on two weights of leaders and carry in a sweet little magnet case. About a dozen total on the little foam spools. I won’t go to that level. I’m going to start a list here so please add what I forget. I want her to have a good chance at catching fish and maybe winning a few derbies if that’s her thing.
Maybe custom maybe off the shelf rod?
Not sure on best generic for a kid but she handled the length of my St Croix 7’ ul fine.
Probably an Okuma or Pfleuger reel
Nice wooden net, maybe a mid length like mine for bass also
Light clasp swivels
size BB winged split shot
Mosquito light hooks from 4-10
Torn on Flouro leader but probably
Few spools of 4-6 lbs mono main line
Brown pellet PB (Yeah I know, it’s easy for kids though and even my bro uses it at certain places)
Hemostats and zinger
Threading needles - For her Mom, if you can’t fully exploit a minnows action a threaded one is the next best option, some 10-12 trebles too with advice on not using with anything but minnows unless they are
Lite Redbook of Knots - have this already, bought it to use a gift card up, I just Google mostly myself
Floats of some kind, I’m actually liking the easy slotted foam cheapies these days,
Flexible tape for all her trophies
Stringer in case she likes the brown fillets I dry rubbed from yesterday
Ok, kids bass/sunfish/trout~ what did I miss?
She’s not casting yet so not sure on lures/spinners. My kids are just starting to cast too so I huck for them mostly and bait fish with them.
). She was around 8. The damn things are almost indestructible and she figured out casting a spinning reel fairly quickly after an hour or so trying herself. She still uses that now and will probably have it for a long time to come. They're pretty inexpensive too at @ $40. You can even get a combo deal with a reel that's not great, but would work until an upgrade was needed. That would be my recommendation honestly. It'll hold up well to a kids abuse and still be useful if/when she gets older or more into fishing.