What do you get when you mix two 5-6 year olds and a lot of biting bluegills? A whole lot of fun!
My 6-year-old nephew Kaleb spent his first sleepover night at Uncle Jason’s house in Albert Lea and we decided to go fishing out in the boat that evening at Fountain Lake. My girlfriend Katie and her 5-year-old daughter Kassidy were fishing with us too.
After a quick boat ride in my Champion (which the kids love to go fast!) we pulled up on a rip-rap bank and threw out our smiley face bobbers with #8 hooks and bits of nighcrawlers. Kaleb is pretty proud that he can now use a spinning reel like Grandpa and uncle Jason and it wasn’t long before he had a nice bluegill in the boat.
Kassidy isn’t quite up to speed on the spinning reel yet, but she was able to get quite a few gills in too with her Barbie fishing pole. Overall, the final fishing tally for the two kids was probably 30 bluegills, 3 little channel catfish and a bullhead in about 2 hours of fishing. By the end of the evening, the kids were even holding the fish and letting them go by themselves!
Kaleb’s already begging to stay at Uncle Jason’s house again and he hasn’t even left yet!
Nice work jason i remeber the days when i was a little squirt having a hay day with them bluegills…you guys ever get keepable size crappies or bluegills…i have tapped intot he walleyes over there but no pannies yet…but yes nice work though getting them going it is always that much better watching them remebering the good ole days lol
Thanks for the report and pics Jason. Fishing for panfish is a great way to get kids hooked on fishing. And lots of fun too.
Thanks, Bill
You catching bait for our next trip Jason???
Great report!
With all this fishing going on…it’s good to remember family trips too!